Captions
Captions are on-screen text overlays that display spoken dialogue or narration, essential for sound-off viewing on social platforms.
Captions (subtitles burned into the video) ensure your message lands whether or not the viewer has sound on. On Meta feeds, up to 85% of video is initially viewed with sound off; on TikTok it's lower but still significant.
Beyond accessibility, captions serve as a second visual hook — animated text that highlights key words draws the eye and reinforces the audio message. Many top-performing ads use large, high-contrast captions as a design element, not just a transcript.
Auto-captioning tools (CapCut, Descript, Opus Clip) have made caption creation nearly free. The key design choices are font, size, position (center or lower third), color, and whether to highlight one word at a time for emphasis.
Related terms
Voiceover
A voiceover is narration recorded separately and layered over video footage, commonly used in ads to deliver the script while b-roll plays.
Hook
A hook is the opening 1–3 seconds of a video ad, designed to stop the scroll and compel the viewer to keep watching.
UGC
UGC is content created by real customers or creators rather than the brand itself, often used in ads because it feels authentic and native to social feeds.
Native Ad
A native ad is an advertisement designed to match the look, feel and function of the platform it appears on, reducing ad resistance.