BackFacebook to start automatically captioning video ads
The social media network's new feature will automatically put captions in video ads running in its news feed, with the sound switched off by default
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Capturing attention with captions. That’s Facebook’s latest strategy for its video ads. The company introduced automated captioning for sound-off videos, among other features, on Wednesday in a blog post. (Read here)
Automated captions will be available later this month for advertisers in the US and Canada.
According to Facebook’s own research, 80% of people react negatively when mobile video ads begin playing loudly in content feeds and blame the platform as well as the brand. On the other hand, the research found that 41% of videos are meaningless without sound. In a bid to reduce the negative noise without silencing the ads’ effectiveness, the social media network has come up with the idea of automatically putting captions in video ads running in its news feed, with the sound switched off by default.
Currently, brands can add captions to their videos on their own, but now Facebook is offering to do the work for them via a new tool. The new tool generates captions for video ads and delivers them to the advertiser within the ad creation tool to review, edit and save to their video ad. By including captions, advertisers can increase video view time by an average of 12%, according to Facebook’s research.
In another study Facebook did with Nielsen (read here), it found that up to 47% of the value in a video campaign was delivered in the first three seconds, while up to 74% was delivered in the first 10.
According to Matt Idema, vice-president of monetization product marketing: “Numerous studies and campaigns have made it clear that capturing people’s attention at the very beginning of a video is the most effective way to advertise in a mobile feed environment. Video advertisers that tailor their creative with visuals that get people to stop scrolling and watch will drive the best business results on Facebook."
That is why it is critical for advertisers to connect with their audience and capture attention under 10 seconds. If advertisers are able to do that, then the chances of the users watching the entire video are greater. And this is where captioning plays an important role as captions are a fast and effective way to tell the user what the video is all about.
Says Mark D’Arcy, chief creative officer, creative shop, Facebook: “Creatively, mobile video draws on the craft skills and experience we’ve developed as an industry building for film, TV and the traditional web and compresses them into a new form designed to immediately connect with an audience; we call this connection the 3-second audition. This audition often takes place without sound so it’s important we use typography, graphics and subtitles to communicate our story so it resonates anywhere, anytime."
Additionally, Facebook will introduce new reporting metrics that will help advertisers see the percentage of people who have viewed their videos.
The company has also announced a partnership with analytics company Moat to provide video ad analytics that will offer advertisers greater control over how they run and measure their ads on Facebook.
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