How To Write Better YouTube Titles And Thumbnails

POP QUIZ…. I’m going to show you 4 sets of thumbnails.

Tell me which ones YOU think performed better? A or B?

Set 1:

Set 2:

Set 3:

Set 4:

We’ve been split-testing thumbnails and titles for MONTHS. 

In this blog, I’m going to tell you everything we’ve learned. 

And I’ll reveal the answers to the pop quiz at the end. 😉

Hey Posse, what’s up? It’s Alex.

Coming at ya this week with a data-backed article to help you get more clicks & views on your YouTube videos.

When you get more clicks on your videos, this tells the YouTube algorithm that people like your stuff…

And when YouTube sees that people like your stuff, they show your stuff to more people…

And then more people find you…

And that is how you grow your channel. 

It’s not about being the best, most eloquent, most charming, or having the best background…

A lot of it really does come down to just having great video titles and thumbnails. 

Now I’ve been creating content on YouTube for over 4 years now…

I’ve been testing, tweaking, and optimizing everything from – the way I write titles & thumbnails… to the format of my description below… to where I place calls-to-action… to how I deliver my intros… and so much more…

And, of course, I’ve developed a lot of circumstantial opinions on what I THINK gets my channel more growth… 

But it wasn’t until recently that I began split-testing nearly every thumbnail and title to see what the DATA SAYS works best for growing my channel.

So I’m going to share some of that hard evidence with you today and what we have found works best for getting more clicks, views and subscribers.

But this blog isn’t JUST for YouTube creators…

The concepts in this article will help you write better titles for your short-form videos – like Reels and TikToks…

It will help you write better blog post titles, headlines, and so much more. 

So no matter what piece of content you’re trying to get more eyeballs on…

I am is here to help!

If you’re not already part of the crew, subscribe to my newsletter now so you always know when my next blog goes out. 

Now let’s get into it… 

Why YouTube Video Titles & Thumbnails Are So Important

Before we get into the data…

Let me just real quickly explain what the purpose of your YouTube title & thumbnail actually is. 

That way the data makes more sense. 

Okay, so the #1 purpose of your TITLE is so that your video can be found. 

Remember… YouTube is not just a social media platform. It’s a search engine! 

And your title is one of the main factors that determines if the YouTube algorithm will showcase YOUR video for specific search terms… 

Whereas the #1 purpose of your THUMBNAIL is to capture the eyeballs of the people on that page. 

A great title might get you ranked on the first page of YouTube, but if the thumbnail is uninteresting, uninspiring, or generally “blah”… no one is going to click on your video.

And an awesome thumbnail isn’t going to do you much good if it’s buried on page 24 of YouTube results… 

So they need to work together. 

But what you need to put in your title will be very different from what you put in your thumbnail…

They should NOT say the same thing. That is wasted real estate!!

How To Write Better YouTube Titles

So if the #1 purpose of your title is to rank on the first page of YouTube when someone searches for a particular topic or keyword… 

This means you better make your title something people are actively searching for. 

I mean, unless you’re a seasoned YouTuber with a fan base already and people are frequently coming to your channel to consume your content… 

Then your title isn’t so much about getting ranked on YouTube, as it is about just writing something that is just super click-worthy… 

That is why you see HUGE YouTubers, like Mr. Beast, using fun or mysterious titles…

You figure “it works great for them… I’m going to try something like that!”

But then your video totally tanks.

The reason it works for them and not for you is that they already have a super loyal audience who is coming to their channel automatically to check out their videos. 

So assuming that you are not, in fact, a YouTube star (yet 😉)…

And the primary way people will be finding your content is through the search function…

Then you NEED to focus on SEO-rich titles. 

To show how big of a difference SEO can make, take a look at these two videos…

Basically the exact same hook…

Geared towards the exact same audience…

The desired benefit is the exact same too…

But the term “marketing funnel” was a better ranker for us than “launch plan” was.

So the result is that the marketing funnel video ranked better and has gotten hundreds of thousands more views. 

This is why proper SEO research is so important. 

And it means you need to research and understand what your ideal audience is searching for.

Now I’m no SEO expert, but thankfully, there are lot of tools out there that makes it super easy to research this. 

We primarily use two tools to help us research and write SEO-rich titles:

• VidIQ

• TubeBuddy

They essentially work the same to help you find the best keywords and search terms for your videos…

But I like VidIQ a little bit better when it comes to keyword research – because I love how easy it makes it to see how you can take a specific keyword, like “start copywriting”…

And turn it into all of these SEO-rich terms and questions that your audience may be searching for. 

