I have a plugin that replaces all thumbnails with random stills from the video. I just don't want to play the game. I don't want second guess if I'm being influenced or over correct. It also replaces the titles with simple user-submitted descriptions with the aim of removing click bait and hype.
The latter makes it much easier to find things I really want to see.
People are much more likely to click on a video with a human face, ideally expressing extreme emotion. If there are other images that suggest a story or *mystery* even better.
This was true three years ago. I wonder if it is still true.
When they pose for the thumbnail with their mouth open and eyes popping out.
Just mugging it up.
This has been proven to increase engagement which I find deeply baffling.
This guy at the ants forum changed his thumbnails so every one was him going sort of "WHOA" to a photo of an ant and his views jumped. That's about when I stopped making ant videos. I don't get it.
I'm so deeply ad-blocked and click-bait blocked (and I don't really do things like Netflix or cable) that when I see an add on a screen on the subway I'm like a person from the past and horrified, scandalized, astonished, and generally much less able to cope than most people I think.
Because it's the only video ad I've seen all week ... maybe longer.
*clutching pearls*
"A motion picture advertisement! What is this nonsense!?"
@futurebird@dank same! i only use YT via Freetube, and have used adblockers for +20 years now. and now have a VPN with filters. all of that and more to have a normal web experience, like before fucking google fucked things up with their SEO ponzi scheme. so it shocks when i see people raw dogging it AND with the chrome browser.
literally wrote blog post when i was invited to try it out and i was like, why? if it’s google’s it’s spyware.