---
title: 'Why Your Face Belongs in Every Thumbnail'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=1y9lRHmlr0M'
video_id: '1y9lRHmlr0M'
date: 2026-07-17
channel: 'Colin and Samir'
---

# Why Your Face Belongs in Every Thumbnail

> Source: [Why Your Face Belongs in Every Thumbnail](https://youtube.com/watch?v=1y9lRHmlr0M)

## Summary

A YouTube creation expert discusses the importance of featuring a creator's face in video thumbnails, comparing it to a brand logo that builds audience recognition and long-term equity, even if it may hurt initial click-through rates.

### Key Points

- **Bad thumbnail example** [00:00] — The squirrel obstacle course thumbnail had low CTR, but the content was good enough that people remembered and clicked later.
- **Testing thumbnails** [00:30] — Testing shows thumbnails with a large face consistently win. However, older popular videos often lacked a face, reflecting a different YouTube era.
- **Face as brand logo** [01:00] — A creator's face acts like the McDonald's arches — familiar and habit-forming. It builds a brand that audiences trust and recognize over time.
- **Long-term strategy** [01:30] — Smaller creators should incorporate their face even if it reduces current views, as it builds long-term equity and audience loyalty.

### Conclusion

Despite potential short-term dips in CTR, featuring your face in thumbnails is a powerful long-term strategy to build a recognizable brand and loyal audience.

## Transcript

That squirrel thumbnail is the worst thumbnail I've ever made. >> You think so? >> It's terrible. Like we tried in the testing the CTR was so low on it. Like I've tried cracking that thumbnail, that first squirrel obstacle course, but in the end we tried up so many things on that thumbnail. That is objectively a bad thumbnail. The content's just really good and then people remembered, oh I remember this video, so they click on it. I think a better one of an old video is like Jello pool or >> What's the watermelon? Yeah. >> Watermelon. There's other of my OG videos thumbnails that are good. >> Mhm. >> Some don't even picture my face, but this is a really good example of audience. You can now test thumbnails. >> Right. >> And we test all sorts of thumbnails and the ones that win over and over are where my face is big. If you look at my most popular videos, almost none have my face in them, but that was at a time in on YouTube where it was just different. >> Yeah. >> And you could make something like that go viral. Now it's a lot harder to get a high CTR on something that like doesn't have you cuz I think the audience has expected, if someone I love is in this, they know to put their face big on it. >> I think we're at a point where it's like imagine a road trip and you're driving when you see like the McDonald's arches, it's familiar, it creates a reaction and you know what to like you know the habit or the >> Yeah. Yeah. >> It's the same thing of like your face is a brand logo. >> I think that's right. I think you're right. >> I think even as a smaller creator, it's a good long-term strategy to try and incorporate your face. You know, even when I look at our titles and thumbnails, we're often not in them. We're trying to find the thing that is the most interesting to the most amount of people. >> Yeah. >> But I do believe we should find a way to be in our thumbnails. >> Yeah. >> Even if it means we will get slightly less viewership right now. I think long-term >> You want to build that equity.