Knob
Thumbnail text
You might say: words on the thumbnail, text overlay
The few words painted on the image. Galloway usually uses two or three and rarely more than five or six; some channels use none.
- What it does
- Adds what the image cannot say, and works with the title instead of repeating it.
- Ask
- Would the thumbnail lose anything if I deleted these words?
- Typical
- 0–3 words typical; ≤ 5–6 (Galloway)
- Trouble
- A sentence on the thumbnail that nobody can read at feed size.
What to look for
- Words adding what the image cannot say
- Text readable at feed size
Sources
- Paddy Galloway, The most sought-after YouTube consultant on the planet, 15:27–16:56
I don't think there's necessarily the only hard rules I would say is in general, I would stay away from having over five or six words.
- YouTube Help, Thumbnail & title tips, Readable text and complexity
If you add text, make sure to use a font that's easy to read.
Use it on your project
teardown-apply: hold "Thumbnail text" (thumbnail-text) from the teardown at https://teardownatlas.com/content-creation/ against my project
Paste it into a coding agent that has the teardown skills.
An AI agent wrote this map with the teardown skill. It can contain errors: check the sources before you rely on a part. About and legal