Have you decided to launch your own YouTube channel? Congratulations! Now we need to put everything in place to gather thousands of subscribers quickly.
The YouTube banner is a central part of the attractiveness of your YouTube channel. It is its flag bearer; it reflects your business and your visual identity at first glance.
The opportunity is there: in France, YouTube has 46 million visitors per month, and 62% of companies use a YouTube channel to publish videos (source: BDM).
The YouTube banner, as well as your channel, have several goals to fulfill:
- Represent your identity in an impactful and consistent way
- Attracting new subscribers
- Loyalty to your subscribers
- Encouraging engagement and clicking
To achieve these goals, how do you create a pro, practical, and attractive YouTube banner without necessarily being a graphics ace? That is the whole point of this article.
The size of your YouTube banner is paramount, as is its composition and content.
Depending on your graphics skills, you can choose using a free online design tool or make your cover, with YouTube banner software such as Photoshop.
Are you ready? Here’s your to-do list to create a stylish and powerful YouTube banner!
9 Steps to Create An Effective YouTube Banner
The YouTube banner is this rectangular image that appears at the top of your channel’s homepage. It not only plays an aesthetic dressing role; it is much more than that: it is through it that Internet users will discover your channel. Therefore, it must sum up your business, arouse curiosity, and make you want to click.
1- Dimension Banner YouTube, First Step
What is the right size of YouTube coverage?
First checkbox: the Youtube cover format to create a professional channel! By being the first visual element that the user will discover about your business, YouTube coverage must already reflect your credibility. A YouTube banner that appears in the wrong format disqualifies you from entering.
When you consider that more than 70% of YouTube videos are viewed on mobile, YouTube coverage must adapt to all formats: mobile-first, but also computer and tablet.
The thing to know is that even if the recommended YouTube banner dimension is 2,520 x 1,440 pixels, it doesn’t appear the same way depending on the media. Namely, the size of the YouTube banner 2,048 x 1,152 is the minimum import size required.
Here is a memo of Youtube coverage dimension according to the media:
Viewing on a TV: YouTube banner 2,560 x 1,440 pixels (in 16/9 format, which covers the entire screen)
View on a computer: 2,560 x 423 pixels (depends on the user’s computer screen)
Display on a smartphone: 1546 x 423 pixels
Display on a tablet: 1855 x 423 pixels
What to remember: Since you never know what type of screen your channel will display, YouTube recommends a 2,560 x 1440 pixel safety zone. A YouTube banner 2,048 x 1,152 is the minimum import size required.
The minimum safety zone for text and images is 1,546 x 423 pixels. Finally, the file should not exceed 6 MB.
This google landmark lets you see the ideal size of a banner for each screen.
One might think that a YouTube cover photo is useless and that the important thing in a YouTube channel is the content, that is, the videos.
Of course, the quality of your videos is essential if you want to get followers on YouTube. But the look of your channel also matters.
Trust and credibility are priceless values on the Internet, where you don’t always know who you’re dealing within the face of a vast supply.
Whether it’s an online store or a YouTube channel, it’s essential to show a consistent visual identity. This consistency inspires confidence and demonstrates that marketing is part of a global business and editorial strategy.
In short, creating a YouTube cover should embody your brand and make you want to enter your world.
This is especially true on YouTube because a channel is, by definition, a personal medium. Your channel is you, or at least your brand. She must be personified.
And to get that impression, you need to spend time optimizing your YouTube channel, which means building an effective banner.
Graphically, it must take over the universe and color codes of your brand, your logo, or even the colors you like, if it is a personal YouTube channel.
Add a slogan with a few keywords that sum up the content of your channel.
Put yourself in the shoes of your future subscriber. At a glance, he needs to understand what your YouTube channel is going to bring him.
3- An attractive Youtube cover
What YouTube banner background to be stylish?
Giving style to your channel is the primary function of a YouTube banner.
Whether your style is minimalist, psychedelic, or gothic, the important thing is your chain’s visual harmony.
We see a nice example of stylish Youtube coverage with the YouTube channel of Pierre-Eliott, a French entrepreneur who found success thanks to dropshipping eBay and who gives tips in dropshipping on his YouTube channel.
The cover of his channel is clearly personified with the portrait of Pierre Eliott, as well as a slogan that allows his target of entrepreneurs to identify himself immediately.
Stevie Salle is an American fashion youTuber, with a sleek and minimalist style, as seen on all his lookbook videos. His banner takes the style of his videos’ miniatures: part of one of his looks, with his name/logo. Effective!
Keep in mind that the user quickly reads your banner and needs to hit your message right away. Don’t overload your banner, favor a simple Youtube banner image and clarity of information, with little text.
Related: How To Boost Instagram Account
Once you’ve set up the YouTube banner dimension, and establish consistency with your brand identity, choose the YouTube banner background to attract your future subscribers!
Create a unique and attractive YouTube banner image with free online software
Again, get to the basics by focusing on the clarity of the information and a catchy YouTube banner background. Choose colors that look like you, one or more images, a few keywords.
Efficiency and attractiveness are your watchwords for creating a unique and original YouTube coverage!
You can, of course, use Photoshop software if you master it. But for those who are new to graphic design, you have free YouTube banner software at your disposal, which requires no knowledge and is very intuitive.
