Finally figured out why my YouTube thumbnails were tanking

I spent 6 months making thumbnails with way too much text and tiny faces. Then I watched a breakdown from a creator I follow and she pointed out that mobile screens make text unreadable below 30 pixels. I checked my analytics and saw my click-through rate was under 3% on those. Has anyone else had a simple change like font size suddenly boost their numbers?

2 comments

2 Comments

parker_palmer442d ago

Man that font size thing hit me hard too, I had basically the same problem for months before someone pointed it out. It's crazy how such a small change can make or break everything.

nancyj111d ago

Hmm I actually gotta push back a little on this one. The font size thing is real for mobile but I think people get too hung up on it and forget about everything else. I mean if your thumbnail has bad composition or the colors are muddy and boring no amount of big text is gonna save it. Like I've seen thumbnails with zero text and just a nicely framed face with good lighting get 10% CTR because the emotion is clear and it makes you curious. Plus some of the biggest channels use tiny text that's barely readable but the image itself tells the story. Maybe your content just wasn't clicking with the audience in general and the font change was sort of a coincidence with a better video topic.