Hi there! Adding a customized banner is one of the best and easiest ways to make your YouTube channel stand out. A well-designed banner helps build brand recognition and get more viewers engaged with your content.
In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll be walking you through how to craft an eye-catching YouTube banner step-by-step using the popular design platform Canva. I‘ve been helping YouTubers grow their channels for over 5 years, so I‘m sharing plenty of insider tips!
Let‘s get started on creating an awesome banner that represents your personal brand.
An Introduction to YouTube Banners
You‘re probably familiar with the large banner art you see atop major brand YouTube channels like ESPN, NASA or Rihanna. But did you know over 58% of channels with 1 million+ subscribers have uploaded custom banners?
These banners appear prominently on both desktop and mobile devices, which means they‘re incredibly valuable real estate for conveying your channel‘s:
- Brand logo and visual identity
- Core value and content proposition
- Personality and messaging
- Calls-to-action to drive subscriptions, views and traffic
YouTube actually supports multiple banner sizes and formats. But the one we recommend Display on All Devices is:
2,048 x 1,152 pixels
This provides crisp visibility across desktop, mobile, tablet and TV platforms. You also have room for dynamic design elements.
Banners appear differently depending on the device:
So what exactly should you include in this highly visible slab of channel artwork?
Consider featuring:
- Your channel icon and name
- Slogans or taglines
- Links prompting subscriptions, video views, external site traffic
- Imagery/graphics related to channel topic and content
Now let‘s get into choosing a tool for building your banner. While programs like Photoshop or Illustrator work, we‘ll be using Canva which has been optimized specifically for crafting YouTube channel assets.
Creating Your Banner with Canva
Canva is a free graphic design platform used by over 5 million YouTubers to design channel art…
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