Swift Method: Image Alchemy Into Engaging YouTube Thumbnail Pics

There is a saying that first impressions last, and this is proven true, especially when it comes to YouTube video viewership. For sure, you have experienced watching a video out of curiosity because of its thumbnail. That is why content creators take time to resize YouTube thumbnails or use a YouTube thumbnail size converter to customize the preview images that represent their videos.

This technique not only attract viewers to watch your video, but it also gives a glimpse of your content. In this article, we will provide you with a quick tutorial on how to resize a YouTube thumbnail and suggest handy tools you can use to create the perfect YouTube video thumbnail!

Best YouTube Thumbnail Size

According to YouTube’s help center, there are some things to remember when creating a thumbnail for your YouTube videos.

First, make sure that the thumbnail size is 1280 pixels by 720 pixels and 640 pixels wide. It is the best YouTube thumbnail size.
When it comes to the thumbnail dimension, make sure to use an aspect ratio of 16:9.
Also, your YouTube thumbnail image should not exceed 2MB and is in either JPG, GIF or PNG format.

How To Resize Your YouTube Thumbnail

The primary reason for changing the YouTube thumbnail size is to gain more audience. If you are a content creator, your main goal is to introduce your content to a wider range of viewers, right? So you have to pay attention to even the smallest detail, such as YouTube thumbnails to increase viewership and top YouTube SEO.

In fact, YouTube recommends this technique to get more viewers. Also, resizing your YouTube thumbnail will prevent you from getting the “file larger than 2MB error” which can cause your thumbnail to be discarded.

So, how can you use this technique? Check our tutorial below as we walk you through various recommended methods for resizing a YouTube thumbnail:

Method 1: Resize YouTube Thumbnail With Windows Default App

The easiest way to resize YouTube thumbnails is through the Windows default app. Within just a few modifications, you can resize your thumbnail to fit as a preview image for your YouTube video.

Please take note that your image should be at least 2 megabytes or less to achieve the perfect YouTube thumbnail fit. If your image exceeds the limit, your thumbnail will either be rejected, or your image will have a black screen around it-which is not ideal at all.

Now, let us start the tutorial.

Step1 Open an image you want to set as a thumbnail. Then, Right-click> Resize.

Step2 Select “Define custom dimensions.”

Step3 Set the width to 1280 and the height to 720. Then tick the box for “Maintain Aspect Ratio “and click “Save Resized Copy.”

Step4 Click the upload thumbnail button on YouTube and import your resized image.

Method 2. Online YouTube Thumbnail Size Converter

The second method you can use is the online YouTube thumbnail size converter. As it completely works in browsers, you do not need to worry about any app installation to access the feature. Furthermore, using online YouTube thumbnail size converters ensures you maintain your image resolution and prevents it from getting blurry or pixelated.

There are various YouTube thumbnail resizers available online. Some of the most popular are Fotor, Super Image Converter, Pixelied, Super Image Converter , Adobe Express , Newisty, and Promo . Let us focus on the last online tool and the steps on how to use it.

Promo is a free online software you can use to convert an image to a YouTube thumbnail. It is one of the best YouTube Thumbnail tools as it uses simple operation steps and automatically resizes your image without losing its quality.

Here are the steps on how to use the Promo YouTube thumbnail size converter:

Step1 Go to Promo’s official website and import your image

Step2 Scroll down and find the YouTube thumbnail size where your resized image is displayed. Then, click “Download.”

Method 3: Convert the Image to YouTube Thumbnail Using Wondershare Filmora

It is without a doubt that online YouTube thumbnail resizers are great tools for converting your image to an ideal YouTube thumbnail. But it would be much better if you resize your video using the same app you use for editing. That way, you will save time using two separate apps, and your task will be much more efficient using an all-in-one video editing tool.

Wondershare Filmora , one of the most well-known software for creating high-quality and compelling videos, combines these functions in one app. Filmora is not just an excellent software for crafting YouTube videos but also a reliable tool you can use in creating and resizing YouTube thumbnails.

