When you add captions to Facebook video, you don’t just make your content more accessible. You also improve your odds of snagging the attention of viewers who are scrolling with the sound off. The Meta universe is increasingly video-forward, with Reels, Facebook Video, and Messenger all linked together, your video can go farther than ever. Make sure people fully engage with it by adding captions.
Before we show you how to add or edit captions, let’s take closer look at why you need them.
The Facts of Facebook Video
According to Meta’s 2024 fourth quarter and full year results, the social media giant has 3.35 billion daily active users across its properties, including Facebook. Video is an essential tool on any social media platform, but both Facebook and Instagram have embraced a video-first approach over the last decade.
So more people are watching Facebook videos. But that doesn’t mean they’re hearing your compelling voiceover or your stirring musical score. It turns out that about 75% of people watch videos without sound. Maybe they’re in a public place, or maybe they just don’t feel like being bombarded by changing music with every scroll.
But here’s the really interesting part, even if the sound is on, viewers may retain more if captions are enabled. Delivering information in multiple formats (e.g. visual and auditory) can help people better understand and recall the message of your video. So if you’re looking to increase views and improve brand recall, adding captions may be your best bet.
Adding Facebook Video Captions
There are two ways you can add captions to Facebook videos. The automatic way is quick and simple, but may not always deliver the best results. The manual method is a little more technical, but it gives you more control over the process. Consider both to decide which one is right for your Facebook Page.
Automatically Add Captions To A Facebook Video
You used to be able to add captions by editing a Facebook post directly. That functionality seems to have disappeared. Now you need to use Meta Business Manager to edit videos, which adds a few steps to the process. (To add captions while uploading a video, jump down to the section on Adding Captions to A Video During Uploading)
Here’s how to use Facebook’s automatic captioning tool:
1. Go to your Facebook page and select Videos from the tabs at the top
2. Click the Visit Meta Business Suite Button
3. Select Content from the menu bar on the left
4. Filter the results to show only your Video content
5. Click the video you want to caption
6. Click the 3-dot menu on the top left and select Edit Post
7. Click to the Optimize tab and check the box that says “captions” – a green tag should show up indicating that captions are “auto-generated”
Review and Edit Auto-Generated Captions
Remember, that autogenerated captions are not made by humans. Since computers don’t really understand context, odd errors can creep in. Be sure to review for accuracy before you save. Here’s how to do that:
Review Auto-Generated Captions:
1. From the Optimize tab in the post editor in Meta Business Suite, select Settings
2. Click the Review button
3. Read through the captions and edit as needed
4. Click Save
If you click on the blue time signatures, you’ll see a preview of that frame in the preview window. Click Adjust Time if you need to change when the caption appears on the screen. Don’t forget to click Save, when you’re done.
Manually Add Captions To A Facebook Video
If you don’t want to automatically generate captions, you can manually add captions by creating a SubRip (.srt) file. If you’re not sure what that is, your video creation partner might be able to help. You can also find an example below.
A SubRip file is created by software that parses video content and converts extracted subtitle and timecode information into .srt text file. We provide this service for our clients, but if you’re working with a video creator that doesn’t, you’ll need help from a service like Rev.com.
Here’s how to manually add captions to a Facebook Video:
1. Go to your Facebook page and select Videos from the tabs at the top
2. Click the Visit Meta Business Suite Button
3. Select Content from the menu bar on the left
4. Filter the results to show only your Video content
5. Select the video you want to caption
6. Click the 3-dot menu on the top left and select Edit Post
7. Click to the Optimize tab
8. Select Settings inside the gray box labeled Captions
9. Press the Upload button and select the .srt file from your computer*
*Note: if you’ve already set the video to auto-generate captions, you’ll need to delete the old caption file before you can upload your new one.
If you have any issues with the upload, verify that your .srt file meets Facebook formatting standards and file naming conventions.
Adding Captions To A Video During Uploading
So far, we’ve talked about how to add captions to videos you’ve already uploaded, but you can also add captions during the upload process. You must do this from Meta Business Suite, not from your Facebook page. Here’s how:
1. Go to Meta Business Suite
2. Press the Create reel button near the top of the page
3. Select Add Video
4. Find the video you want and upload it
5. After the video has uploaded, skip to the Share tab
6. Find the Closed Captions section about halfway down the page
7. Check the box next to Closed Captions OR select settings and upload a .srt file
8. Click Share to post your video
Facebook Video Captioning Tips
If you need to make any edits or changes to your captions, you can open the .srt file in any text editor program or make changes directly on the Facebook caption screen. When editing captions, consider the following:
- Are your captions in sync with the visuals? You may not need to have captions throughout every second of the video. Make sure the captions start and stop at the right moments by aligning your timecodes.
- Are your captions the right length? Short, digestible segments create the best user experience. Make sure you’re breaking captions up into phrases that are clear and easy for viewers to follow.
- Keep it simple: Keep your captions easy to read by omitting unnecessary punctuation or flashy formatting.
Should You Burn In Your Captions?
Facebook allows users to customize whether to see captions on videos they’re watching. When Always Show Captions is turned on, captions automatically appear wherever they’re available.
If a user has the “always show captions” option turned off, they might not see the captions you add to your videos. To get around this problem, you could choose to burn in your captions. This might sound like a good idea, but we recommend against it. Burned-in captions don’t react dynamically to the mouse like Facebook captions do. They also only display in one language. Not to mention, users prefer when you respect their preferences.
You can check your own settings by going to the dropdown arrow in the top right corner of your Facebook feed. Then click Settings & Privacy, then Settings again. In the search box, type Media. Then select Media from the list of results. From here, you can customize how you view captions in your feed. Note that this won’t affect what your end-user sees. You’re only adjusting your personal Facebook settings.
Captioning In Other Languages
Speaking of captions in multiple languages, adding translated captions can be helpful if you want to connect with an international audience or reach a specific population.
Video captions on Facebook will automatically play in a user’s preferred language if they are available. To provide captions in multiple languages for your Facebook video, you’ll need an .srt file translated for each language. You can then follow the same steps as above to upload these files. Facebook will take care of serving the right captions to each viewer based on their settings.
Benefits of Facebook Video Captions
Captioning your Facebook videos will help make your content more accessible, improve your video metrics, and help expand your social media reach. It helps to work with a video creation firm that provides everything you need to caption your videos.
Contact the video experts at IdeaRocket to get started on a caption-ready video that will launch your message into orbit. We make 2d animation, 3d animation, whiteboard, motion graphics, mixed media animation and even live action videos ideal for Facebook, Instagram, your website and beyond. Reach out to get started.
