I remember a year and a half ago when I start channel, creating the YouTube banner was one of the most exciting things because Ifelt like I was finally making my Mark starting the damn thing. And it was really cool to be able to brandand position myself for the very first time and put myself out there on social media. But at the same time I didn't realize whata hot mess it was creating my first banner and if you want to have a little context,here's my very first banner that I attempted making for my channel.
At the time, I had no idea h what exactly I needed to put in it, and yeah, it didn't. The result wasn't that great. But since then, I've learned a lot about YouTubebatters.
Why YouTube banner is necessary?
So in this video I really want to payit forward and not only teach you guys step by step how to create your very first YouTubebanner, but I also want to guide you and show you the key components that you might wantt o consider putting into your YouTube banner so that you can truly optimize that space on your channel and get more leads, more subscribers, and more views to your videos.
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| gaming banner template |
Now, the very first tip that I have for youwhen it comes to creating your YouTube banner, regardless if it's your very first YouTubebanner or your hundredth YouTube Benner, doesn't matter if you're new or your experience isto figure out where you're going to be creating this banner.
YouTube channel art dimensions guide 2021
Now, a really popular option is Canva, especiallyfor beginners. So if you want to do it the DIY route and you want to get it done for free, Canva is a really great option. And actually in this post later on, I'm goingto walk you through a full on tutorial of how to create your banner on Canva.
Now for me, I was at a place where my channelwas rapidly growing and I really wanted to invest in something custom made for my channel. Not to mention I was also very terrible atgraphic design. Like I literally have zero graphic designskills and so even on Canva, no matter how hard I tried, I still couldn't get the lookthat I really wanted for my channel, which is why I decided to outsource my YouTube banner to sorif . And through that process I got paired up witha graphic designer, send her my brief, send her some photos, center of my branding guideand she basically made magic happen.
when you're using Canva, you can easilysearch up YouTube channel art and click on the right template. I like to use the blank ones and today inthis video we're going to start from scratch. So I'm going to click on blank. But beyond this, what you also need to dois you need to go on Google and search up YouTube cover dimensions. This way you know when you're creating yourbanner that you're accounting for mobile dimensions, tablets.
I mentioned desktop time mentions and TV dimensions. Now, once you've downloaded those dimensions,you're then going to upload it to your Canva blank page and then you're going to spreadout that image so that it touches point to point with your screen.
So it's full screen right here.
Now, something that I like to do is I liketo lock it in place so that it doesn't accidentally move around. So what you're going to do is you're goingto click lock. That means that no matter what you do, you'renot going to be able to accidentally delete this or accidentally move it around as you'redoing your editing.
Now you might be wondering, why do I need to have these dimensions?
Can't I just use a Canva template? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Now that's a big mistake that I actually made when I was creating my own cover banner and this is the way that I found to be the easiest to make sure that you're getting exactly what you're designing on mobile, desktop, tablet,and TV.
Now for me personally, I don't really care for TV or tablet because I know a majority of my audience members watch my videos eitheron mobile or on desktop. But a mistake that a lot of people make isthat they're only focusing on the desktop side of things. So what this means is that this entire portionhere is basically this entire banner, which is awesome.
But what you also need to realize is thatthere are mobile dimensions as well, meaning that a lot of the things that you put on theside, on the right and left hand side is actually not going to show up on mobile.
So if you're putting your channel name onthe side right here, it's not going to show up. Versus if you put everything within the center,within the mobile dimensions, not only is it gonna show up on desktop, but it's alsogoing to show up on mobile. So just so that you guys can see it visually. Here's my desktop version, and then here isthe mobile version of my banner. You'll notice that the things on the sidesdon't show up.
That's why when you're creating your banner,you want to make sure that the most important elements are within this safe zone right here. And anything else that you want to have onthis side, you can put here, but just know that again, here in the center is probablythe most important real estate because that's the part that's gonna show up on desktop andmobile. Now once you've set in these dimensions, youcan start designing within these safe zones.
