11 Best Colors for YouTube Thumbnails - Terkel (2023)

What Is One Of The Best Colors For YouTube Thumbnails, And Why?

To help you create the best YouTube thumbnails, we asked experienced content creators and marketing professionals this question for their best recommendations. From colors that elicit emotion to colors your competitors are not using, there are several color choices that you may apply to your YouTube thumbnails to achieve the best results with your content.

Here Are The 11 Best Colors For YouTube Thumbnails:

  • Colors That Elicit Emotion
  • Brighter is Better
  • Colors That Match Your Content
  • Red And Other Bright Colors
  • Blue
  • Bright Greens
  • Yellow
  • Light Purples
  • Colors Based on Analysis
  • Your Brand Determines The Color
  • Colors Your Competitors Are Not Using

Colors That Elicit Emotion

Thumbnails are especially important on youtube because it is the only factor other than the title that entices viewers to click on your video. A great thumbnail will also stick out from the rest which is why deciding on colors can make a huge difference.

Colors are powerful in eliciting emotion so picking a color that compliments your video can be useful in getting clicks. For instance, yellow is happy and warning while blue is trustworthy and inviting. Whatever emotion you are trying to elicit from your viewers, pick a color for your thumbnail that corresponds. This will ensure congruence, helping to build trust between you and your viewers before they even click on the video.

Jeffrey Pitrak, Transient Specialists

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Bright Colors

When it comes to thumbnails, the general rule of thumb is that brighter is better. This is because bright colors tend to stand out more against a dark background and tend to attract attention more easily. That said, there’s no one “perfect” color for thumbnails; it all depends on the specific video and on what you want to communicate to viewers.

Saadia Hussain, Pearl Scan

Colors That Match Your Content

There are no best colors for thumbnails…thumbnails exist to get your attention and give you an idea of the content you should expect. For instance, if your content is targeted toward children, I would suggest using as many colors as possible since children love engaging and fun content. For a more serious video, I would actually suggest using pictures and words that might shortly describe what you are trying to get through your video.

So choose carefully because you would not want to invite the wrong audience to your account because if people click the video based on the thumbnail and receive different content from what they expected, they will click away! And that would damage the performance of the video and your account will not be recommended for a larger audience.

Luke Smoothy, Get It Made Ltd

Red and Other Bright Colors

While it may vary depending on the mood of your video overall, there is no denying that bright color in your thumbnail will go a long way to making people stop, especially among the thousands of other videos people are scrolling through.

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Considering options like red, orange, and yellow are a good place to start as they are alerting colors, literally used to get your attention – consider road signs and traffic lights – they are naturally attention-grabbing, and by the time people have stopped, they’ve also now read the title of your video, and are ready to potentially click through to your video.

It isn’t all about attention-grabbing though, you should also be considering your brand and how it represents what you do. An alerting orange may not be the best to promote your calming meditation videos for example

Phil Scully, Haro Helpers

Blue

The best color for YouTube thumbnails is blue. Blue is a very calming and relaxing color, which is perfect for videos that are meant to relax the viewer. It also works well with other colors, such as orange and purple, as these colors have a high contrast ratio and are therefore able to stand out in a crowded environment.

It is important to choose the right shade of blue for your thumbnail. If your thumbnail has a dark background, then you should choose a lighter blue; if it has a bright background, then you should choose a darker blue. There are many shades of blue available on the market today; however, the most common one is probably navy blue.

Chel Gacrama, Castnoble

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Bright Greens

Bright green is a great color option for a YouTube thumbnail. Though green is generally considered a cool color (as opposed to a warm color) that recedes from vision, bright neon or sea-foam green has a vibrancy that will pop and attract attention. These types of green will pair well with neutrals or other active colors for a variety of visual effects that will draw eyes to the thumbnail.

dan potter, CRAFTD

Yellow

Yellow is one of the best colors for Youtube Thumbnails. It is a powerful color that grabs instant attention among users. Use yellow to draw the attention of your audience and convey your confidence in your abilities. Yellow is the color that draws the most attention since it is the most easily noticeable.

