21 inspiring YouTube intro ideas

Engage your viewers right from the start. Gather inspiration from these YouTube intro examples so you can create your own eye-catching intro.

1. Good Mythical Morning

Good Mythical Morning is a comedic talk show-esque YouTube series. The hosts, Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal, talk about a wide variety of topics — including which restaurant has the best queso, as they do in the video below. (They’re asking the important questions.)

They start the video off with a quick introduction to the video’s topic: “Which restaurant queso is liquid gold?”

Then, the video cuts to the channel’s quick 8-second introduction. The camera zooms through a diverse assortment of scenes that are kind of like the channel’s content: random, funny, leading right into the channel’s logo and then back to the hosts.

This is one of the only intros in this article that almost feels like the intro to a sitcom or TV series. The background music helps set the tone for a GMM video in the same way that the Friends or Office intro might.

This example showcases a great reason to use an intro: familiarity. Make your videos recognizable. Use the same music or sound effects so regular viewers are immediately set at ease: Ah, yes, a Good Mythical Morning video.

2. SciShow

SciShow is a science-focused YouTube series that shares new content twice a week. It covers topics like space lasers, parasites, black holes, and so much more. The show has even had a few spin-off channels, like SciShow Space, SciShow Psych, and SciShow Kids.

But what I love is its 3-second animated intro. Animation can be a great medium for a YouTube video intro. It sets itself apart from the main video content (unless, of course, animation is your full medium — in which an animated intro is just a no-brainer) and creates a nice starting point for the meat of your content.

The video below, about whether or not polar bears have fiber optic fur, starts off with a snippet about a sponsor before the host introduces the topic at hand. Once that video-specific introduction is complete, we see the channel intro kicking off the rest of the video.

This animated intro uses the show’s branded green color in a couple of science-related objects before showing the logo. It’s simple but effective, and helps set the stage for the rest of the content.

3. Proko

Proko is a channel that teaches viewers how to draw. There are a ton of different videos for artists of all levels, from beginner to advanced.

This example video covers how simple shapes can improve a drawing. The video starts out with a humorous introduction from the host before going into a simple but effective channel intro.

The intro features animated typography spelling out the channel’s name — which is also the channel’s logo. The video then dives right into its main content.

4. ScreenCrush

ScreenCrush is a YouTube channel that talks about movies and TV shows, sharing Easter eggs, plot holes, movie explanations, and more.

It has a very short introduction that appears right after a scene from whatever movie or TV show is being talked about on that episode. 

Like I said, it’s extremely short — but just as nostalgia-inducing. By using an old-school video storefront in the intro, viewers are taken back to the old Blockbuster days. Plus, it fits well with the general niche the channel fits into.

5. Morgan Venn

Morgan Venn is a health, wellness, and travel blogger/vlogger. She’s active on YouTube as well as social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok. On top of a number of other videos and video topics, Morgan creates a weekly vlog.

Her vlog, which you can see a couple of examples of below, always starts off with a short introduction — though this YouTube intro is a bit different from the ones we’ve seen so far.

That’s because Morgan hasn’t created a YouTube channel intro — instead, she customizes her introduction on a video by video basis. Take a look at this one first, covering her trip to Italy.

Then look at this intro from a general weekly vlog.

They’re similar, right? Both include some sort of lo-fi background music and a montage of clips from the video, alongside some explanatory on-screen text. This does a great job of introducing the content you’re going to see in each specific video.

6. shin

The intros on shin’s videos have a vibe very similar to Morgan Venn’s. Again, it doesn’t use a channel-wide intro.

Instead, as you can see in this example, every video starts with soft music, a video recorder overlay, and some clips showcasing what to expect in the rest of the video.

If you don’t want to create an intro clip that you add into the beginning of every video, this is a good YouTube intro option. It still provides some sort of opening to the video rather than jumping right in, without being repetitive.

7. Jean Watts

Jean Watts is a beauty creator, with videos showcasing hair tutorials, “get ready with me” content, quick makeup tips, and other helpful content.

She always starts her videos out with her own introduction, talking to the viewer about what they’re going to see. But then, there’s a great YouTube intro with upbeat music, shots from previous videos, and text on the screen to let viewers know what types of content she creates. This intro does a great job of grabbing viewers’ attention.

What I love most about it is the “Subscribe” CTA at the tail end of the introduction. While you absolutely want to end all of your videos by asking viewers to subscribe for more, I love that she’s also placed this CTA at the very beginning.

8. Marques Brownlee

Marques Brownlee, or MKBHD, has a quick intro he places right at the front of his tech review videos. The intro includes basic animations with his channel name in a bold font in the middle of the screen.

Check it out in this video below.

But sometimes he switches it up. Here, we have a more product-focused intro to draw attention to the product he’s reviewing. The music is upbeat, it’s tech inspired (perfect for Marques’s brand identity), and we get a cool pan to the “M” key on the laptop’s keyboard, which morphs into an “M2” to let us know we’re about to watch a video about the M2 Macbook Air.

Just because you’ve put together an intro you love doesn’t mean you have to stick with it every time. You can always update your intro down the road, create a few intro templates to switch between, or create random one-off intros depending on your video content.

