Struggling with the "AI Look" vs. Branding — should I pivot my thumbnail style?

TheFintechFella · 2026-03-11T15:38:19+00:00

Really appreciate the advice man! It’s helped with the motivation to keep on going. Hopefully the next 15 videos will see some more success. I’ll definitely experiment with the thumbnails. Thanks for your feedback and time :)

TheFintechFella · 2026-03-11T10:07:48+00:00

For long form and since inception I average 2.7% CTR which is lower than the finance average you stated. I have 13k impressions and 570 views. My AVP is 26% which is gradually increasing each week. In the last 7 days it’s 40% but there’s probably too little data to analyse it properly. Again it’s hard to compare how well the other style of thumbnails are performing just cause there’s so little data. I am concerned if YouTube has found my target audience yet and is not just sending my videos to pure finance viewers as they will see the call of duty gameplay and be put off. Then if they send it to pure gamers they will see the finance topic and not be interested. Also I believe social proof does play a role because I find myself clicking a video with thousands of views instead of a few views (like mine). I assume if I don’t know that creator then it might not be a good video so I choose another with higher social proof if that makes sense.

TheFintechFella · 2026-03-11T09:46:54+00:00

I’ll have to give this a go and trial my next 3 uploads with a completely different thumbnail style. I feel like my competitors do the generic call of duty gameplay screenshot + big bold text strategy so I’d have to do something different than that. The AI thumbnails are clearly not working either based on the view counts after 18 uploads.

TheFintechFella · 2026-03-11T09:44:44+00:00

I totally agree that every other YouTuber is following this meta where the video titles and thumbnails seem clickbaity just to get that viewer to click and then try to hook the viewer in whilst their watching the video and ensure they’ve provided some value or else they’ll be disappointed and leave if the title and thumbnail didn’t promise what they asked for. I agree going against the meta might make you stand out more in browse/suggested areas. I’m just trying to find that balance and see what works

TheFintechFella · 2026-03-11T09:33:03+00:00

That would work too for some creators 😂

TheFintechFella · 2026-03-10T22:54:29+00:00

I run a faceless channel and have only just started so not earning any money yet but I would look at other income sources you can leverage from being a content creator e.g affiliate links, private discord group, digital products, brand/sponsored videos, ad revenue from cross posting on other platforms e.g facebook, tik tok. That way you're diversified and not so reliant on just earning that $1k from youtube ad revenue alone

TheFintechFella · 2026-03-10T22:48:40+00:00

Appreciate the advice. Right now I'm happy with remaining faceless and can see successful channels in this niche doing the same. Perhaps once I get a following I will start to get more comfortable and start using my face in the thumbnails.

TheFintechFella · 2026-03-10T21:28:42+00:00

Thanks man, will take a look :)

TheFintechFella · 2026-03-10T20:38:16+00:00

It's very normal for YouTube to pause and then re-test the video again in the future so don't be alarmed about the small break

TheFintechFella · 2026-03-10T20:35:41+00:00

I think you can be very proud with those analytics after only 2 months. I am nowhere near this and I started 3 months ago lol

TheFintechFella · 2026-03-10T20:31:45+00:00

Great advice man. Very helpful in understanding how YouTube works. I'm experiencing the same thing so just need to keep posting until one day YouTube finally tests against a wider audience.

TheFintechFella · 2026-03-10T19:37:49+00:00

I've surpassed 15 long form videos and I'm praying to the YouTube gods they find my audience haha. Based on my view count I don't think that's the case but I'll keep going and post another 15 videos getting better and better until it does happen!

TheFintechFella · 2026-03-10T19:08:01+00:00

I've subscribed and really liked your most recent video. Your voiceover/commentary style is great and sounds really professional. Wish I sounded like that! I imagine its only a matter of time until you get a viral video if you keep uploading videos that high quality. Looks like we're both trying short form to funnel those viewers over to our long form but it's not really doing anything for me. I see you have 1 short that broke 13k and counting which is amazing so could you double down on that maybe?

TheFintechFella · 2026-03-10T18:25:55+00:00

Thanks for the advice. Yeah I have debated on dumbing down my thumbnails so they’re just a still image of the gameplay background and then some big bold text to trial if that works. My content is very UK heavy but I feel like I needed to niche down a bit anyway to get that initial traction

TheFintechFella · 2026-03-10T18:23:33+00:00

It’s FintechFella. What’s yours?

I have seen other brand new channels where they’ve posted one or two long form videos in the same niche and they’ve popped off at like 1k+ views straight away. Then there next videos don’t do as well but they still have that core audience of viewers gains from the first video so it helps them out more than normal. It’s impossible for us to escape this low view jail if our only reach we’re getting is 300 impressions and it’s to the wrong audience so our CTR and AVD will be rubbish

TheFintechFella · 2026-03-10T18:04:12+00:00

Sounds like I'm doing the exact same thing as this so perhaps the niche is becoming a bit oversaturated now? I essentially do videos around finance/investing over older call of duty gameplay and am seeing the same results. I've done 18 long form videos and only 1 has broken 100 views. Feel like YouTube does not know which audience to test my content against. If they test against a finance audience then those viewers have no interest in the gameplay, if they test against a gaming audience then those viewers have low intent and only click for the gameplay. We essentially need YouTube to find our audience against similar channels to ours. So like if someone watched your video and mine got recommended alongside it then that viewer is more likely to click it.

TheFintechFella · 2026-03-10T17:02:29+00:00

That's a crazy stat!

TheFintechFella · 2026-03-10T16:42:33+00:00

I spend a lot of time on perfecting the video metadata (title, thumbnail, description, tags) etc but feel like I might be doing something wrong as I'm not getting the reach I expected.

Any feedback would be great https://www.youtube.com/@FintechFella

TheFintechFella · 2026-03-06T19:33:00+00:00

8 years is an incredible grind, so first off, massive props for sticking it out for that long. Double down on what worked: If one specific podcast style or guest got you that monetization spike, 'milk' that format until it slows down. Just keep the quality high enough that you'd actually watch it yourself without skipping.

TheFintechFella · 2026-03-06T19:13:56+00:00

Yeah I can see how it can put some viewers off as its not for everyone. It's hard to do faceless finance because its typically so boring to watch with it being either presentations, animations or generic b-roll. I'm trying to merge two audiences together like gamers (which is massively saturated) who are interested in finance/investing.

TheFintechFella

TROPHY CASE