Almost 90% of Youtube videos never reach 1,000 views.

That's millions of people wasting hours on videos that'll never break that barrier.

Why?

Because they don’t understand that thumbnails drive 80%+ of their clickthrough performance.

Where did I get that number? Netflix researched their 100+ billion hours of platform watch time to understand how to improve their thumbnails.

After reading this, you’ll know what they learned and how to use it in your own videos.

Netflix Understand How You Consume Content

Humans are visual animals and we’re very impatient.

• If Netflix doesn’t capture someone’s attention in 90 seconds, they’ll often leave.

• Thumbnails constituted over 82% of people’s focus while browsing.

• Users spent an average of 1.8 seconds considering each title.

So, how do you capture our visual-focused attention in the 1.8 seconds that you’re scrolling over our thumbnail?

Thumbnails Are All About the Emotion

You know those crazy faces Mr. Beast makes on all of his videos? Here’s why.

• Humans are hard-wired to respond to faces across all mediums.

• Faces with complex emotions outperform stoic or benign expressions. Why? Because it builds tension and gives more information to people.

Here’s an example from Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Okay okay, you got it, you’ll have an expressive face in your thumbnail. Anything else?

Less is often more. Remember that most people are watching on mobile (more than 70%).

Stop over-cluttering your thumbnails. You’re killing your clickthrough.

70% of people are watching Youtube on mobile. They need to quickly skim a thumbnail to decide whether the video is for them or not.

Netflix found that more than 3 people in a thumbnail massively dropped clickthrough.

Have a centerpiece to focus attention.

3 Things To Try In Future Thumbnails

1. Add a face, ideally one that's showing a complex emotion.

2. Less is more. Wherever possible, declutter your thumbnails.

3. 70% of people are watching on mobile, review every thumbnail on your phone and try to figure out if you know what the video's going to be about.