Free Download For Win 7 or later(64-bit)

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Here is the step-by-step tutorial on how to use Filmora in resizing your YouTube thumbnail. It is divided into two parts:

1. Take a Snapshot as the Thumbnail with Filmora

Step1 Open the video in the timeline, click the play icon in the player window, and pause when you reach the desired frame for the YouTube thumbnail. Click the camera icon to take a snapshot.

Step2 In the snapshot window, choose to save the snapshot as a PNG or JPG file.

Step3 Select the output storage location and click OK.

2. Resize the YouTube Thumbnail

Step1 Import the image into the app timeline.

Step2 Drag and drop the image into the timeline and click the green “Export“ button. In the popup Export window, select GIF. Next, click “Settings“ to adjust the resolution.

Step3 As the recommended size of a YouTube Thumbnail is 1280 * 720 pixels, you can set the resolution to 1280 * 720. Then click Apply and Export the GIF. You can now upload the GIF thumbnail to your YouTube account.

Method 4. Convert Images to YouTube Thumbnail Using Third-Party Software

In addition to using dedicated video editing software, several third-party image editing programs can be used to resize images for use as YouTube thumbnails. Programs like GIMP are popular for this purpose, as it offers a wide range of tools and features for editing and resizing images.

This program allows you to import an image, resize it to the dimensions required for a YouTube thumbnail (typically 1280 x 720 pixels), and save the edited version to your desired location. Using an image editing program can be a good option if you need more control over the appearance of your thumbnail or if you want to make more extensive edits beyond simply resizing the image.

To resize an image using an image editing program like GIMP, follow these steps:

Step1 Install and launch GIMP on your computer.

Step2 Click on “File“ > “Open,” then search for the file you want to resize.

Step3 Click on “Image“ > “Scale Image“ and make sure that the resolution is 1920 by 1080.

Step4 Click on “File“ > “Export As“ and toggle the “Select File Type (By Extension)“ option. Choose JPG/JPEG format because it can compress the thumbnail enough to stay within the limit of 2 megabytes.

Step5 You can change the quality of the image and click the “Export“ button to save the thumbnail.

Comparison of These 4 YouTube Thumbnail Resizing Methods

Now that we’ve explored the four methods for resizing YouTube thumbnails, it’s time to compare the pros and cons of each method. In this section, we’ll consider factors such as ease of use, speed, quality, cost, and compatibility to help you determine the best option for your needs.

Take a look at the table below for a more detailed comparison.

| | Windows Default App | Online YouTube Thumbnail Size Converter | Wondershare Filmora | Third-Party Software | |
| ————————————————– | ——————————————- | ———————– | ———————— | ——– |
| Other Software Required or Not | No | Yes (Internet Browser) | Yes | Yes |
| Internet Connection Required | No | Yes | No | No |
| Complexity of Operations | Easy | Easy | Easy | Moderate |
| Support Other Editing of the YouTube Thumbnail | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| File Size Limit | None | 25MB | None | None |

Resizing YouTube thumbnails using the Windows default app is a quick and easy method that requires no additional software or tools. However, the quality of the resized thumbnail may improve if the original image is low resolution, and this method is only suitable for users on Windows operating systems.

Online YouTube thumbnail size converters are convenient and easy to use, and they can be accessed from any device with an internet connection. They also typically preserve the quality of the original image. However, some online converters may have size limits or require a subscription to unlock all features, and using an online converter can be slower than using a dedicated software tool.

Using Wondershare Filmora allows you to create and edit YouTube thumbnails within a single application, which can be a time-saving advantage if you’re already using Filmora for other video editing tasks. However, Filmora is a paid software, so there is a cost associated with using it, and it may have a steeper learning curve for users new to video editing.

Image editing programs like GIMP offer many features and tools for customizing your thumbnail, including adding text, applying filters, and making more extensive edits beyond simply resizing the image. They also typically offer more control over the quality and appearance of the resized thumbnail.

However, using a third-party image editing program may require a learning curve and maybe more time-consuming than other methods, and there may be a cost associated with purchasing the software.

