IG is Changing, Thumbnail Best Practices, & More

Thumbnail Design Tips from a Pro

ICYMI, we interview a creator every week in our private Discord community. (you should come join the other members…it’s fun in there)

This week, we interviewed David Altizer—a full-time YouTube thumbnail designer who’s designed for creators like Kurtis Conner (5M subscribers), Max Fosh (4M subscribers), and Jolly (4M subscribers). His designs have generated over 100 million clicks. 🤯

Here are a few of his tips and tricks for creating thumbnails that convert:

• The current thumbnail best-practice is focused on simplicity and realism, not overly-curated or edited images.

• Don’t fill the thumbnail with too many elements.

• David recommends A/B testing with 3 different thumbnails (his specific framework is in the Discord).

• Your thumbnail should tell the story of what your video is about.

• Thumbnails should set expectations with the audience. Clickbait-y thumbnails aren’t in anymore.

Join the Discord community for more of David’s insights, like:

• The 3 elements all effective thumbnails have

• How to use color and perspective to create intriguing thumbnails

• David’s favorite free tools for analyzing thumbnail performance

A Few Updates on Social

Something must be in the air because it seems like every platform is releasing updates lately…

IG Releases New Metric

Instagram recently announced that Views will be the primary metric across all organic and boosted media formats (from Reels, to photos, to stories).

Views will measure the number of times a Reel started to play or replay and the number of times a non-Reel appeared on a person’s screen.

Previously, the following terms were used to describe view count:

• Reels: Plays

• Static Posts: Impressions

• Stories: Plays

There had been some confusion surrounding views vs. reach, so it seems like this is an attempt to clear it up/make it more straightforward. However, it seems like they’re still going to use the term “Reach?”

Views = number of times the video was viewed

Reach = number of accounts that viewed it

So while they positioned this as a major update…it’s pretty much just a name change? We’ll see if it leads to any algorithm changes.

YouTube Wants You to Fact-Check Videos

YouTube rolled out their own version of X’s Community Notes—a feature that allows users to report information that isn’t factual.

This comes just before the election and following YouTube being called out as a major source of misinformation online.

A select number of contributors have been invited to submit fact-checking and context-providing notes on uploads. We’ll let you know if/when it gets released to all users.

The Battle of TikTok vs. Instagram

While TikTok engagement fluctuates, Instagram has made a bit of a comeback.

Now, TikTok seems to be releasing features that are strikingly similar to Instagram features. Their most recent—TikTok Group Chats.

You can now create a group chat of up to 32 people on TikTok. While the feature is still new, it’s rumored that its purpose is to keep users within the app rather than flocking to platforms like Instagram to send/share content with friends.

Quick Links

⬜️ Instagram is parting ways with the square feed.

💰 Twitch increases subscription prices.

💅🏻 The “very demure, very mindful” trend explained.

👀 How creator contracts are changing because of AI creators.

👩🏻‍⚖️ YouTuber sues Nvidia over AI scraping of creators’ content.

See ya next week,

Karat