Custom Facebook Video Thumbnails

Facebook has dedicated a lot of resources to both on-demand video and live video streaming in the past 1-2 years. The brand building tools available for brands, businesses, celebrities, public officials, political candidates and organizations are amazing, perhaps even overwhelming at times. There are a few really simple things that can have a big impact on reach and engagement, one of those is adding custom (branded) thumbnails.

Brand Building Facebook Video Content

Take for instance the two video thumbnails below, which one is more likely to leave a lasting impression?

Before Custom Thumbnail	After Custom Thumbnail

I would certainly remember the custom thumbnail more vividly than a simple snapshot or still from the video clip, how about you? Beyond the obvious brand building capability within Facebook itself is the embedding capability on a website. Custom thumbnails will give a nice cohesive and seamless experience to users who visit your website and see an embedded video with custom thumbnail. You may read more about embedding Facebook videos on a website by click the image below.

Demonstration on Facebook Video

Demonstration on YouTube

Tools of the Trade – Canva

As mentioned in the demonstration, you may use any software or service for designing your thumbnails. We are addicted to and highly recommend Canva, however, many other options (FREE) exist including Adobe Spark, Gimp, Photoshop and others. Do you have a favorite #FreeGraphicDesign program, software or service, share your favorite in the comments below.

Remember to use a 4×3 aspect ratio, your image can be 400×300, 1280×720, 1600×900 or 1920×1080. We prefer to use 1920×1080, these dimensions will provide a crisp and clear resolution and nice user experience.

The Takeaway: Custom Facebook Video Thumbnails

In terms of the value-to-time ratio for simple things you can do to improve the quality and experience of your videos on Facebok, custom thumbnails is on of easier, most effective and least time consuming of all those tasks.

If you found this article helpful, please give us a thumbs up, a Like on Facebook, Subscribe on YouTube or leave a comment below. If you need any help with your videos, thumbnail or otherwise, please do not hesitate to reach out to Mike and Bill by clicking here.