Each of the four methods for resizing YouTube thumbnails has its pros and cons, and the best method will depend on the user’s specific needs and preferences.

Conclusion

This article explored four methods for resizing YouTube thumbnails: using the Windows default app, online converters, Wondershare Filmora, and image editing programs like GIMP. Each method has advantages and disadvantages; the best one depends on your specific needs and preferences. No matter your chosen method, you can resize YouTube thumbnails confidently with these tools and techniques.

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Here is the step-by-step tutorial on how to use Filmora in resizing your YouTube thumbnail. It is divided into two parts:

1. Take a Snapshot as the Thumbnail with Filmora

Step2 In the snapshot window, choose to save the snapshot as a PNG or JPG file.

Step3 Select the output storage location and click OK.

2. Resize the YouTube Thumbnail

Step1 Import the image into the app timeline.

Step2 Drag and drop the image into the timeline and click the green “Export“ button. In the popup Export window, select GIF. Next, click “Settings“ to adjust the resolution.

Method 4. Convert Images to YouTube Thumbnail Using Third-Party Software

To resize an image using an image editing program like GIMP, follow these steps:

Step1 Install and launch GIMP on your computer.

Step2 Click on “File“ > “Open,” then search for the file you want to resize.

Step3 Click on “Image“ > “Scale Image“ and make sure that the resolution is 1920 by 1080.

Step5 You can change the quality of the image and click the “Export“ button to save the thumbnail.

Comparison of These 4 YouTube Thumbnail Resizing Methods

Take a look at the table below for a more detailed comparison.

However, using a third-party image editing program may require a learning curve and maybe more time-consuming than other methods, and there may be a cost associated with purchasing the software.

Each of the four methods for resizing YouTube thumbnails has its pros and cons, and the best method will depend on the user’s specific needs and preferences.

Conclusion

From Virality to Value: Gauge Your Content Against Competing Craftsmen

YouTube Analytics – How to analyze your and Competitor’s YouTube Video

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Tracking your brand’s YouTube metrics is not enough to ensure success in YouTube. Unless you garner deep insights of your competitors. You must be thinking how can you gauge their company insights using YouTube and track the data movement as well. There is nothing to worry about, we have got you covered. We will show you how to analyze your own channel as well as that of your competitors’ YouTube analytics. Let’s now explore about it!

How to analyze your own YouTube channel/video?

It is important to have reliable YouTube analytics tools for your brand, as videos on YouTube are searchable through Google. They contribute to generate organic traffic for you using both Google and YouTube as a medium. YouTube has a default dedicated analytics mechanism to measure how the video fares in YouTube to gain the most out of it.

Here we have collated the broadly used YouTube insights to ensure that your highly equipped, SEO compatible video engages more audience and performs well. The matrix sums up the most essential parts of YouTube analytics. Let’s go through them.

1. Views

Though, views determine the number of people clicked on a certain video on YouTube, it’s impossible to figure out whether the video has been watched till the end or not. Moreover, they can be altered through clickbait tricks and hence YouTube doesn’t solely put much value on them.

Views along with watch time turn out to be the best bet. Watch time sums up the total amount of time spent (in terms of minutes) on your brand’ videos. With the updated dashboard it becomes easy to get the YouTube analytics and gauge the video’s performance. Using the average view duration, you can know whether your video is being watched till the end or not.

2. Playback Location

As ‘Playback locations’ of YouTube videos can reveal where does all the traffic come from, it would help your channel figure out for which location the video has fared well. It will guide you to reach the backlinks locations/sites. Knowing the popular locations for your YouTube video being played, you can know whether YouTube is the search engine or they have been diverted from somewhere else. Depending on the video playing locations, the views will be segregated in to embedded video, YouTube watch page, mobile devices, and YouTube channel page. Understanding location specific views would help you decide where should you focus to enhance the performance of your video.

3. Demographics

The demographics page helps you get YouTube insights, using them you can know the audience in a gender and location specific manner. For local businesses targeting a certain region, YouTube analytics would prove to be a boon. You can also know the geography and device used by the viewers with this feature. Understanding the gender and location of people will help you create dedicated product videos that would be helpful to them.

