The best creators design thumbnails for the audience viewing them

A 13 year old and a 30 year old don’t respond to the same packaging

Ages 6-12

• Uses bold and colourful visuals to grab attention quickly

• Uses a big facial expression

• Fast visual storytelling

• The focus on the thumbnails for this age group is usually on novelty (extreme)

Ages 13-17

• Uses balanced/clean visuals and colours

• More emotionally/self identity driven

• Usually more relatable for this age group

Ages 18-30+

• Realistic/"Raw" thumbnail style

• No exaggerated elements

• Simpler compositions

• More trust-based thumbnails

There is no one single/universal thumbnail style

There’s only the thumbnail style that best matches the audience you’re trying to attract

A thumbnail that performs well for a 13 year old audience would probably fail with a 30 year old audience. To figure out what style works best, study your target audience, research your niche and analyze what type of packaging consistently gets clicks from that demographic