How to increase a successful channel's CTR

How we fixed the channel's problem that no one knew about and raised the CTR of videos by 80%

Client and task

SHASTUN, 1.3M subscribers. Makes the Contacts show in which invited participants answer questions using their phone contacts.

The channel has many subscribers, famous guests, and great content, so viewers love it. But Anton Shastun wanted it to be even better. He contacted us, we conducted an audit and found the weak point of the channel.

What was the problem

The audit showed that video thumbnails had a low CTR. Our analysts figured out the reasons, which were graphical and visual errors.

It's an entertaining show, and dark colors didn't fit well with the theme. The black text was too calm, in some cases, it was difficult to read. The lines crossing the faces made it difficult to quickly recognize the characters in the thumbnail. But this is important because a thumbnail has only a split second to catch the user's eye when they scroll the YouTube feed.

How we solved the problem

We showed the audit to Shastun and wrote detailed terms of reference for his designers to develop new thumbnails for the channel. The designers got down to work, and we monitored the result and suggested how to improve it.

1

Lose dark colors. We’ve selected brighter, but not striking, harmonious colors for the covers. This made the thumbnails look more positive.

2

Change text color. Against the background of the colors we’ve selected, the text in yellow and white is better and faster to read. Black should be replaced with white to maintain a positive attitude.

Before
Blurred faces, unreadable text, an abundance of styles, and dullness

After
Bright emotional photos, readable thumbnails, pure bright colors

CTR 70-80%

CTR 99%

Before
Blurred faces, unreadable text, an abundance of styles, and dullness
CTR 70−80%

After
Bright emotional photos, readable thumbnails, pure bright colors
CTR 99%

Results

Shastun’s team revamped the thumbnails for all videos. New videos began to stand out from competitors and motivated viewers to click on them more often. Three months later, we took measurements and saw that the CTR of videos with new thumbnails increased by 80%.

+80%

CTR

+90%

likes

+60%

depth of views

Creator's opinion

Anton Shastun

1.3M subscribers

"Thanks to Mediacube partnership for high-quality optimization, analytics, and thumbnails for my videos. This saves a lot of time. My manager Alexander Novitsky keeps his finger on the pulse of my channel, taking into account my preferences and content style. Doesn't advise bad"