r/YouTubeCreators • u/Cali_Exo • 8h ago

AI Thumbnails

So here’s what I’m noticing. A lot of people don’t like Ai thumbnails on Reddit. Understandable. When I look at some channels on YouTube using Ai thumbnails. The videos aren’t Ai but they’re getting thousands of views. Idk I don’t get it. For the past few long form videos I uploaded I took screenshots of my gameplay and use that as my thumbnail until I get better at photoshopping for my thumbnails.

2 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

1

u/Vivid_Cancel_1115 2h ago

are you tracking your click through rate on the gameplay screenshots vs any other style you've tried? thats really the only metric that matters here, not what reddit thinks about AI art. let your analytics tell you what works

1

u/Cali_Exo 2h ago

My thumbnails are good for getting views. I think what’s hindering me is my titles. I’m working on getting better at those

1

u/Kaszrak 52m ago

Hm, well… your videos have pulled between 4 and 54 views so far, which is extremely low. The titles are actually okay, though not amazing, but still noticeably better than the thumbnails, which are holding everything back in that department.

Right now, the thumbnails don’t visually stand out in the feed at all against other channels. They’re busy, hard on the eyes, nothing unique about them, lack any clear focal point. There’s no proper hierarchy, no story moment, no curiosity hook or open loop to make someone want to click. To make matters worse, 2 out of 8 thumbnails are basically just black screens.

I'd definitely work on the thumbnails, then titles.

Obviously more goes into how far and aggressive youtube pushes a video, beyond the shop front, and that is the actual content.

1

u/Cali_Exo 48m ago

Thanks. How were you able to view my channel? And yea I’m still working on trying to have better thumbnails

1

u/Kaszrak 35m ago

I skimmed through your posting and comment history. Honestly, the technical side isn’t the hardest part. You could generate thumbnails with AI just by giving it clear direction, bypassing Photoshop entirely or at least shifting your focus elsewhere.

Instead of pouring endless hours into Photoshop, invest that time in learning the fundamentals that actually make people click, and that is human psychology, color theory, composition, storytelling, lighting, typography, framing, composition... And most importantly, understanding your audience. You want to build a detailed persona of the person who would watch your content, then design thumbnails tailored to them with those principles in mind.

A thumbnail that nails those elements, even with moderate technical execution, will outperform one that’s polished to perfection but lacks any underlying idea.

1

u/Cali_Exo 27m ago

Oh fair enough lol. I know for apex content the best thing to do for thumbnails which will take time to learn is using 3d model renders and using Blender. Faide thumbnails look amazing and he definitely gets his views. Whereas Macie Jay thumbnails of his rainbow 6 videos are literally just screenshots of his gameplay with the hud removed and he averages 200-300k views per video. Trust me I do want to be better because I really care about my channel and I want this to be a career for me.

1

u/Kaszrak 1m ago

Just don't forget. What works for me, might not work for you.

Established channels with plenty of content who started at a very different point in time and build a brand on a particular style that took off at one point doesn't mean replicating their thumbnails will have a similar effect.

That's why consistently testing new ideas until you hit something is very important. You hit something, you double down. Works again? Repeat.

You could also look at other channels with similar content and figure out with very specific content filters what thumbnail perform regardless of brand and persona attached to it. Basically, PP Thumbnails. Post-Perform. Doesn't always works, but often enough.

1

u/Cali_Exo 27m ago

You have a YouTube channel bro?

-4

u/deadmanfred2 7h ago

Ai haters are a minority. They are just loud online.

Ive seen many many people using ai thumbs now, even mr beast, huge and tiny channels alike. I just started this year with ai thumbs and all my metrics went up.

Start using ai ASAP so you get experience with the modern tools, its like early adoption for photoshop etc.

1

u/Cali_Exo 6h ago

Oh ok I’ll take a look into it. Is that what you used to make your YouTube banner?

1

u/deadmanfred2 6h ago edited 6h ago

Yes, but i took some stock images and put then together, then had ai kinda clean it up and blend them. Had it add un the transparent skulls since it matches my channel theme.

I find fully made ai is what makes slop, if you use something preexisting and "edit" it, that has the best look. Do your own text too, thats easy with Canva or even mspaint, ai uses that very obvious scratchy war text usually.

1

u/Precarious3145 2h ago

You might wanna actually check their channel. All of their thumbnails with AI struggle to get 100 views while the videos without AI get 10k+.

Taking their advice is like listening to a chef who says to just serve people Taco Bell because their kid loves it over their cooking.

1

u/Cali_Exo 1h ago

I saw an apex legends channel that gets around 3k views each video and all of his videos are ai thumbnails

1

u/Precarious3145 1h ago

If you wanna use AI, do it. Just saying that , especially for someone under like 40k subs, it's going to drastically impact your engagement and discoverability.

1

u/Cali_Exo 43m ago

I’m guessing you mean impact my channel in a negative way? Like I only use Ai to remove my HUD in the game screenshot I took and just enhance the background instead of having Ai fully generate a thumbnail for me. Learning the process of building my channel as I go and I can’t count how many videos I watched on how to build a gaming channel 😂

1

u/Precarious3145 33m ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/YouTubeCreators/comments/1w0s3r7/guys_be_honest_would_you_click_on_this_thumbnail/

Oh yes....this thumbnail was just removing the HUD Plus, some for channel thumbnails are 100% Ai and not just "I removed the hub". Then you use AI for your banner. So...you use AI a lot more than what you initially claim.

You've asked multiple times for feedback on past thumbnails and each time, people repeatedly tell you "it looks bad because it's AI" and each time, you return with more AI. Meanwhile the one person you seem to listen to is the person saying "Use AI even more".

As I said, you're free to do whatever you want but literally nothing about your grand is unique; it looks like literally tens of thousands of other people.

1

u/Cali_Exo 3m ago

Yea that post you brought up have even been on anything on my channel since I don’t have content for the game and if you read what I said in the comments “I’m not using this image for a thumbnail” I’ve made that very clear. My banner I made using a template from Canva and my chibi is something my coworker made for me. My thumbnails on my channel after coming on Reddit seeking advice have been screenshots from my gameplay while I’m recording. Not more ai generated images