The Psychology Behind Great Thumbnail Design

The vast majority of my professional video experience comes from a world where the substance of the content was the most important aspect of it.

Sounds rational, right?

Creating a poster-style image to ‘bait’ or ‘interrupt’ a potential viewer simply wasn’t necessary for 99% of the videos I’ve edited in my career.

However, if you’re creating videos for YouTube… it’s a vital part of the game.

Without a compelling thumbnail image, your video can get lost in the scroll. Viewers glance right past it to the next bright and shiny image competing for their attention.

A strong thumbnail acts like a movie poster. It grabs attention and sparks curiosity to click and watch your video.

It’s also quite similar to another form of marketing that’s been around for a long time…

Traditional Advertising

Things like television & radio commercials, billboards, flyers, telemarketing, and newspaper ads—these all fall under the umbrella of interruption marketing, where the job is to try and capture a viewer’s attention when it’s not something they’re actively focused on… with the goal of convincing them to take a specific action.

And that’s exactly what your thumbnail is designed to do.

For those creating YouTube videos today… that featured image is a crucial gateway to your actual content.

But like it or not: 

We live in a world of short attention spans and immediate gratification.

And even though it has elements of both, great thumbnail design strategy is actually more of a psychological exercise than a graphic design one.

So, understanding and prioritizing the psychology behind a click in your thumbnail design has become an essential skill for video creators.

Ready to learn the secrets behind creating irresistible YouTube thumbnails (and see a ton of awesome examples)?

Check out the full deep-dive here 👇

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