Yellow can be used in a tiny amount to draw notice in your thumbnail. I would also suggest being careful with yellow as a huge amount of the hue can be tiring to the eyes. Use it to grab the initial attention of your viewers and balance the effect by using other subtle tones or the right contrasting hues.

Nathan Hughes, Diggity Marketing

Light Purples

A light purple is an excellent color for YouTube thumbnails. A soft lavender hue will contrast nicely with nearly any other color that might also be incorporated into the still image. This color is also uncommon from other branding styles involving colors, so a thumbnail of light purple will stand out among other video options on YouTube.

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Colors Based on Analysis

The color of a YouTube thumbnail should always be a matter of analysis, not a general trend. The best way to identify which coloring will work best for you is to analyze the competitors’ videos and their thumbnails. For example, if most thumbnails for a particular topic are in shades of blue maybe you should consider using a different color like green or yellow. This will help your thumbnail stand out more and attract attention.

Bartek Trzmielewski, PhotoAiD

Your Brand Determines The Color

It depends on the brand. For instance, if you’re making a Youtube thumbnail for an automobile brand, red could be a suitable color as it is often associated with cars. People will automatically get a feel for your business’s personality when they see the aesthetics of your branding, so think about how specific colors evoke certain emotions and ensure that these emotions line up with your brand.

Drew Sherman, RPM

Colors Your Competitors Are Not Using

The best color for your YouTube thumbnail is whatever color your competitors don’t use. Go to YouTube and search your keyword. Look at the thumbnail colors. How can your thumbnail stand out? How can you make your thumbnail better? By doing this analysis of your competitors, you’ll find a way to make your thumbnails stand out so you get the clicks.

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Janice Wald, Mostly Blogging

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FAQs

What thumbnail gets most clicks? ›

Video marketing statistics show that videos with emotional thumbnails get more clicks than those without. When creating your video thumbnails, you should give them a personal touch to capture your audience's attention.

What colors make people click on videos? ›

Deciding Which Colors to Highlight

The decision to highlight one or more particular colors depends primarily on the message you're trying to tell. A fun, more lighthearted video should be accompanied by yellow or orange, while a more serious video can highlight brown or even blue to create a sense of calm.

What colors attract viewers? ›

Reds, yellows, and oranges are known as warm colors that stimulate a viewer, while blues, greens, and purples are known as cool and calming.

What color do people click on the most? ›

Blue is one of the most popular colors on social media, and there's a psychological reason why.

What colors make pictures pop? ›

For an easy complementary color palette to create the highest and boldest contrast, choose two colors on opposite sides of the color wheel. Using complementary colors in photos will result in images that pop off the page or screen. Complementary colors in the RYB system are: Yellow and Purple.

What color is best for click button? ›

The colour of the button is actually an important consideration in driving users to click. One study showed that people were more likely to click on buttons that matched their brand's colour scheme. Another found that using red buttons generated more clicks than green or gray buttons.

What are the 3 most attractive colors? ›

Thus, the most attractive color is blue, the second most preferred is red, followed by green, while yellow was found to be the least preferred color (Figure 1).

What color is best for video captions? ›

Black and white are considered the most readable font colors to use in subtitling. Furthermore, color combinations that involve black are more readable especially if black has been used to outline/stroke the text.

What color catches the eye first? ›

In the daylight, the most visible color is a wavelength of 550nm; a color between green and yellow. Our eyes catch red, orange, and yellow the fastest.

What color immediately attracts attention? ›

Thanks to its long wavelength, red is one of the most visible colors in the color spectrum (second only to yellow). Its ability to instantly grab people's attention is the reason why it's often used to warn people of impending danger.

What color is normal thumbnail? ›

Healthy fingernails and toenails should generally be pink - with the healthy nail plate being pink and the nail being white as it grows off the nail bed.

