If you want to rank a video in Google SERPs, get the Yoast video plugin (paid plugin) then the only thing you need is backlinks to the video page (nothing else).

Self hosted videos attach to your own web page, so If you already have your own web page ranked then you simply add the video & you should see the video thumbnail show up in Google SERPs within 1-5 days.

I've only been able to get internal pages to show the self hosted video thumbnail images in Google SERPs (very consistent results).

I haven't been able to get an index page to show the video thumbnail image in Google SERPs, Google must have a filter blocking index pages from showing the video thumbnail images.

I dont prefer backlinks for youtube videos.. "Embeds are for videos as backlinks are for webpages".
Videos are meant to be embedded. I usually use my custom created bot to embed videos in thousands of domains to rank it easily on google. I had done it for very high competition keywords.
Follow that path.

Your keywords should be relevent and your video niche should have low conpetition. If not use backlink services to rank better

Ranking videos are getting difficult comparing to before. I mean, Google takes time to rank a new video above the one which is ranking. (even though it has less backlinks)

However, I agree with @bobbyjakks and I myself got good result following same.

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I've said it a million times and I'll say it again

High retention views + backlinks (AT THE SAME TIME)

and now...

After penguin, watch that anchor text