TubeBuddy I mainly use for the data & other features – like split-testing titles & thumbnails…

You can see that my best-performing videos have a very clear and obvious keyword in the title…

BUT –  and this is important – we focus on ONE keyword per title and don’t try to cram as many keywords or related keywords as possible in the titles.

So pick the #1 keyword you want to focus on in the video, and put that in your title…

Okay, so that’s titles…

Now we can get to what I think is the fun part – thumbnails! 

How To Create Better YouTube Thumbnails

Alright so once you figure out the best keyword and search term to put in your title, it’s time to make it APPEALING to a viewer so that they WANT to click on it. 

This is where the thumbnail is critical.  

I’m not going to pretend like the specific type of thumbnail I’m going to show you in this video is the best thumbnail for EVERY channel…

Because different channels have different goals.

You’ll notice that entertainment channels, like Mr. Beast’s – tend to have no words, or very few, in the thumbnail.

Instead, they focus on creating a visually interesting thumbnail. Something that communicates, “You’re going to be entertained by this video”. 

But for educational channels, like mine – this approach doesn’t work so well. 

Because people are not coming to my channel just to be entertained. Even though some people, apparently do come here for that! Haha.

Most of my viewers have a very specific goal in mind – something they’re trying to learn.

Whether it’s how to write better YouTube titles or thumbnails…

How to start an email list…

How to plan a profitable launch…

Or any number of other copywriting & marketing-related topics. 

Which means our thumbnails need to clearly communicate: “You’re going to learn something valuable that you need to know in order to XYZ in this video”…

And it needs to be done in as few words as possible. 

Which is easier said than done. 

Our thumbnails that CLEARLY and precisely communicate the big benefit our viewers are looking for are the ones that get the best results. 

Let me show you… 

“Get More Sales” versus “This Always Works”. 

Get more sales is a very obvious & direct benefit that our audience is looking for. And it appeals to both the copywriters who watch my channel AND the business owners. 

No one really understands the benefit “This Always Works” is trying to communicate UNLESS they also read the title of the video, which most fast scrollers are not doing. 

Next example…

“$45,000 Month” is more obvious at a quick glance than “$45k Invoice” 

The eyes more easily translate it. 

Once again – it also appeals to both of our audiences, copywriters & business owners. 

Whereas using the word “invoice” speaks more specifically to freelancers. 

Next example…

“0-200k” is a very clear benefit… It’s communicating “watch this video to take your Instagram following from 0 to 200,000”

But “5 tips” with the Instagram symbol is like… okay, but why should I care? What kinds of tips? What will this actually help me with? 

And one last example to drive home the point…

“$1M launch plan” vs “launch checklist”.

They both communicate something the viewer will get or learn from watching the video. 

But getting a $1 million launch plan is a strong benefit.

Whereas “launch checklist” is still valuable, but less strong. 

And when it comes to the thumbnail design…

We haven’t played around with design quite as much as text – YET! 

We’ve been opting to keep the background the exact same and ONLY test the text, so that we could get a fair comparison of what actually works better in the text. 

Now that we have that understanding, we are planning to roll out a new phase of our thumbnail testing process soon…

Where we’ll keep the text the identical and only test the background. 

Let me know in the comments below if you guys want a blog on those results once we have them! 

Even though we haven’t done a ton of playing around with background, we do have some general observations of what tends to work best. 

Things like…

• Having a less busy background…
• Big face – the bigger the face, the better lol. 
• Large, easy to read text. And not too much of it. 
• Clear contrast between text and background. 

And that’s it!

Now… are you ready to find out the results of the pop quiz?

Have any of your answers changed after reading this?

Let’s find out! Here are the results…

In this test… version A beat version B – with a 25.3% higher click-through rate…

Now these are both benefits. But “make more money” is a more clear and obvious benefit than “raise your rates”. So this winner makes sense. 

Version A beat version B – with a 41% higher click-through rate…This one is interesting! 

The only difference in the TEXT between the two is the question mark. What this does subconsciously is a open a loop in the viewer.

 It makes you WANT to click and close that loop. And all it took was the addition of a question mark. 

Now obviously there are design element differences here too. The winner has much more contrast in the background, which we do typically find does better. 

Version B beat version A – with a 19.8% higher click-through rate… so these are basically the exact same hook, just worded differently. 

$480k is almost half a million. But half a million sounds better, right? So that winner makes sense. 

And finally, version B  beat version A – with a 19.7% higher CTR . Now this one is different because NEITHER thumbnail is using a direct benefit hook. 

They are both playing on the curiosity factor.  

And if you want to learn the top 10 mistakes most new YouTubers make – and what you should do instead…

Make sure to check out my next tutorial. 

Until next time, I’m Alex. Ciao for now!

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