9. Dead Meat

Dead Meat is a horror-themed channel famous for its “kill count” videos, counting and highlighting all of the kills in well-known horror films.

But I love its very on-brand introduction right at the beginning of its videos — the red color and bones really let viewers know what they’re getting themselves into.

10. Try Guys

The Try Guys are a famous trio who used to work for BuzzFeed before going solo with their venture to try … pretty much everything. From trying the entire menu at fast food restaurants to going on Broadway to cooking various (typically complex) foods without a recipe, the Try Guys have built a loyal fanbase.

They’ve also recently gone through a rebrand, and they’re sporting a new neon-themed intro. It typically starts a good 30 to 60 seconds in after a series of teaser clips from the meat of the video.

11. CinemaSins

CinemaSins is a YouTube channel that focuses on mistakes made in popular movies. This channel has a standard intro that they customize to fit what they’re covering in that episode.

Take a look below. We see the channel name, then the video title on the next screen.

This is a great way to make a customizable intro video template: Leave enough room on one of the screens to adjust it based on what you’re covering in each video.

12. Michelle Khare

Michelle Khare is a bit of a daredevil, with each of her videos covering a different “challenge” or something crazy she’s attempting.

This video showcases her enrolling in a very serious butler academy. The intro includes clips from the video with some anticipatory music before transitioning to a neon light with her logo/“challenge accepted” catchphrase.

Read more: YouTube transitions that will level up your video

13. Yoga With Adriene

Yoga With Adriene is a channel focused on yoga routines. Host Adriene also regularly does livestreams to lead yoga classes with her audience.

In nearly every video, Adriene starts with a quick intro, ending with, “So hop into something comfy and let’s get started” before her intro video begins. This gives her audience a chance to get fully ready before diving into the exercise.

However, she also starts each year with a new 30-day series that has its own special intro clip. This helps each series to stand out on its own.

14. Hot Ones by First We Feast

First We Feast is a food-centric online publication and YouTube channel. Its series “Hot Ones” features celebrities eating hot wings with varying levels of spice.

With this series, we get a teaser video clip from the main video content (usually a pretty funny one to snag that sweet audience retention), before we see the introduction. This introduction is just a simple animation of the channel logo — like some others we’ve seen in this article — but it’s effective because it helps set the stage for the rest of the video while also building brand strength.

15. ThatDudeCanCook

ThatDudeCanCook is a channel focusing on recipes and other food-related content. By way of an intro, host Sonny Hurrell uses the same music byte right after he introduces his recipe to share some cooking clips before he dives into the full video.

This is a great way to get your audience familiar with a theme song related to your content. You might not necessarily want a video intro, but using the same music can help viewers relate it to your brand and your content.

16. Lord of the Board

Lord of the Board is a channel that covers a variety of board games and their game play. In each video, the host records himself introducing the video’s topic before transitioning to an animated video clip of the channel’s logo.

17. Honest Trailers by Screen Junkies

Screen Junkies is another movie-themed YouTube channel. It has a series called “Honest Trailers,” where it uses video clips from a film with a random voiceover, creating satirical videos about what the trailers should actually say.

What I like about this intro is that it creates some social proof. The beginning of each video runs screenshots of requests for that video’s trailer, showing that the channel has a lot of viewers who engage with its content and want to see more.

Then, once those screenshots are done, it transitions to the series logo before diving into the actual video content.

18. The Carolina Lifestyle

The Carolina Lifestyle is a YouTube channel run by a lifestyle blogger and holistic health coach named Carolina Salazar. Here, we have another example of an introduction that’s customized to each video. The host’s videos all use the same music and overall template — the video clips hit at the same cadence.

But Carolina switches out the video clips and on-screen text for each video to give viewers a clear idea of what they’ll be seeing.

19. CrashCourse

CrashCourse is an educational video channel with a number of different series, each focused on different, related topics.

And while this channel creates similar animated video intros, each one is tailored to the specific type of series it’s introducing.

For example, take a look at this video from the CrashCourse Botany series. The video host speaks for a minute or so before diving into a plant-themed animated intro.

And here, in this video from another series, we have a similar experience, but then transition to a biology-themed animated intro.

20. Blippi

Blippi is a YouTube channel that creates kid-friendly content. This is one of the best YouTube intros on our list because he has created an original jingle to go at the beginning of every video. Check it out in this video below.

This helps make Blippi’s content extremely recognizable — something that’s important for the young kids his content is aimed at.

21. StudioBinder

And last, we have this really basic but effective intro from StudioBinder. It’s a simple animation of the channel logo appearing atop the video’s beginning footage. Then it disappears, and the viewer can immediately dive into the video content.

This one is effective because it creates a starting point and brands the video without being too intrusive. There’s no one right way to create a YouTube intro, but this example shows another way to keep your intro simple but effective. 

Create your own inspiring YouTube intro

Time to create your own YouTube intro video! Now that you’ve seen how 21 different channels are handling theirs, get into the video editing studio and see what you can come up with. Add it to the beginning of each video to help brand your channel.