The main thing that decides whether the viewer will watch the video or not is its cover. She is striking. If the cover is interesting, then views are provided and the video becomes quite popular. It is very easy to make a good and correct cover, you just need to follow the basic rules.
So, in order to interest the viewer and encourage him to watch the video, you need only 2 components: a high-quality cover and the correct title. But now let's talk about the cover. Think for yourself what you see when you go to YouTube? You see a large number of different "tiles", and choose only the one that is in the best wrapper, i.e. with the most beautiful cover. To create a good, attractive and interesting cover, the following rules must be followed:
1 rule. Matching the subject of the video
This is the most important and commonplace rule. "Well, that's understandable," you say. It is clear, but not always. The cover should fully reveal the meaning of the video, show viewers that it contains exactly what they want to see. You can even write the title of the video on the cover so that you can immediately see what will be discussed. If, for example, you shot a video in which you create a drawing, then your drawing should be on the cover, and not a picture taken from the Internet.
2 rule. Quality
Choose a high-quality picture or photo as a cover. It should be clear, legible and light enough. Everything should be clearly visible on it. Bad pictures immediately repel you from viewing, especially if they were taken with a phone, and with a bad camera, when the picture turns out to be "in squares". Therefore, do not be lazy to select good pictures. Let's go back to our example. Your drawing should be clear, the lines should not be blurred, all details should be clearly visible, otherwise the drawing will lose its beauty.
3 rule. The size
YouTube has a video and cover standard of 1920x1080, so choose a cover that size or proportionally. After all, it looks very ugly when there are two black stripes on both sides of the photo. It looks unprofessional, which most likely will not attract the viewer.
4 rule. Brightness
The cover should be eye-catching - bright. When there is a choice between what to see, we choose what is immediately visible and attractive. And bright colors and contrast will definitely make your cover stand out from the crowd of others, more faded.
5 rule. Creating a general cover style
When your channel becomes popular, the videos are watched, you get subscribers. You need to be recognized, and it becomes easier when the video covers are the same type. A person entering YouTube will immediately see your video if it has any distinctive features, some special style.
6 rule. Matching the video type
Different types of videos usually have different cover information. For example, for conversational videos, you cannot take pictures of some objects, since they will not correspond to the meaning. In this case, the viewer needs to be tuned in to a pleasant warm conversation and this is only given by a photograph of the person himself, who will narrate in the video, this will inspire confidence. In the case of game videos, on the contrary, you need to show the game that you want, for example, to comment on. And on the cover you need to put either a frame from the game moment, or the cover of the game itself. If you already know, it's good to include your cover photo in any type of video as well.
So, in order for the cover to be good, catchy and attractive, it must be of high quality, bright, of the correct size, it must correspond to the meaning and type of the video and have its own style. By completing all these points, you will get a good cover, and the video will gain a large number of views.