YouTube Banner Size: The Perfect Dimensions in 2019(+Templates)
YouTube Banner Dimensions
The ideal YouTube banner size in 2019 is 2560 x 1440 pixels (2560 pixels wide by 1440 pixels tall). In addition, your banner image should meet the following size requirements:
Minimum size: 2048 x 1152 pixels
Safe area for text and logos: 1546 x 423 pixels
Maximum width: 2560 x 423 pixels
Maximum file size: 6 MB
Often, we see YouTube channels with banners that look like they were created without much thought.
This is a huge mistake.
A YouTube channel’s banner takes up about a quarter of the screen on a desktop browser. It’s easily the first place your eyes are drawn to.
When someone finds your channel on YouTube, the banner will be the first thing they notice and associate with your brand.
First impressions can make or break the perception of your channel, which is why you need to put some time and effort into creating a YouTube banner.
You need to make sure that your banner represents your brand well and makes your page look good. In this article, we’ll look at:
How to Add YouTube Channel Art
How to Change YouTube Channel Art
How to Create a YouTube Banner with Picmaker
We’ll go through each of these steps in detail. To begin with, let’s look at how you can add a banner(or channel art) to your YouTube channel.
How to Add YouTube Channel Art
Adding a banner to your YouTube channel takes just a few seconds.
1. Log in to YouTube.
2. Click on your profile icon in the top right corner of the page.
3. From the drop-down menu, select “ My channel”
4. In the next screen that appears, click on the ‘CUSTOMIZE CHANNEL’ button on the right side of the page.
5. On your channel page, you’ll see a blue button that says ‘Add channel art’. Click on this button to add a banner to your YouTube channel.
You’ll be given with several options to add an image as your channel banner. You can upload an image from your computer or choose from the photos you’ve saved on YouTube or from a gallery of photos provided by YouTube.
Make sure that the image is big enough. If you use an image smaller than 2048 x 1152 pixels(minimum recommended YouTube banner size), YouTube will throw an error message that looks like this:
After choosing an image from one of the options, look at the preview of how the banner would look like on different devices.
If you’re not happy with how the image has been cropped by YouTube, you can manually adjust the crop by clicking on the ‘Adjust the crop’ button in the bottom left corner of the popup window.
Note that you can only adjust the crop and not crop the image itself, with the TV space above and below it. This means you won’t be able to set a corner of your image as your desktop crop.
Picmaker’s YouTube banner templates have been designed in such a way that the important stuff(text, logo, etc.) on the image are always visible regardless of the device they appear on.
6. Once you’re happy with how your banner appears on different devices, hit the “Select” button in the bottom left corner of the popup window to save the image as your YouTube channel’s banner.
Wondering how to change an existing banner on YouTube? Read on to learn how you could do that.
How to Change YouTube Channel Art
If you’d like to change your existing banner and use a different image instead, simply navigate to your YouTube channel and hover over your existing banner.
When you do this, you’d see a button(with a pencil icon on top of it) appear in the top right corner of the banner. Click on this button and select ‘Edit channel art’ from the dropdown menu.
You’ll then be taken to the same popup window that appeared when you clicked on the ‘Add channel art’ button in step 5. Pick the image of your choice and click on the ‘Select’ button to set the image as your YouTube channel’s banner.
How to Create a YouTube Banner with Picmaker
Trying to figure out how to make a banner for your YouTube channel?
If you’ve ever tried creating one, you know that most design tools out there are clunky and difficult to use. You need to spend hours learning the software and navigating through a maze of features you’ll never use.
If you’re looking to create an attention-grabbing banner on your own, Picmaker is what you need.
Picmaker is a free online design tool specifically built for creating YouTube graphics. This narrow focus combined with its drag-and-drop functionality helps Picmaker eliminate the learning curve you’ve come to expect from other graphic design tools.
The best part, Picmaker has a vast collection of professionally designed, easily customizable YouTube banner templates that you can use to create eye-catching YouTube banners in seconds.
To get you started, we’d be using a pre-made template as our foundation to create a YouTube banner in seconds.
However, if you’re looking to start with a blank canvas and design the banner from scratch, our article on how to create a stunning YouTube channel art has you covered.
First, sign up for a free Picmaker account (Picmaker is absolutely free).
In the next screen that appears, click on the “YOUTUBE CHANNEL ART” button to create your own YouTube banner.
