Facebook Announces Auto Captioning + Other Video Updates

The faster an advertiser communicates their message and captures a viewers' attention in a video ad, the better, said Facebook

“That's why today, we're introducing new features for video ads on Facebook, including automated captioning for sound-off videos and other video updates,” Facebook said in an email to Nigeria CommunicationsWeek.

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.

Facebook reveled its research finding that when feed-based mobile video ads play loudly when people aren't expecting it, 80% react negatively, both toward the platform and the advertiser.

By including captions, advertisers can increase video view time by an average of 12%.

The platform will also be adding more reporting and buying options for video ads:

New Metrics: advertisers are now able to see the percentage of people who have viewed their videos with sound in Page Insights and will soon be able to see this metric in Ads Insights too.

Moat Integration/In-View Buying: These two products that we announced last fall are now fully available globally.

With the Internet in people’s palms, pockets and purses, many people around the world now have constant access to information.

This growing mobile-feed environment is changing the way people view and absorb information.

Recent research shows that people consume content on Facebook faster on mobile than on desktop and mobile is powerful, accounting for 50% of all online purchases during Black Friday weekend in 2015.

People now watch over 100 million hours of video on Facebook each day,2 and each moment counts for advertisers. According to independent Fors-Marsh tests, people can recall mobile News Feed content after seeing it for only a quarter of a second.

“The value of your video ad—whether you’re measuring ad recall, brand awareness, or sales—happens quickly and increases with duration. Facebook found with Nielsen that up to 47% of the value in a video campaign was delivered in the first three seconds, while up to 74% of the value was delivered in the first ten.

“With people’s growing control over what content they watch and for how long, the faster you communicate your message in a video ad and capture viewers’ attention, the better. That’s why today we’re introducing new features for video ads and sharing tips and examples of successful video ad campaigns”.

Automated Captions For Video Ads On Facebook

In mobile-feed environments, people prefer having the choice to opt in to sound. Our research found that when feed-based mobile video ads play loudly when people aren’t expecting it, 80% react negatively, both toward the platform and the advertiser.