A true Creator of The YouTube Banner, each software offers Youtube cover templates. Choose one or more YouTube cover images, and customize to your image!
Note: most of this online editing software also allows you to create your Youtube thumbnails, photos of Facebook covers, Instagram, etc.
Canva:
Canva is simple of use, its free, wide choice of templates explicitly adapted to the YouTube banner dimension.
Canva offers many models to create all kinds of graphic media, including all types of images associated with social networks. To find a YouTube cover template, go to the “Models” section and type “YouTube” to access all templates.
Once you’ve selected the template, you can edit everything on it: the fonts, the size and location of the text, and the background image of your YouTube cover.
Check that the title of the YouTube template has the term “YouTube Channel Art.” The YouTube banner size should be 2,560 x 1,440 pixels.
Fotojet
A wide selection of templates and college possibilities and a library to choose the right YouTube banner image.
Click “Create a design” and then select “YouTube Channel Art.” Once on the editing interface, choose your model on the right and change it as you like. Beware, templates with a small crown are only available on registration.
Template.net
The YouTube banner software Template.net offers hundreds of YouTube cover templates to customize. It is also a mine of inspiration, the banners being classified by genre, for example, YouTube company banner, YouTube fashion banner, or YouTube gaming banner.
Or:
Bannersnack:
With templates with the right-sized Youtube cover, Bannersnack gives you a wide choice that’s very easy to customize with a drag-and-drop.
Adobe Spark:
Adobe offers you this online tool to create your free YouTube banner, with a selection of very modern and aesthetic YouTube banner background.
If your YouTube banner should reflect the style of your channel, there’s nothing to stop you from changing it regularly, depending on your channel’s activity. So your banner becomes an ad banner.
This allows you to inform your subscribers and future subscribers of:
- Publishing your latest video
- A recent collaboration
- Opening an online store
- A new collection
And all sorts of other news like that. In the example below, fashion Youtuber Alex Costa announces his capsule collection with BP. Brand, the launch date, and the place where its subscribers can enjoy it.
YouTube coverage is the first relevant visual that people will see when they arrive on your channel. As we know in marketing, if well thought out, this image has the power to push your visitors to take action. In this case, what do you want them to do? Let them subscribe to your channel, of course!
Whether it’s a commercial channel or not, a subscriber is a valuable resource that can interact with your content, recommend your channel to other people, give feedback on your content, and buy your products.
It’s also a captive target for your YouTube ads.
Also, if it is easy for users to subscribe to a channel, it will be much more difficult for them to unsubscribe. Not that it’s technically complicated. It is simply a less reactive mental process.
Look at the home page of a YouTube channel: you can see that the “subscribe” button is just below the banner on the right. That’s why it makes sense to have your banner summarize the content of your channel.
Arrange for this visual to indicate the themes you are addressing, the style of your personality/brand, and the publication’s pace. The Men’s Fashion Youtube channel One Dapper Street did well this exercise.
Your banner should encourage people to subscribe to your channel. It is therefore highly recommended to add links to your social media accounts directly on your banner.
In the same spirit as call-to-action subscribers, a YouTube banner offers the opportunity to have more followers on other social networks. Therefore, we advise you to include links to your other social media profiles in your YouTube coverage.
Here’s an example with the Urban Outfitters brand that incorporates its social networks on its YouTube coverage:
If you’re clear with your branding and marketing strategy, you can entirely make your banner with Photoshop-type software. Here’s how to do it, even if you don’t master the software.
Start by downloading the Channel Art Templates offered by Google, in the section “Channel Illustration Models.” Open this template with Photoshop.
The middle rectangle represents your safety zone. This means that all the information essential to your banner’s effectiveness, whether it’s text or photos, must be in this rectangle.
As for the image itself, there are two options:
Either you’ve already taken a photo adapted to this YouTube banner dimension, and you just have to import it and place it in the right place.
Either your visual is not suitable, and you need to refocus it. To format an image in the format of a YouTube banner, it’s straightforward:
- Import the image in question into the same tab.
- Click on the quick selection tool. Pass it on to the item you are interested in, such as your portrait or your product.
- Copy and paste the item anywhere on your cover. Then select the item and resize it by holding the Maj key to break the ratio. Reduce the object to the desired size.
- Create a rectangle the size of the YouTube banner and place it behind the object. Change the color the way you want.
- Add text.
There you go! Your banner is ready.
Once your YouTube banner is complete, all you have to do is put it online.
- Connect to YouTube and click “Your Channel” in the menu on the right.
- Then click the “Personalize your channel” button, and then, in the middle of the “Add an illustration for the chain” cover.
- Import your cover. YouTube shows you how your banner will appear on different screens:
You can click “Automatic Improvement” at the bottom right to optimize colors.
- Click Select.
Here’s your YouTube banner in place.
To add links to your coverage, social networks, or site:
- Pass the cursor over your banner and click the pencil at the top right.
- Click “change the links.”
- At the bottom of the interface, add the URLs you want (maximum five) and validate.
Your links appear prominently on the banner:
This option is ideal for creating more elaborate call-to-action. For example, you can add arrows offering promises in exchange for a subscription, such as a gift or a discount. It’s up to you to imagine the offer that will appeal to your target.
Your first YouTube banner is created!
Is the expected effect up to your goals? Tell us in a comment.
