One technique to increase conversation rates is to set a custom thumbnail on your video with a contrasting play button.
In the examples below, I have created a thumbnail that includes myself and the word Click to Play on it. Having a human face typically leads to higher click-through rates.
When using a custom thumbnail, Thrive Architect allows to choose a play button that will appear in the center of the thumbnail. You can choose from multiple icons and set the color for each video.
Ideally you want to choose a color that is contrasting. If you want, you could possibly A/B test different icons and colors using Thrive Leads or Thrive Optimize.
The problem with the default YouTube embedded video thumbnail
A custom thumbnail is optional, a default thumbnail will be generated from the platform where the video is hosted.
One problem with Youtube is the distracting elements they show: the youtube channel icon, the first part of the title in small font, a watch later and a share icon.
And then maybe a bigger problem is the Play icon showing in black color (until you mouse over). This is clearly not very visible.
The solution with Thrive Architect
If you are using Thrive Architect with WordPress, you can upload your YouTube thumbnail and select a play icon, it gives a much cleaner result.
Here are the choices of icons:
Examples
Here are some examples with some of the icons available in different colors:
If you want to increase conversion, you can even upload an animated gif as your background image.
Conclusion
Hopefully it can help you in increasing your click through rate and ultimately your conversion rate. If you are using Thrive Leads, you can actually test different thumbnails and combinations of buttons as well.
If you want more ways of increase conversions with videos, you can have a look at those blog posts:
- 16 ideas for generating leads using videos
- Alternative to autoplay videos
- Convert more with Thrive Architect using animations
Leave a comment below if you have any suggestions or questions.