What color turns you on the most? ›

Scientists have revealed that wearing the colour red will make you more attractive to the opposite sex. Studies reveal that red is the most attractive colour to both men and women but, curiously, the two genders are attracted to the same colour for different reasons.

What color looks the fastest? ›

“It's been proven that blue is faster than other colors,” said Dai Dai Ntab, a sprint specialist for the Netherlands.

What is the #1 favorite color in the world? ›

Marrs green is a shade of green that in 2017 was named "The World's Favourite Colour" in a major global survey by the British paper merchant G . F Smith. It is a rich teal hue.

What makes colors pop more? ›

Try increasing the vibrance of muted colors

Choose Vibrance in the pop-up menu to create a Vibrance adjustment layer. In the Properties panel, drag the Vibrance slider to the right to about +80. This increases the intensity of the colors that need it most, without oversaturating the skin tones.

What background makes colors pop? ›

White walls, white ceilings, white furniture, even white chandeliers. “I'm a huge color fanatic,” she says, “but I just think white makes color pop so beautifully.” Her favorite colorful accessories “never looked as good” as they do now against a white backdrop. “White is crisp, it's young and it's really flexible.”

What background color makes things pop? ›

A white background for photos makes images “pop.” A white background keeps the edges of the picture from blurring.

What color makes people take action? ›

Red: The Color for Action

You'll see an intense red used in logos of companies whose brands are about action, like Coca Cola, CNN, and the Red Cross.

What is the new click color? ›

Check 5 options of new Honda Click 125i terbaru 2023 colors: Vivid Blue, Matte Gunpowder Black Metallic, Valiant Red, Matte Pearl Crater White, Nitric Orange. View all Honda Click 125i colors option images here!

What color should stop button be? ›

The colors for STOP/OFF actuators should be BLACK, GREY or WHITE, preferably BLACK. RED is likewise permissible. GREEN must not be used. WHITE, GREY and BLACK are the preferred colors for push-button actuators which function alternately as START/ON and STOP/OFF pushbuttons.

What is the 3 color rule combination? ›

The premise of the 3-color rule is not combine more than three colors in your outfit at any one time. The exceptions are black and white — they don't count, as they aren't technically colors, so they can be intermixed without actually adding a color to your outfit.

What two colors do not go well together? ›

7 Worst color combinations to avoid
  • Yellow and green. Yellow and green are two of the most popular colors in the world. ...
  • Brown and orange. ...
  • Red and green. ...
  • Neon and Neon. ...
  • Purple and yellow. ...
  • Red and purple. ...
  • Black and Navy.
Aug 18, 2022

What is the most peaceful color? ›

According to a study, the secret to a calming room is navy blue—and there's science to prove it. The University of Sussex and British papermaker G.F. Smith did research that found navy blue is a calming color—in fact, the most relaxing color in the world.

What color turns a girl on? ›

The Color Red

In a series of seven experiments conducted at the University of Rochester and published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, women were more sexually attracted to men who were wearing red or were pictured against a red background.

What is the most humble color? ›

White: Reverence, purity, birth, simplicity, cleanliness, peace, humility, precision, innocence, youth, winter, snow, good, sterility, marriage (Western cultures), death (Eastern cultures), cold, clinical.

What are the two happiest colors? ›

Red, orange and yellow are all warm colors and are generally thought to evoke feelings of happiness, optimism, energy and passion. Yellow-y sunshine might lift your mood, while red roses might get you in the mood. Warm colors also rev you up!

What is the most calming color combination? ›

Green is classically known as a comforting harmonious color. Blue is calm and soothing hue. Soft neutral tones help us relax. Even purples, pinks, and yellows can be peaceful colors when used in soft shades.

What is the most relaxing color for the eyes? ›

New research claims that dark blue is the world's most relaxing colour. Research carried out by the University of Sussex and paper company G.F Smith, draws on a survey of 26,596 people, from more than 100 countries.

What is thumbnail design? ›

A thumbnail is a small image representation of a larger image, usually intended to make it easier and faster to look at or manage a group of larger images. Graphic designers and photographers typically use this term.

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