Every Video Needs A Thumbnail (YouTube, LinkedIn, IGTV, IG Reels, Facebook, etc.)
๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ป๐ฏ๐ผ๐ด๐ฉ๐ต๐จ๐ฐ๐ณโผ๏ธ (That is, a still image that acts as a preview of your video.) YouTube, LinkedIn, IGTV, IG Reels, Facebook, and more!
Whenever you upload โฌ๏ธ a videoโno matter whereโthe social platform monitors how often the video is shown to potential viewers versus how often those potential viewers opt to watch the video. ๐๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐จ๐ฆ๐ต ๐ท๐ช๐ฆ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ธ๐ข๐ณ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ญ๐จ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ๐ฎ๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐บ, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ถ๐ด, ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ข ๐ธ๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ข๐ถ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ.
The difference often boils down to the thumbnailโeven if itโs only viewable for half a second. The thumbnail is, for lack of a better term, pure โclickbait.โ Its purpose is to entice viewers to choose to watch the video. Make โem irresistible to click! (But also, they should be relevant to the vid because if someone clicks to watch and then bounces straightaway, thatโs not good either ๐).
If a YouTube user runs a search that ranks your video, for instance, and then scrolls past it for another, theyโre 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 ๐ youโre gonna get.