I design YouTube thumbnails for a living.
Islamabad, Pakistan
Joined September 2017
- Tweets22K
- Following87
- Followers4.1K
- Likes58.4K
I've been wanting to give my website a proper refresh for the longest time, and this week, I finally sat down and brought the vision to life.
The new website is officially live! - shaail.com 💚
Would love to hear from you guys, especially the thumbnail fellas.
One of the many cool thumbnails made for Anthony Scaramucci's podcast/show "All Things Market" 📈
Always a fun task to work with webcam low quality images from the video footage and turning them into something HQ 😁
I absolutely love making table top thumbnails for BUJO, here is one I made a few months ago that amassed 1.2M views... 👨🎨
Asset -> final thumbnail uploaded ✍️
The way I feel some weird butterflies seeing how THUMBNAILS are being discussed by Pubity 🥹
I don’t know how to explain the feeling, but, it’s an unreal feeling.
In my personal opinion, they should’ve gone with something like Instagram where you could post trials that are pushed to non-subscribers and you test out different iterations of the video.
VIDEO A/B TESTING on YouTube?!
Ok I've thought a lot about this since the announcement, and the more I think about it... the less I like it? Mainly because there are SO many unanswered questions right now
If I'm watching a video, do I know if it's part of an A/B test?
If I'm reading comments on a video, how do I know which version they watched?
If someone's comment has timestamps, do they break if I'm seeing the other version of the video?
How long after publish can creators potentially be A/B testing a video?
How different are the videos allowed to be?
I hate to be the "old school" creator who never wants anything to change, but I fear A/B testing THE VIDEO ITSELF is just 1 step further than what I can fully grasp
Muazz Shaail retweeted
VIDEO A/B TESTING on YouTube?!
Ok I've thought a lot about this since the announcement, and the more I think about it... the less I like it? Mainly because there are SO many unanswered questions right now
If I'm watching a video, do I know if it's part of an A/B test?
If I'm reading comments on a video, how do I know which version they watched?
If someone's comment has timestamps, do they break if I'm seeing the other version of the video?
How long after publish can creators potentially be A/B testing a video?
How different are the videos allowed to be?
I hate to be the "old school" creator who never wants anything to change, but I fear A/B testing THE VIDEO ITSELF is just 1 step further than what I can fully grasp
🚨 Huge update: YouTube just announced video AB testing, thumbnail generation & more.
I’m here in the YouTube offices in New York… and they’ve just made their biggest update in years.
Here’s the 3 changes I am most excited about + my take as a strategist running some of the biggest channels on youtube:
1. Video AB testing
YouTube is going to allow you to upload three different versions of a video now (starting with shorts and then rolling out to more) and test them over a period to see which gets the best watch time.
My take: I am so excited by this and it feels like something we’ve all wanted for years. How often are you stuck between two different intros, or two different ways of ending a video?
Now having the ability to get real data back is insane. I am going to heavily use this with intros.
2. Dynamic thumbnail testing for different audiences
YouTube will now actually dynamically test different thumbnails with different audience segments. Allowing you to have different packaging for your returning viewers vs casual/new.
My take: This is very interesting. Current AB testing for thumbnails essentially helps you find the best thumbnail for the biggest majority of your viewers… but that isn’t the best thumbnail for every segment.
A core viewer might click on something very different to a brand new viewer. I think this will allow creators to print more views and test new styles that previously might have never won in the test.
3. Thumbnail generation in YouTube studio
Directly in your studio you will have an ‘ask studio packaging assistant’ that can analyze your video and past performance and generate thumbnails (and titles) for your video.
My take: This one’s been coming. The interesting thing for me is that when presenting this, youtube said something very interesting: they will match your style.
This is the hardest step when using most Ai thumbnail generators, so if they can pull this off… could change the game.
Really excited to see how these new features work.
Youtube shared that they will be tested and rolled out in the coming months.
Muazz Shaail retweeted
What do you guys think about YouTube's NEW Dynamic Thumbnails feature?
I think it's pretty awesome. Having the ability to show different thumbnails to different audience segments based on what they respond to is huge!
Now there are no more winning thumbnails and losing thumbnails; all 3 thumbnails can be up at the exact same time, appealing to different audiences.
This feature could also pair really well with the upcoming video A/B testing feature. Imagine a video with 3 different hooks and 3 different thumbnails built around each of those hooks.
The ceiling for YouTube videos just got much higher, and the people taking advantage of these new features early are going to have a real edge as they start rolling out!
Was honoured to be able to work on thumbnails for the New York Times no. 1 best selling author that has penned ‘The 48 Laws of Power’ just to name one.
A couple of my favourite thumbnails I have designed so far for Robert & his team 📖
YouTube has a "NEW" icon on top of the thumbnail if the video is new.
I had recently been putting a "NEW" tag on thumbnails for some of my clients. I noticed that YouTube has started doing that now themselves?
I remember a couple of months ago they tested something similar? But, I guess they are pushing it out properly now?
This is something that I just cannot believe. There is no way he is involved in something of this nature. Dragging him through all this is so sickening to see.
I personally use AI upscaling quite often, but, where is the line where you feel that it is no longer an upscale rather than the person just completely coming off differently?
An example would be the one Houssam has shared. I personally would not go through with the upscaled image as it looks like a completely different person.
Would love to hear some thoughts!
I really hope the 1/10 feature going missing is just a glitch on YouTube. If it actually goes away I’ll be losing out on one of the only few dopamine hits I have 😭
I was working on a thumbnail when I noticed that apparently Photoshop now has AI assisted editing.
I don't exactly know how this works but it is quite interesting to see. Do you guys know anything about it? Or tried it?
