This is prestongoes, the man who made Ryan Trahan's Penny Series theme song.

Started his channel with 633 subscribers.

Today:

- 625k Subscribers

- Over 224 million combined views on his channel

Averaging over 1 million views a video.

His thumbnails play a huge role for his success on Youtube

So, here are 5 things you can learn from his thumbnails.

1) The Curiosity Gap

First, you need to understand it:

It is the gap between…

What we currently know vs What we want to know

Preston achieves this by using a combination of these methods.

1) Through mid-action:

These types of thumbnails offer a sneak peek into the video by capturing a moment from the video that holds tension and emotion.

2) Through story: These types of thumbnails make you wonder… “What happens next?” because these thumbnails set a question or a tension.

3) Through novelty: These types of thumbnails make us click because we want to experience something we have never seen before.

If you use curiosity gaps correctly, these make a potential viewer ask questions and you can’t resist the urge to satisfy your curiosity (the questions) which is by clicking the video.


2) Meeting Viewer Expectations

Most YouTubers understand the title and thumbnail get the click and the video itself drives watch time.

BUT

(If you didn’t already know about this feature by now…)

before I click, the video is already playing.

So now you have to deliver the video’s expectations to the potential viewer within the first 5-10 seconds or they won’t click.

The best way to do it? Matching the first shot of your video with your thumbnail.

3) Simplicity

His thumbnails are simple, clear, and easy to understand.

The rule of thumb for thumbnails…(pun?): Don’t have more than 3-4 elements

The more there are, the more confusing it gets.

You want the potential viewer to understand the video idea as quick as possible. The longer it takes to understand it, the less likely they are to click.

4) Colour Theory

His thumbnails are vibrant and colourful, allowing him to easily stand out on the homepage.

Good contrast only helps it more, allowing important elements to stand out and not blend in, especially at far distances (which is optimized for mobile users).

There are 3 types of contrasts:

- Luminosity Contrast

- Saturation Contrast

- Hue Contrast

5) 5) The Video Ideas

Preston’s thumbnails are as good as the video idea. They are appealing and interesting.

You need to know this:

- A thumbnail is dependent on the video idea

- A good thumbnail can’t save a bad video idea

- A good video idea can’t be saved by a bad thumbnails