“Think with Google” recently published an article that highlights the importance of captions for video marketing. With improved captions, marketers can make a greater impact on consumers and enhance SEO. Here we’ll explore the article and point out some key elements to keep in mind.
Here is an excerpt from the article:
Inside Google Marketing: Why We’re Rethinking How We Approach Video Captions
By Tony Lee, published by Think with Google, 2021.
“Watching videos online is an ingrained part of modern life, so it makes sense that brands would invest heavily in video marketing. But there’s an important aspect of video content that often gets overlooked: captions.
Many marketers think of captions simply as a nice-to-have, while others assume they can be autogenerated or taken care of by live captioning technology. As a result, video captions are often all over the place in terms of quality and clarity, if they’re even there at all.
That’s a mistake. Accurate and expressive captions help everyone — whether they be deaf or hard of hearing, in a quiet space without their earbuds, or watching a video in their second language — experience what you created in the way you intended.
That’s why, over the past year, we at Google have been rethinking how we approach captions for videos and films. Whether your video is a 15-second spot or a two-hour film, here are four things we’ve learned about captions that could help make your videos more impactful…
It’s just not possible to capture every level of detail in your video captions; there are only so many seconds and pixels to spare. To decide what information is most important, think through the creative goals of your video, and what you want people who are seeing and hearing it to understand.”
Using Video Captions in Video Content
The article spotlights video captions and how marketers aren’t using them as effectively as they could be. The author illustrates how to improve video captions so they’re more impactful for audiences. With demand for video content increasing (more than 50% of consumers want to see more video marketing content from the brands they’re interested in), marketing teams that develop video content and their associated captions will want to take note of a couple tips from Google.
First, the author of this piece highlights the necessity of ‘unpacking the content’ in order to create impactful captions. This may be another way of saying: give it a good summary, spelling out the critical points. Using context to create optimum captions may require marketers to go to the heart of the points they’re trying to convey. What’s the tone of the video? What do you want the audience to come away learning?
The article wraps up by advising video marketers to consider the platform they’re posting their videos to to help them create appropriate captions and reminds them to test. One thing that the author leaves out of the piece that we’d like to mention is that your captions can support your SEO initiatives. In a demonstrable way that can be measured, keyword-rich, relevant captions can boost your video rank.
If you’re interested in improving the overall quality of your video marketing content, Blue Interactive Agency can help. We provide a full line-up of digital marketing solutions for businesses of all sizes.
