Which of these thumbnail options is the best?

It would be good to post the individual renders, for me #2 looks awesome!

Gabriel Orosco

3 is the "better" image, but is too visually noisy at low screen sizes (ie, most of them). 4 really does the best at letting the model stand out, even when space constrained. 1 and 2 do a poor job of communicating the shape of the vehicle; I don't like either.

Phoenix

I ended up voting for #3, but #2 looks like it could be a still from a Wes Anderson movie. I'm not saying that as a good or bad thing, I'm just pointing out how I see it.

Jonathon Payne

Even subtle variations might have a huge effect. The difference between "What Happened to the Antartic Snow Cruiser?", "This Snow Cruiser went missing, where did it go?", "Mystery in the Antartic? This Snow Cruiser just disappeared" might be enough to tip the balance. I was very interested in the difference between good clickbait and bad Clickbait!

Thanks for the link! That was a great video. In the past I’ve tried swapping cards and titles but it never seems to have an effect (perhaps because the cards are too similar or maybe most of my “clickbait” is very vanilla)

Mustard

As a side note, it's worth warch Veritasium's recent video on "Clickbait" and view conversions on YouTube. He suggests having a batch of images and titles, and using the real-time tools to track instaneous views of videos, then picking the best combination going forward. Really interesting piece. https://youtu.be/S2xHZPH5Sng

I like 4 - if I'm scrolling through my YouTube feed, that clear image of the vehicle is going to stand out more than 3. 3 is a visually appealing image and far better as a composition with the clouds etc, but 4 will catch my attention far more.

Awesome feedback! I'm going to make this a regular thing

Mustard

In a sea of brightly coloured thumbnails on YouTube that want to draw my attention, paradoxically, images with lighter hues and less contrast stand out for me. Options 1 and 3 would catch my eye. The vehicle looks outlandish and I think the stance in Option 3 shows enough of it to stoke my curiosity.

Razvan Caliman

I like option 3 the best for its composition and colour palette, but I'd prefer a less busy sky like in option 4

Gregory Chalenko

I got to say that all of them are good. It really depends on what you're going for. The side view has a deep retro flavor to it, that this machine already drools with, simply based no the sidestripe alone. The worms eye view paired with a three quarter view is a classic for making things seem huge, so it makes the machine even more impressive. But I got to say that Option 2 strikes a very unnatural clean and contrast rich impression that I find pretty amazing (amazing enough for a poster, mind you!). Still, 1 and 3 remain a more natural approach to the light and thereby I'd say one of these are probably more appealing in this comparison. For me Option 1 is the winner, because it just hugs the definition of retro styling with its straight lines from left to right, greatly fitting the machine and its time, never letting go.

Love the Staggerwing strapped to the top!

Antoine Normandin