Once you’re in the app’s dashboard, you’ll see that the ‘Prebuilt’ tab in the main menu is already open. The “Prebuilt” tab in the main menu has a wide collection of pre-made YouTube banner templates to get you going in seconds.
The pre-builts have been categorized to help you find the desired template fast. Choose a category by clicking on the ‘All Prebuilts’ dropdown and select a template that speaks to you.
The chosen template is entirely customizable, from its background, text, to the graphics and placement of design elements.
The image is automatically set to the ideal YouTube banner size: 2560 x 1440 pixels; or automatically set to the ideal size of a YouTube thumbnail, if you happen to be creating a YouTube thumbnail using Picmaker. But, if you wish to set custom dimensions, simply click on the gear icon in the top left corner of the dashboard.
Once you’re done customizing the template, click on the ‘Preview’ button in the top-right corner to get a preview of how the banner would look like on different devices.
Finally, click on the ‘Download’ button in the top-right corner to download the banner image onto your computer.
Free YouTube Banner Templates
Dread staring at a blank screen? Finding it hard to create a professional-looking YouTube banner image from scratch?
Want pre-made YouTube banner templates that will earn you more attention?
Gain access to over 150+ professionally designed, easily customizable YouTube banner templates by signing up to Picmaker today!
All the templates have been set to the ideal YouTube banner size and carefully crafted by our team of in-house designers.
How to Make a Perfect YouTube Channel: An Expert Guide
So you’ve finally decided to start a YouTube channel for your business or personal brand!
Smart choice! YouTube as a video sharing platform has over 1.57 billion active monthly users.
Obviously, your videos won’t be seen by all those users.
That being said, even if your videos are exposed to only a tiny fraction of that user base, it can provide enormous visibility to your business that no other social channel can!
But before you get started with YouTube Marketing, it is really important that your YouTube channel is “cooked to perfection” as it can make or break your audience’s experience when they visit your channel.
In this simple quick-start guide, you’ll be seeing:
- How to make a YouTube Channel
- How to customize your YouTube Channel
- How to upload your first YouTube video and optimize it for search
How to make a YouTube Channel
Google has made recent changes to simplify the channel creation process. Follow these steps to set up your YouTube channel is less than a minute.
Sign in to YouTube
Signing into your Google account will also sign you into all its related services. So quickly sign in to Google and head over to YouTube. This way you’ll automatically be signed into YouTube.
If you don’t have a Google account, you can create one using this link.
Go to the settings tab
In the top right corner of the screen, you’ll find your profile icon, click on it and then click on “Settings”.
Create your channel
In the ‘Your account’ section, click on ‘Create a new channel’
You’ll see a popup window with options to create a personal channel or create a channel with a business or other name.
If you straight away enter your first name, last name and click on the “CREATE CHANNEL” button, you’ll have your very own personal YouTube channel. Here, you can vlog about your daily life or post videos about your personal likings.
However, if you’re planning to create a channel to promote your business or personal brand, you should click on “Use a business or other name”.
Setting up a brand account lets you set up and manage a YouTube channel specifically for your business. Your brand account can even have multiple owners to manage your account.
Quickly enter your business name and click on ’Create’. That’s all, now you have successfully created a Youtube channel.
Next up you should verify your brand account by clicking this link. Verifying your account lets you upload videos more than 15 mins and adds more customization features.
How to customize your YouTube Channel
YouTube allows you to customize two key elements of your YouTube channel – About section and your channel art.
To get started, click on ‘CUSTOMIZE CHANNEL’ and select the ‘About’ tab.
Add a channel description
A channel description is an outline of what your channel is all about. It gives you an opportunity to show the readers why they should watch your videos and possibly convert them into subscribers.
A channel description appears in the about tab of your channel page and in YouTube’s search results. A good description tells the reader what the channel is about and how they would benefit from following you & consuming your content.
Also, including keywords in your channel’s description can help you rank higher in YouTube search.
To add the channel description, simply click on the button that says “Channel description” in the “Description” section.
Add your contact details & Location
This could come in handy for people who’re interested in your offerings and want to get in touch with your business. Add your email address and location so that you don’t miss out on these leads.
To add your email address, click on the button that says “Email” in the “Details” section
To add your location, click on the dropdown button right below the “Email” button in the “Details” section
Add links to your social channels
YouTube also allows you add links to other social channels. These links will display prominently as an overlay in the bottom right corner of your channel art.
To add social links to your channel, click on the button that says “Links” in the “Links” section
Add a channel art
YouTube channel art is similar to a Facebook cover photo. It appears on top of your YouTube channel and hence holds a lot of importance.
