The Importance of Thumbnails
Many real estate YouTubers know that thumbnails are crucial. They vigorously nod their heads when they hear thumbnails are absolutely key to their success.
Then they spend another year grinding out content with mediocre thumbnails.
Face palm. Yeti-sized face palm. Maybe even a T-Rex face palm because it’s as ridiculous as that image.
If you’re a real estate YouTuber and you haven’t dialed in your thumbnail game, then make it your new priority immediately.
YouTube Thumbnail Statistics
Check out these enlightening statistics based on authoritative studies with huge data pools. These results come from analysis done by YouTube.
- 72% of high-traffic thumbnails feature a human face.
- 88% of high-traffic thumbnails are highly colorful.
- High-performing thumbnails featuring a sad face performed best with an average of 2.3 million views.
- Thumbnails with a joyful expression performed second best with 1.5 million views.
- Thumbnails featuring angry faces performed third best with 818K views.
- High-performing thumbnails with branded logos gained an average of 1.2 million more views than those without.
Checklist for Expert Thumbnails
Large, clear, expressive faces
Tell a story, give an opinion, scare the viewer, create mystery, or ask a question (Ideally 2+ if possible)
Keep it simple for the eye (simple background, clear face, very short text)
Bold fonts in big sizes (mobile-friendly)
White and/or yellow text
A varied range of 0-4 word texts (0-2 is best)
Use color contrast to make things pop
Put a slight blur on the background to make the face pop
Use backgrounds that allow white or yellow words to pop
Click on each section below to see more model thumbnails.
