𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘 𝐕𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐎 𝐍𝐄𝐄𝐃𝐒 𝐀 𝑻𝑯𝑼𝑴𝑩𝑵𝑨𝑰𝑳‼️ (That is, a still image that acts as a preview of your video.) YouTube, LinkedIn, IGTV, IG Reels, Facebook, and more!

Whenever you upload ⬆️ a video—no matter where—the social platform monitors how often the video is shown to potential viewers versus how often those potential viewers opt to watch the video. 𝘝𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘰𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘨𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘮𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘶𝘴, 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘸𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦.

The difference often boils down to the thumbnail—even if it’s only viewable for half a second. The thumbnail is, for lack of a better term, pure “clickbait.” Its purpose is to entice viewers to choose to watch the video. Make ‘em irresistible to click! (But also, they should be relevant to the vid because if someone clicks to watch and then bounces straightaway, that’s not good either 😉).

If a YouTube user runs a search that ranks your video, for instance, and then scrolls past it for another, they’re sending YouTube implied feedback to stop ranking your video.

Point is, the better the thumbnail, the better the click-through rate (CTR). The better the CTR, the more views 👀 you’re gonna get.