Has anyone else started ignoring youtube's thumbnail suggestions ?

Growth Navigator

Growth Navigator

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I noticed something while uploading few of my videos that youtube sometimes suggests different thumbnails or points out what it thinks could improve performance. At first I paid lot of attention to those suggestions and tried following them. But after testing them for a while I started trusting my own ideas more instead on relying on what youtube suggests.

In some cases, the thumbnails I made myself performed better than the suggested ones.

Do you use youtube's thumbnail suggestions or do you prefer your own ?
 
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Growth Navigator said:
I noticed something while uploading few of my videos that youtube sometimes suggests different thumbnails or points out what it thinks could improve performance. At first I paid lot of attention to those suggestions and tried following them. But after testing them for a while I started trusting my own ideas more instead on relying on what youtube suggests.

In some cases, the thumbnails I made myself performed better than the suggested ones.

Do you use youtube's thumbnail suggestions or do you prefer your own ?
Click to expand...
I used to follow them closely, but now I treat them lightly. What works better for me is checking CTR data and improving thumbnails based on real performance.
 
I usually treat youtube's suggestions as ideas, not rules. Sometimes they are helpful, but I still trust my own testing more. If a thumbnail consistently gets a better CTR, I would stick with that instead of changing it just because youtube suggested something else.
 
Growth Navigator said:
I noticed something while uploading few of my videos that youtube sometimes suggests different thumbnails or points out what it thinks could improve performance. At first I paid lot of attention to those suggestions and tried following them. But after testing them for a while I started trusting my own ideas more instead on relying on what youtube suggests.

In some cases, the thumbnails I made myself performed better than the suggested ones.

Do you use youtube's thumbnail suggestions or do you prefer your own ?
Click to expand...
Youtube's suggestion for thumbnails is very generic, follow thumbnails that have already worked out for you and also follow the style of the channels in your niche that are getting huge views. If a video has a lot of views it means, users found the thumbnail to be clickable / click-bait. Take ideas from competitors that have already got success.
 
youtube thumbnail suggestions are terrible 7/10 times, just use whatever has worked in the past, and if that doesnt work, test around until you find something that does work.
 
I usually trust my own thumbnails more. YouTube's suggestions can be helpful for ideas, but they don't always match your audience or content style I've also found that custom thumbnails often perform better because they're designed with the target viewers in mind. Testing different designs and checking the CTR is still the best approach
 
I mostly use my own thumbnails because they match the style of my channel. Keeping the same look for all the videos has helped make my content easier to recognize for viewes.
 
ignore those AI generated suggestions
well, actually OP seems another bot
tough reality,bots asking about other bots
 
Growth Navigator said:
I noticed something while uploading few of my videos that youtube sometimes suggests different thumbnails or points out what it thinks could improve performance. At first I paid lot of attention to those suggestions and tried following them. But after testing them for a while I started trusting my own ideas more instead on relying on what youtube suggests.

In some cases, the thumbnails I made myself performed better than the suggested ones.

Do you use youtube's thumbnail suggestions or do you prefer your own ?
Click to expand...
I don't rely on YouTube's thumbnail suggestions. I trust my own instinct on what is best.
 
Designing your own custom thumbnail always works better. Your intuition seems to be right, because custom images often reflect your personality and style more effectively and resonate with viewers better than the automatically cropped thumbnails from YouTube's suggestion system.
 
Growth Navigator said:
I noticed something while uploading few of my videos that youtube sometimes suggests different thumbnails or points out what it thinks could improve performance. At first I paid lot of attention to those suggestions and tried following them. But after testing them for a while I started trusting my own ideas more instead on relying on what youtube suggests.

In some cases, the thumbnails I made myself performed better than the suggested ones.

Do you use youtube's thumbnail suggestions or do you prefer your own ?
Click to expand...
Avoid youtube suggestions, if your own thumbnail gives you better performance then definitely use your own ideas
 
I still look at the suggestions because they can be useful for ideas but I do not treat them as the final answer If you understand your audience well your own thumbnails will often perform better I think testing different styles and learning from your own results is more valuable than following every suggestion
 
I've looked through YouTube's thumbnail suggestions, but I see them more as inspiration than something I'd use as-is. Some of the ideas are useful, but I'd still rather build my own thumbnail around them. I think the thumbnail section still needs some work compared to the other AI features
 
Instead of choosing just one fixed image, you can use YouTube's A/B testing feature to put your own designs to the test. According to YouTube's official guidelines, this tool allows you to upload up to 3 variations for the system to automatically evaluate performance based on watch time.
 
what youtube suggests won't be some kind of magical thumbnail, its basically just AI brainstorming, so treat it as a suggestion, not a guarantee that it will generate a high ctr. I think its beeter to rely on your own ideas
 
If I don't like them, I use my own. It's good to check them before creating your own thumbnails.
 
I mostly create my own thumbnails and compare the results. The click rate tells me what people like more.
 
Growth Navigator said:
I noticed something while uploading few of my videos that youtube sometimes suggests different thumbnails or points out what it thinks could improve performance. At first I paid lot of attention to those suggestions and tried following them. But after testing them for a while I started trusting my own ideas more instead on relying on what youtube suggests.

In some cases, the thumbnails I made myself performed better than the suggested ones.

Do you use youtube's thumbnail suggestions or do you prefer your own ?
Click to expand...
I mostly trust my own thumbnails. YouTube's suggestions are useful for ideas, but I always test what works best for my audience. In my experience, my own thumbnails often perform better.
 
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