Most people watch video on their phone with the sound off. If your video has no captions, a big chunk of viewers will not understand what it is about and will scroll past before you reach the point. In this article we show you when captions help, how to make them look good instead of cheap, and the mistakes companies make most often.
In this article
Key takeaways
- According to a 2016 Digiday report, as much as 85 percent of Facebook video is watched without sound. Captions are not an add-on, they are the baseline.
- A 2019 Verizon Media and Publicis Media study of 5,616 people found that 80 percent of viewers are more likely to finish a video when it has captions.
- 80 percent of people who use captions have no hearing impairment. Caption for everyone, not only for accessibility.
- Readability is everything: large type, high contrast, one or two lines at a time, and a safe zone above the app controls.
- Captions are not always worth it. On an emotional brand film built on music they can distract.
Why do people watch videos without sound?
Because most scrolling happens where sound simply is not an option. Someone in a waiting room, on a bus, in a meeting, or next to a sleeping child in the evening. The 2019 Verizon Media and Publicis Media study found that 69 percent of people watch video with the sound off in public. It is not laziness, it is the normal context your video lives in.
That means one uncomfortable thing: the first three seconds have to work in complete silence. If a viewer cannot tell what the video is about in that time, the thumb moves on. Captions are the cheapest way to tell them without asking them to turn anything on. For more on squeezing content for every platform out of a single shoot, see our guide to social media video formats.
What captions actually raise viewership?
The ones that can be read effortlessly on a small screen. The difference between captions that help and captions that look cheap is not the words, it is the craft. Here is the concrete checklist we use in the edit:
- Type size: too big beats too small. On vertical video the text should fill a fair share of the width so it reads at arm's length.
- Contrast: white type with a subtle dark outline or a semi transparent bar works on any background. Yellow type on a bright shot is unreadable.
- Rhythm: one or two short lines at a time, never a full paragraph. The text should change with the pace of speech, not hang for seconds.
- Safe zone: do not push captions all the way down. The bottom 15 percent of the screen is covered by the caption and controls on Instagram and TikTok.
- Font: one legible sans serif, ideally from your brand guidelines. No decorative fonts and no four colours at once.
Here is a short walkthrough on how to add captions to a video:
How do you add captions to a video step by step?
The easiest path is to let a tool do the transcript, then fix it by hand. Automatic captions save you hours, but without a check they always break something, usually names, numbers and accents. A process even a non technical person can handle:
- 1. Generate the transcript. CapCut, Submagic or YouTube Studio turn speech into text in minutes.
- 2. Read it word by word. Fix typos, brand names and punctuation. This is the step most people skip and it shows immediately.
- 3. Set the style. Font, size, colour and position from the checklist above. Save it as a template so you do not redo it every time.
- 4. Burn in or export a file. For social, burn captions straight into the frame. For YouTube, upload a separate SRT file so viewers can switch them off and Google can index the video.
If you do not have the time, or you want it to match your brand, we handle it as part of our video production and post production. Good captions are a detail, but details are exactly where you can tell whether a professional made the video.
When are captions not worth it?
Captions are not always the right call and it would be unfair to pretend otherwise. On a purely emotional brand film that lives on music and mood, text over the image can distract and pull attention away from the visual. The same goes for cinematic shots where the picture, not the word, is the whole point.
The second case is video that plays where the sound is on: a stage presentation, a showroom loop, a cinema spot. There captions often just take up space. So we always ask where exactly the video will live and decide from there. Anyone who claims captions belong on every single video is oversimplifying. Context decides, not a rule. When you write your video brief, it is worth saying up front where and how it will play.
International data backs this up too. The Forbes coverage of the Verizon study is a good summary of the sound off viewing habit.
Frequently asked questions
Are automatic captions from CapCut or YouTube enough?
As a starting point yes, but never without a check. Automatic transcription handles normal speech reasonably well, but it reliably breaks names, brands, numbers and accents. Always read the text and fix it, otherwise it looks sloppy to the viewer.
Should captions be burned in or a separate file?
For social platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Facebook, burn captions straight into the video, because most people play it muted with no option to switch captions on. For YouTube, upload a separate SRT file instead: viewers can turn it off and Google uses it to rank the video better in search.
Where on the screen should captions go?
In the middle to lower third, but not right at the bottom edge. The bottom 15 percent of the screen is covered by the caption and app controls on mobile, so lift the text up so nothing hides it.
Do captions improve video SEO?
Yes, especially on YouTube. When you upload a text transcript or SRT file, search engines have something to read and match your video to viewer questions. Burned in text does not give this effect, so on YouTube it is worth adding a separate file too.
If you want your videos to work on mute and still look professional, get in touch through our contact page. We are happy to look at what you are shooting and tell you honestly where captions help and where they would only get in the way.