4. Traffic sources

Understanding the source of your YouTube video’s traffic would help you track the prominent keywords that viewers use for landing at your YouTube video. You can figure out their choice and their search patterns this way. The YouTube insights will show you whether the viewers found your video by searching YouTube, a channel on YouTube, through suggested videos, or an external link. The YouTube Analytics tool’s panel would assist you in finalizing the most beneficial traffic source for your brand. You can optimize your video and keyword strategy with this.

5. Audience Retention

This data explains how far your video has engaged your audience. Along with views, the duration that a viewer is on your video weighs too. From the audience retention page, you can find out the specific time that a viewer has exited your video and see what made them do so. There are 2 types of audience retention features – absolute audience retention and relative audience retention.

6. Devices

It is important to know which device is being used to watch the video. The metrics is distributed among mobile phones, computer, TV, tablet etc. you will be able to understand whether your video needs to be optimized for a certain video or not.

7. Likes and dislikes

YouTube insights gauge the audience acceptance for your video by the number of likes and dislikes. Videos with a huge number of like implies that it is loved by people, though, the quality of video can’t exactly be defined by the number of likes or dislikes. Even the best quality video created for asking opinions about a certain situation/issue might be good enough but still get dislikes.

8. Subscribers

YouTube analytics help you determine the engagement metrics to explain the origin of your subscribers. It includes both their geo-location, the date of subscription, and the source/medium they used to land with your video on YouTube. You can observe the number of people subscribing and unsubscribing from your YouTube channel.

The subscription stream enables your audience to get suggestions for new videos from your channel and offer better exposure to the service and products you offer.

You May Also Like : How to Get More Subscribers

9. Annotations

While considering YouTube Analytics, it is essential to understand that there are annotations to guide viewers to your business site for more content. It is not necessary that the content is video only, it might include a blog post as well. This will let you understand the click through rate and ‘close’ rates for every annotation. This in turn will assist you in optimizing how to reach your audience and where to place the annotations.

10. Comments

Audience engagement on any YouTube video can easily be gauged by using the vital aspect known as comments. Either it touched a chord in their heart, inspired or motivated them, or simply made them smile, the comments will say it all. Sometimes the audience simply taps ‘Like’ in place of commenting at their convenient.

11. Cards

Cards is a new feature in YouTube analytics and aimed at replacing annotations. This will improve user interactivity of any video and accelerate the engagement. They will act as call to action for informing visitors regarding playlists, videos, merchandising, fan funding, and associated website etc.

This aspect sums up the amount of shares of the YouTube video across different social networks along with the share date. Google ranking is influenced with the share numbers, as higher the number more the chances of unique backlinks for your videos.

13. Videos in playlists

Favorites has been renamed to ‘Videos in playlists’. Your reach broadens as people keep marking your videos as favorites on their playlist. This is visible to the public on the YouTube channel itself.

How to analyze your competitors

Although, you can’t see the dashboard data of your competitor, there are still some ways to observe and study your competitors’ successful videos and from their views, favorites, ratings, and comments find out the driving force behind it.

For example, reading the comments and see what they are saying. Notice both the positive and negative ones so that you can incorporate the ideas in your videos. You can also make a better video by understanding what a specific demographic region is fond of watching in the said niche.

Or you can use those analyzing tools below to discover the more stats of your competitors.

1. InflueNex

InflueNex is a helpful influencer marketing tool for Analyzing, searching, and managing YouTubers. With the help of this YouTube analytics tool, you’re able to learn your competitors’ channels and videos with detailed information.

2. Rival IQ

This YouTube analytics tool helps you increase social media engagement, conduct competitive analysis to track competition, discovers new content ideas for your target audience. You can use it to leverage your foothold in YouTube.

3. SocialBlade

SocialBlade helps you gain YouTube insights and enables you to understand how your rival brands fare. You can learn from them and enhance your own strategy to beat them.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

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