YouTube banner Perfect size in 2021
- YouTube’s Recommended Banner Size is 2,560 x 1,440 pixels
- Minimum image dimensions: 2,048 x 1,152 pixels
- Minimum image safe area for text and logos: 1,546 x 423 pixels
- Maximum image width: 2,560 x 423 pixels
- File size limit: 6Mb
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| youtube channel art size |
So what I like to do is I like to actually put an element on top right here so that this actually acts as the background color of mybanner. So what I'm gonna do is I'm going to enlarge this and choose a color that I like. Um, I'm probably gonna maybe do like a graycolor or something like that. So once you've added your color or your backgroundcolor, you'll notice a problem.
Now you can't see the dimensions. Now you don't know whether or not you're operatingwithin the safe zones. So what I also like to do is I like to clickon transparency and tone it down so that I can actually see the different elements thatI need to have within my banner. Once you have that, you can then start designing.
Remove the background easily
Now for me, because I have a personal brandbased business and I want to put a photo of myself in this banner. I'm actually gonna show you guys a really quick hack. So my hack that I want to share with you is you can actually use a website called remove background, upload any of yourself, and afteruploading what's going to happen is that it's automatically going to remove the background.
Then what you're going to do is you're going to download this and now within Canva you can start adding photos of yourself but still have any background that you would like. So I'm going to put a photo of myself here and remembering that this is my safe zone, so I want it to show up on mobile and then I can add other elements that I would like to have in my banner.
Now obviously if you're putting anything onthe sides here, remember it's important to put things on the sides because it's goingto look nice on desktop, but this isn't going to show up on mobile.
Use of Fonts
So just remember these different things when you're putting and designing things into your cover banner. Now once you've chosen a background for yourcover banner and you've added a photo of yourself, now it's time to put your channel name. But before we do that, I also want to giveyou my second tip, and that is for your channel name or for any fonts that are within yourcover banner, make sure that you're choosing a very bold, big and eye-catching font.
Now as a really quick hack, what you can do is you can actually go on Pinterest and search up bold fonts, Canva so that you can really hack your way in to finding the best font for you that will look good on your cover banner.
Add Channel Name
Now that you've chosen your font pairingsor fonts that you would like to have in your cover banner, the next thing that you wantto do is you want to add your channel name. Now having your channel name is going to bereally important because it's one of the first things that people are going to be seeingwhen they're looking at your cover banner. And for me, I always think about it in thisway. I think about my subscribers, my viewers,people who are creeping my channel. If they ever wanted to take a screenshot ofmy channel or if they want it to use their phone and take an Instagram story and sharemy channel with their audience, I want to make sure that they can actually see my coverbanner and my channel name so that their followers, their viewers, their subscribers are able to note exactly what my channel name is and search it for themselves on their own time so that I get more visibility for my channel.
That's why one of the most important elements of your channel banner is going to be your channel name. So the next step is to add that.
Now, as you can see, I'm making my name as big as I can, but also respecting the aesthetics of my channel banner because there's going to be other things that we're going to be adding here as well.
Now remember, if you ever want to check things out aesthetically and just double check things, you can always turn down the transparency and actually see what it would look like if it was fully opaque. So for me, when I look at my name, realize,Hey, I actually want to have this in a different color, I think it would look nicer and white. So I would do that. And then what I want to continue designing within the safe zones, I then increase the transparency so that I can see what I'm doing.
Now, after you've chosen your font pairings,you know your dimensions, you put your channel name.
Unique tagline for YouTube channel
This is her I help statement what she helps you do with her channel. And then a third option is you can actuallyuse maybe a slogan or a tagline that you like to use that encapsulates the mission of your channel. A great example is Roberto Blake's cover banner about creating something awesome today. This is what he stands for and what he's all about. So those are the three different options thatyou can choose for your cover banner.
Now obviously there are way other options,but just to simplify things for you, those are the three that I've identified that workreally well to really summarize exactly what your channel is all about. So knowing that you have these three optionspersonally for me, I'm just going to continue doing the three pillars and adjust it as you want.
