How to set a thumbnail on a video in Creator Studio

27 September 2022

Thumbnails are the first thing you see when watching a video, so although it may seem like a small and unnecessary element to a video, it is the thing that makes your video stand out against others! That’s why it is an essential part of your marketing strategy. If you didn’t know already, the thumbnail image in a video ad is the still image that people see before a video starts and after it ends. A play button is shown over the image, which cannot be removed or customized.

You can either upload a custom thumbnail which would be one that you create yourself or alternatively, you can select one which Facebook will choose for you that will be stills from your video. Chances are that you might not like Facebook’s picks and you might want to change the image for yourself!

If your thumbnail artwork is ready then you can go ahead and start uploading it. If you’re still in the brainstorming process, why not spend some time looking at what your competitors do for their thumbnails and try and get some inspiration? If you’re stuck on how to create it, why not try Canva which is a free content creation tool that enables you to make some beautiful designs?

When you’ve spent a lot of time creating video content that your target audience will want to watch, you don’t want to lose them at the last minute by having a thumbnail that isn’t eye-catching!

To create the perfect thumbnail images you have to ensure that it follows the Facebook guidelines so that viewers can easily see any text that may be featured on it. It will be worth noting that the dimensions for a Facebook thumbnail are 1280 x 720!

Follow these next steps to upload your thumbnail:

1. First you’ll need to upload your video. This could take some time depending on the length of your video, but once it’s done you’ll be able to make any edits!
2. If you would like to make edits to your video, click on the video in full-size mode. Next, click on the ‘Options’ tab at the bottom right corner. Next, choose the ‘Edit This Video’ option to edit your video.
3. Next, go to the ‘thumbnail’ tab where you can choose from the 10 default thumbnails provided by Facebook. If you like any, you can click on it and tap on ‘Save’ to update the thumbnail image.
4. If you don’t like any of the provided thumbnails, you can upload your own! To upload an image, select the ‘Add image’ option next to the ‘Custom image’.

We hope this post has provided you with some tips on how to get started with setting a thumbnail on your Facebook video. If you have any further questions or if you would like us to go into more depth about any of the above, we’d be happy to help! Drop us a line!

How often do you upload videos to Facebook and do you create your own thumbnails?