Creating a channel art can be initially tricky, but no worries, we’ve already put together a simple guide on how to create a stunning YouTube channel art.
Once you have created your channel art, simply upload it and adjust the crop to preview it for various sizes and click on select to finalize your channel art.
Add your channel icon
You can also add a channel icon to your YouTube channel homepage. If your channel is to promote your personal brand, upload an image of yourself. If it’s a business channel, you can upload your brand logo.
Since Animaker is a software product company, we have our logo as our youtube channel’s icon.
To change the channel icon, click on the edit icon, upload your brand logo, crop it to perfection and click on done to finalize your brand icon.
Now you have created a completely customized YouTube channel. One good example of a customized youtube channel is our own.
How to upload your first YouTube video and optimize it for search
Now it’s finally time to upload your first video in your YouTube channel. Similar to Google, YouTube search also works based on an algorithm, hence you have to optimize each and every video you upload to ensure that they get more visibility.
To upload a video, click on the camcorder sign on the top right section of your YouTube channel and select a video from your local disk to upload.
While your video is uploading, you can optimize it for search by filling out the following fields:
Title:
The title of your video is very important. It should be compelling enough to visitors to click on watch the video.
You can also do a keyword research and include it in your title. This way it will also show up in Google results.
Description:
You can add up to 1000 characters of description for your video. But only the first 100 characters will be displayed initially. So keep the important words within the first 100 characters.
If you’re giving out links to a website or landing page, provide it in the beginning of the description.
Add Tags:
Adding appropriate tags for your videos will inform YouTube what your video is about and can broaden your videos reach.
Choose Category:
You can also pick a category for your video in the advanced settings tab and group your video with similar content in YouTube.
Customize your video thumbnail
According to YouTube, 90% of top performing videos have a custom thumbnail. This proves that thumbnails can play a key role in increasing your video’s click-through rate.
You can create a custom thumbnail by using any thumbnail maker out there.
That’s it! You’ve officially not only created a YouTube business channel, but you also know how to optimize your youtube videos for more visibility.
How to Generate YouTube Channel Name Ideas: The Complete Guide
Choosing a name for your YouTube channel can be as hard as choosing a name for a newborn baby.
It’s the first decision you’ll make in your journey towards becoming a successful YouTuber. Even some of your favorite YouTubers would have had a tough time choosing a name for their own YouTube channels.
It is very important to give a catchy name to your YouTube channel because it will be tagged to all your videos, in your channel’s homepage and even in YouTube’s search results.
However, coming up with a cool name for your YouTube channel can be intimidating, as the stakes are very high. But to make things easier for you, we’ve put together this simple guide on how to name your YouTube channel.
We’ve covered:
- Tips to generate Youtube channel name ideas
- Top 3 YouTube channel name generators
1. Tips to generate Youtube channel name ideas
Decide your channel category
Firstly you should decide the category your YouTube channel will fit in. Usually, most YouTube channel names fall under these 4 categories:
- Name (Ex: GaryVee)
- Business/Brand (Ex: Animaker)
- Explanatory (Ex: 5-Minute Crafts)
- Categorical (Ex: The Food Ranger)
Choosing a personal YouTube channel name
Choosing your own name is the easiest approach and could really come in handy if you’re planning to be the face of your YouTube channel.
Check out Casey Neistat’s YouTube channel.
Casey is a “You only live once, make it count” kinda person. Over the years, he has been sharing his Vlogs on his YouTube channel and has a huge base of over 10.5 million subscribers.
Not just Casey, there are many other Internet Personalities and Entrepreneurs who have made it big in YouTube by naming their YouTube channel after their own name.
If you think you can follow in their footsteps, here are a few things that can come in handy:
#1. Make sure your name is unique
If there is someone with the same name as yours, look for ways to differentiate. For example, check out the examples below,
You see what I’m talking about?
#2. Go for a stage name
If your name is too hard to pronounce or it is too long, you can always consider an online name for yourself and your YouTube channel.
For example, PewDiePie’s real name is Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg. Today his channel has a fan base of over 75 Million subscribers.
#3. Use Concatenations
Using concatenations is a great way to stand out from other channels on YouTube. You can simply combine your name or initials with another term that best describes your channel and make it your channel name.
Check out Marques Brownlee. His channel name is a concatenation of MKB (Brownlee’s initials) and HD, as he uploads videos only in HD quality.
