Create More Engagement by Captioning Every Video You Post
Video is huge – it will make up more than 82% of Internet traffic this year, according to a forecast study done by CISCO. Instagram, one of the largest used social media platforms, announced last year that it is no longer a “Photo Sharing App”, and has since shifted focus to video and entertainment. Businesses are able to organically increase followers exponentially by sharing video content suited to Instagram’s algorithm.
There’s no doubt that internet users are watching videos, however, many of them aren’t listening to videos. According to LittleThings, a feel-good site that averages 150 million monthly Facebook video views, 85% of videos on Facebook are being watched on mute.
In a literal sense, this means that the message in your video is going unheard. But it doesn’t have to mean the message isn’t being received. Adding subtitles will allow viewers to continue watching your video on mute while still receiving your message. And, statistics show that captioned videos perform better than videos without captions.
Captioned Videos Increase View Time
Having captions makes your video more accessible, especially when it’s not possible for viewers to have sound on, and surveys show that captions allow for viewers to stay watching longer. In 2020, Instapage ran an experiment testing the outcomes of the same video with and without captions. Metrics for the video with captions all surpassed the uncaptioned video in the realms of its reach, shares, and view time. A survey conducted by Publicis & Cisco in 2019 found that 1 in 3 of survey participants have captions on when viewing videos in a public setting, with more than 50% of viewers not only wanting, but expecting there to be captions for online video.
Adding Captions to Videos on Your Website Will Increase SEO and Video Views
Your company’s website can increase its SEO and search rank just by including videos with captions. Captions are transcripts of what the video is saying, and these transcripts can be paginated with specific keywords to optimize SEO.
With more than 50% of viewers expecting captions for online videos, it’s almost a given that views increase for videos with captions. A study by Discovery Digital Networks found that compared to videos without captions, captioned YouTube videos have an average of 13.48% more views in 2 weeks after being uploaded, and 7.32% in the lifetime of the video.
Video View Time Equals Higher ROI
Companies use video for a variety of reasons, a few of them being to build brand awareness, increase recruitment, and keep customers informed. A single video can serve multiple purposes, but it needs to be seen and understood by the right audience. Studies show that nearly 90% of video marketers are satisfied with the ROI of their video marketing efforts, proving that video works. Video is an investment, and it’s very important to create and share a video that will suit the targeted audience to make that investment worth it. Wouldn’t you do all you could to ensure that your message is heard by your key audience? Adding captions is easy, and the payoff is worth the extra work.
We’d love to help you create a video worth captioning. Reach out for a free, no pressure meeting to learn how video can help your company reach its goals!
