How long do you spend designing a YouTube thumbnail?

[OrsenWilder]

People say the thumbnail is 50% of the video's success. Do you make simple clean thumbnails or high-contrast faces with big text? What Click-Through Rate (CTR) do you aim for?

 

[Jake]

It depends on the video, but I would say that most of the time I spend designing a thumbnail is actually more than I did a year ago. The thumbnail can be a massive factor in the performance of the video, and I think about it more now than before. I will also often try a few different thumbnails and then narrow them down to the one I want to use based on comparison, and I think this is a better approach to make the most impact.