Whether you like it or not we all judge books by their cover. When running ads on Facebook, you want to disrupt people to watch something they never intended on watching. Which is why just a thumbnail can make or break your ad campaign!
How Important is a Thumbnail?
When creating a video ad many Facebook users have autoplay turned off on their mobile devices, which means they need to click on your video to play it.
One of the best ways to encourage them to click is through having an engaging thumbnail that triggers curiosity, surprise, etc. Facebook gives you the easy way out meaning they will select a thumbnail from your video randomly. But let’s be honest, the top social media influencers on platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok all use thumbnails!
We recommend making a custom thumbnail 100% of the time! Using the automatic thumbnail selector Facebook provides may show blurry snippets of the video which tends to be less engaging. By adding a custom thumbnail even if it is just slightly edited has proven better results time and time again!
What is a Facebook Thumbnail?
A Facebook video thumbnail is a cover image for videos. This is the image users see before watching or clicking on the actual video. The thumbnail plays an important role in drawing potential customers’ attention to watch your video then move into your funnel.
What Tools Do I Need?
Many people have the assumption that you need expensive software or tools to create a highly engaging thumbnail.
That is very far from the truth! There are many free tools available online but if you do have the available funds we highly recommend using Photoshop.
On the other hand, if that is not an option we recommend a free online tool by the name of Canva!
What Size Should I Make My Thumbnails?
The dimensions of your thumbnail depend on the dimensions of your actual video. Commonly the videos we create have a 1:1 ratio. Therefore your thumbnail should also be 1:1. If you upload a thumbnail of different dimensions from your original video, it may appear stretched or squished.
You also want to keep in mind not to have too much text, as Facebook doesn’t like the spammy look on their platform. Click here to check if your thumbnail has too much text.
Important Factors in a Thumbnail
There are multiple factors in engaging thumbnails. This doesn’t always mean extremely hardcore edited thumbnails. It can actually pretty much be the complete opposite. Here are 3 thumbnails and let’s see if you can tell what they all have in common.
As you can probably tell, all these thumbnails have human faces in them. Now we aren’t saying thumbnails without faces will perform badly, but faces do have a big impact on click-through rate.
Another simple addition to your thumbnails can be emojis! You can add emojis based on the emotion you want to express to the potential customer to evoke surprise, curiosity, etc. as you can see below.
As you can see above, it can be as simple as that which can have a dramatic effect on your campaigns.
Fun Fact: We actually came across the middle ad on our Facebook feed and it was one created by us.
If you don’t want to go through the hassle of making your own thumbnails, you can always use our services for custom thumbnails for your product. Click here to view our thumbnail packages.
