Do you need a graphic designer to help make thumbnails for your YouTube channel or other video platform?
Having high quality, eye catching thumbnails is one of the most important elements in order to be successful on YouTube or other platforms.
If you can’t get people to click on your thumbnails, they won’t watch your videos.
How to Create Thumbnails That Get More Views on YouTube
Currently, there are three options you can choose to create thumbnails that will help grow your channel.
Option 1: Use a Default YouTube Thumbnail
After you upload a video, YouTube will automatically generate 3 thumbnails from different parts of your video.
Sometimes, you may get lucky and one of these will look good enough to use.
If you are brand new to YouTube, and want to use default thumbnails for now, try to pick the one that is the most eye catching and relevant to the topic of your video.
Depending on the topic and audience, default thumbnails may make your channel look more authentic.
Most of the time, this isn’t the case and a custom thumbnail will perform better than a default one.
Option 2: Design and Upload a Custom YouTube Thumbnail
In order to use custom thumbnails, you need to make sure your YouTube account has been verified.
Typically, you are verified with a phone number.
This “Add video thumbnails” article from YouTube has more information on verification, image size requirements, polices and more.
Design Thumbnails Yourself or Hire a Graphic Designer?
The decision to design thumbnails yourself or hire someone to do it for you depends on many factors including but
not limited to:
- Your budget
- How much free time you have
- Graphic design experience
- Patience – do you find thumbnail design to be tedious?
- Creative control of final product
In the early days of the Internet, there weren’t very many apps available other than Photoshop to help you design good, clickable thumbnails.
Photoshop still works well, but will take time to learn if you are unfamiliar with it.
Best Thumbnail Maker Apps
If you want a simpler alternative to Photoshop, here are some online thumbnail makers I have personally tried and recommend. They do not require you to download software, so you can design directly from your web browser.
Canva is a great app to start with and has ready to go templates specifically for making thumbnails for YouTube.
They have a free plan you can try to get started. If you like their service, you have the option of upgrading to unlock more features such as the very useful background remover tool.
You can also choose from pre designed templates and use free photos, icons and other graphics from their library.
If you get hooked on Canva, it’s highly likely you will want to upgrade so you can take advantage of more effects, photos, scheduled social media posting and more.
Adobe Spark is very close to Canva, with new features added regularly.
It took a little while to become familiar with Spark, but once I learned the ropes it was a breeze.
Like Canva, Spark can also be accessed directly from your web browser.
Personally, I switched to Adobe Spark as it was more affordable than Canva.
They also have a free starter plan with the option to upgrade for more features.
If you are already a member of Adobe Creative Cloud, it’s possible you may have access to Spark as part of your plan.
In my situation, I had been paying for Adobe Premiere and After Effects, so I contacted support to see what my best option would be. I recommend you do the same, as they will work with you to help you choose the best package for your budget.
On a side note, you can try many of Adobe’s products for free for 7 days.
There are other similar apps out there including PicMonkey, Crello, Visme, Stencil and more.
Soon, I’ll do a complete and thorough comparison and review of these graphic design apps, so be sure to bookmark this site and stay tuned!
Hire a Thumbnail Designer
New agencies will be added regularly, so keep this page bookmarked for future reference.
If you have the budget for it, outsourcing a graphic designer can save time and remove the tediousness of making thumbnails.
There are many places you can find designers available for hire. You may notice that some will say “commissions open” while others may say “commissions closed”.
Open means they are accepting orders, closed means they are currently booked.
Here are a few sites you can begin your search:
Twitter – There are many designers on Twitter that are actively monitoring new tweets seeking design help. You can post a simple tweet such as “Looking for a YouTube thumbnail designer” and more than likely you will be flooded with inquiries. From there you can check out their profile to get an idea of what their work looks like.
We’ve begun building a Twitter list called “Thumbnail Designers” that you can follow at:
https://twitter.com/i/lists/1469568986438320128
Behance – This is a freelance site owned by Adobe. To find an artist, simply search for YouTube thumbnail and look for designs that are most appealing to you. You can also try searching for the hashtag #thumbnail for even more results.
Fiverr – No list would be complete without including Fiverr. 🤣 There’s no shortage of freelancers to help you for as little as $5. Just be sure to read carefully, check their portfolio and reviews before ordering.
CustomThumbnails.com – This service offers several different design packages with a recurring monthly or one time pricing structure.
ThumbnailDesigners.com – Offers three different monthly plans, all with unlimited changes. Currently, with the Lite plan you get 10 thumbnails per month, Standard plan gives you 22 thumbnails/month and with the Plus plan you get 31 thumbnails per month (one per day!).
Don’t Forget YouTube
Another way to find a good designer is to dig around on YouTube. Look for top performing videos in your niche and check video descriptions to see if any credit is given to the graphic designer.
If that doesn’t work, asking the channel by leaving a comment or contacting them directly. It’s a bit of a long shot, but you never know.
(If you are a designer, and would like to be added to this page, please contact us for more information.)