Alright - Here's 3 thumbnail/title combos, don't look the videos up. Just rank them in which you think they got the views with 1 being the most popular and 3 being the least. Same creator, same niche.

Same creator. Same format (roughly). Same topics (roughly) The channel is Incinematic. They make short essay videos breaking down film tropes and cinematography techniques: things like over the shoulder shots, specific camera angles, tools directors use. Started 2 years ago. Now at 61k subscribers with several videos crossing 1 million views. But not every video hits. Some sit at 8-9k views while others reach 3-10 million. I'm going to share a mix of their latest and popular videos. Before I give you my takeaway, I want to hear yours first. Look at the thumbnails and tell me: what do you think separates the ones that took off from the ones that didn't? Drop your answer below and I'll share what I noticed after a few responses.

New viewers will give you 8 seconds before they decide whether to keep watching*. That number is dropping to 5 as AI makes people more impatient. Most creators waste those seconds introducing themselves, explaining the backstory, or doing a dramatic cold open that has nothing to do with what the viewer clicked on. Here's what actually works. 1. Fulfill the promise of the click. Your thumbnail and title made a promise. The first thing out of your mouth needs to confirm you're going to deliver on it. The simplest way to do this: restate your title in your first line. Boring? Yes. Effective? Very. (bonus points if you're wearing the same thing and the setting is relatively the same as the thumbnail) 2. Spike curiosity higher than the thumbnail did. Don't pay off the curiosity yet. Raise it. Three ways to do this: - Cognitive dissonance hook: "Everyone tells you to do X. It's why Y isn't happening for you" - Question hook: "Have you ever wondered why some people succeed where others don't?" - Fact hook: "90% of viewers decide to leave in the first 8 seconds. Most creators have no idea why. (The figure is actually closer to 100% of viewers based on patterns pulled from Ed Lawrence, Mr. Beast, and Colin & Samir but you get the idea) The biggest mistake people make is continuing the intro after they've already set up what the video is about. Once you've told them what's coming, start delivering it. Don't loop back around for another 30 seconds of preamble. What does your current intro look like? Drop a link below and I'll tell you what I'd change. *I got this stat from Ed Lawrence, though some say anywhere from 5-8 seconds, like Colin and Samir, and Mr. Beast says 3

For all of you that have niches, that I keep saying "riches are in the niches" etc, here's a case in point example. Notice that when the focus goes off of "helping Australian business owners navigate financial landscape" the videos tend to flop. Notice also how the thumbnails aren't the best. Know what this guy has? He's figured out his VERY SPECIFIC audience. Who's your audience? Drop a comment below, don't be afraid to go into specifics

Something I did today was screenshot thumbnails from some of the top creators in my niche and analyze them. I screenshotted their most popular and most recent thumbnails. I found the smilarities and took inpiration to make a thumbnail that I predict (well at least I hope) will do pretty well for my next video. Just food for thought for anyone struggling with thumbnails.