So I'm going to put mine personally, directlyunder my channel name. Now you can do yours wherever you want, butI would highly recommend keeping within this safe zone for mobile so that it shows up onpeople's phones and on people's desktops. And again, if you're not sure whether or not it looks good, you can always turn up the transparency and see if you would like to adjust the colors and everything like that at any time. Now at this point , you've learned how to master your dimensions, adding your channel name and the importance of lettingpeople know exactly what you're offering in your channel. After you've done that, the next step is to maybe let your audience know when they should expect your uploads. I personally like to let my audience know whether or not I'm uploading on Sundays, Tuesdays, whether they should expect a new video from me every week, every two weeks, every month. Because people like to subscribe to active channels. They don't want to subscribe to channels that aren't going to be putting out content frequently. That's why when you actually explain to people,when you're uploading, you have more of a chance of attracting people to subscribe to you and stay loyal to you and know exactly what they should be expecting from your channel. So for me personally, at minimum, I do new videos every Sunday. So that's exactly what I'm going to communicate in my cover banner. Now again, when it comes to placement, theseare the really important elements that I want to show up on mobile too. So I'm still playing within these safe zones. Now obviously you can put the new videos every Sunday or your upload schedule, wherever you'd like on this banner within the mobile section. But personally for me, just to keep things simple, I'm just going to put it right underneath my pillars. And again, just for an aesthetic check, whatyou can do is you can always turn up the transparency just to make sure that everything looks good on your end.
Now after you've added, when people can expectto upload something as a bonus that you can do or that you can add within your cover banner is to add something that's going to show your authority. And a really great example again is sunny Leonard jerseys cover banner where she says where she's been featured in. And also Roberto Blake's as well, where he'sbeen featured in. Now I'm still a small potato compared to RobertoBlake and sunny Leonard Jeezy. So I've never been teacher'd in Forbes orfast company or any of these publications, but what I did personally in my cover banner,because I do a lot of content on Instagram and everything like that, what I've done isI've personally added a screenshot of my Instagram page so that people can see that I have, youknow, a lot of followers. The tips that I have aren't actuallywork, and this is kind of a way that I'm building my authority until that's what I've decided to do for you. It could be something else, but that's just another bonus tip for you to add into your cover banner. Now moving onto the next element that's goingto be important to put in your cover banner is to have a call to action.
call to action
Whether your call to action is subscribe to my channel, turn on notification, download my freebie. Having a call to action is really going to maximize that real estate that you have in your cover banner.
So remember, I'm just going to make sure that it's within the safe zone for me personally, it's not that important that it shows up on mobile. So I'm just gonna put it within desktop. Now be careful because remember, if you make your elements really big like this, this is going to look great on desktop. But remember on mobile it's only going toshow part of it. So on mobile, what the problem is here isit's only gonna show half of my freebie. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to makesure that it doesn't show up on mobile and it's within the desktop safe zone.
Now don't forget that when you actually look at YouTube, there's going to be a bar here where they're going to be putting links. So just keep that in mind and play with that when you're designing your banner. So I'm just going to make sure that there'sextra space at the bottom here and that it's not taking up the whole space so that thebuttons don't cover it up. And then to make my call to action even clearer,I'm then going to add an arrow, something like this, just like that. Now obviously you're going to spend way moretime on yours, but I just wanted to show you this really quickly so that you kind of get the gist of where to add or how to add your call to action.
Now at this point, I've basicallywalked you through some of the key elements to add into your cover banner. Now it's a matter of just making things nice and making things fancy. So what I'm going to do is I'm just goingto add some extra decorative elements to my cover banner to really make it pop and really showcase my branding. So as you can see I've added, you know, a couple of elements that I saw on Canva and I've put it within this safe zone of desktop and anything that's out here will just show up on TV.
Now obviously I can add way more elements,but I've really walked you through the key components and how to design your cover banner.
Final Thoughts
Now, so far in this Post I have literally,and I mean literally showing you step by step how to create your own cover banner for YouTube and only this. I've also walked you through some key elementsand components that you definitely want to keep in mind up to include in your cover banner so that it's truly optimized
Guys, I really do hope that you enjoyedtoday's Post. Comment below and let me know if you found it useful or helpful. As always, guys, I appreciate you. I hope you guys have a great day, a greatweek, and a great life, and I will see you in the next time. Bye guys.