Choosing a business YouTube channel name
You haven’t got much choice here, your channel name should be the same as your business name. Else, your customers will have a tough time recognizing it.
However, here are a couple of points you should keep in mind:
#1. Beware of Social Media Availability
It is helpful to have your YouTube channel name match your other social account names. This way your address will be the same everywhere and make it easy for your customers to find you.
#2. Beware of Domain Name Availability
As your business channel continues to grow on YouTube, you’ll want to start building traction off of it. Having a matching YouTube Channel Name and domain name can help you with that.
2. The ultimate list of channel name generators to come up with YouTube channel name ideas.
Having read the above tips, if you still need some extra inspiration for your channel name you can always turn to the channel name generators for some quick ideas.
Here are a few tools you should check out:
Spinxo
Spinxo is the go to tool for YouTube channel name ideas. It instantly suggests you the name you’re looking for.
Just type in the Topic & Niche you’re focussing on and any related keywords, then click on spin. Spinxo instantly provides you with 30 unique channel names. Chances are you’ll immediately love one of the 30 suggestions, else you can click on spin again for more suggestions.
You can also alter the keywords for more alternate channel name ideas, note down few which you think are cool and catchy and finally decide on one.
Kparser
Kparser is not exactly a channel name generator, but if you’re looking for an SEO specific channel name, this tool can come in handy.
Just input the seed keywords related to the niche you’re targeting and hit start to generate SEO specific keywords. Then you can mix and match these keywords to come up with a channel name or input it into spinxo for more suggestions.
Name Generator
Name Generator is another simple tool you can look up to for inspiration on YouTube channel names. Just enter any word that you’d love to have in your channel name as prefix or suffix and click on generate for suggestions.
The only drawback with this tool is that it won’t display all suggestions at once. You have to keep on hitting the generate button for more channel name ideas.
Additional Resources:
NameChk: Use this to check for availability of your channel name as a domain name and user name on other social media channels.
Change your channel name: Tells you how to change your YouTube channel name if you already have a YouTube channel.
30+ Free YouTube Channel Art Templates [Customize and Download]
YouTube Channel Art is not something you can afford to overlook when creating a YouTube Channel.
It is the first thing your visitors will notice when they visit your YouTube channel. So it’s important to make a strong first impression.
Channel Art can be used to convey key information about your channel, including your tagline, upload schedule, your other social media accounts and so on.
You can create stunning YouTube banners within minutes these days. So, to make things easier for you, we have listed these easy-to-customize YouTube channel art templates across a wide range of categories.
All you gotta do is follow the four steps listed below,
Step1: Create a Free PicMaker Account
Step 2: Choose a template
Step 3: Edit and Customize
Step 4: Download & Upload to your YouTube channel.
YouTube Channel Art Templates
Add a splash of personality to your Youtube channel with a customized channel art template from PicMaker.
#1. Guitar Lessons YouTube Channel Art Template
#2. Travel YouTube Channel Art Template
#3. Arts & Crafts YouTube Channel Art Template
#4. Food Vlogger YouTube Channel Art Template
#5. Gaming YouTube Channel Art Template
#6. Guitar Cover YouTube Channel Art Template
#7. Music Band YouTube Channel Art Template
#8. Cooking Lessons YouTube Channel Art Template
#9. Car Reviews YouTube Channel Art Template
#10. Explorer / Adrenalin Junkie YouTube Channel Art Template
#11. Health & Wellness YouTube Channel Art Template
#12. Makeup Tutorial YouTube Channel Art Template
#13. Fashionista YouTube Channel Art Template
#14. Gardening YouTube Channel Art Template
#15. Personal Vlogger YouTube Channel Art Template
#16. Pet Dog Funny Videos YouTube Channel Art Template
#17. Men’s Fashion Tips YouTube Channel Art Template
#18. Photography Tips YouTube Channel Art Template
#19. DJ YouTube Channel Art Template
#20. Cooking Show YouTube Channel Art Template
#21. Travel Guide YouTube Channel Art Template
#22. Music Playlist YouTube Channel Art Template
#23. Classroom Management Tips YouTube Channel Art
#24. Digital Marketing YouTube Channel Art Template
#25. Beauty Tips YouTube Channel Art Template
#26. DIY Crafts YouTube Channel Art Template
#27. Real Estate Agent YouTube Channel Art Template
#28. Sports News YouTube Channel Art Template
#29. Parenting Tips YouTube Channel Art Template
#30. Vegetarian Recipe YouTube Channel Art Template
