Here are some important stats for you to know:
80% of people who watch videos are more likely to watch it to completion if there are captions.
Facebook says video watch time increases by 12% with captioned video. And there are billions of Facebook users, so…
These are the top reasons people watch video with captions (according to Verizon):
- They’re in a public place
- They didn’t have headphones
- They were waiting in line somewhere
- They were multitasking
- They’re in the bathroom (I added this one)
Pair that up with the fact that you are also helping those who are hearing impaired to enjoy your videos and there’s zero reasons for you to NOT use captions on your video. No matter what, more people watch video when it has words on the screen and people are also encouraged to turn on the sound if the words and the story are compelling to create a more magical experience for themselves.
So, here are some super easy ways to add captions:
- Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok all have built-in captioning functions. They are auto-generated, all you have to do is enable them and proofread them before you hit publish.
- Use the Captions app. It’s a free app you can download to your phone. Just upload a vertical video one minute or less to the app and it will autogenerate the captions for you, and you can edit them and customize them. You can use these on TikTok, Reels, Facebook and on YouTube shorts.
- Use the text overlay on TikTok & Reels (You can do it once in TikTok, then strip the TikTok watermark off to post on Reels which I show you how to do here.)
- Custom create captions for your video yourself. Yes this takes a little longer, but captions are always worth it. Go into your video editing software, find a nice font, and type in the captions manually. You can dress them up with text boxes if you like. If it’s a long interview that you don’t want to transcribe yourself, you can always hire someone on Fiverr to do that, but, I do it all the time for myself. (Transcribing interviews also gives you a ton of other content like quotes for quote graphics and mini stories you can tell in different ways through other photos or shorter videos. I’m a big fan of making 10 pieces of content out of one.)
- Add captions to your video files in Google Drive (here’s how). In this one, you have to transcribe the video first, then upload the transcription.
Keep in mind that 75% of the people watching videos are on mobile devices so make sure the words are not too small, and you should be good to go!