Facebook announces auto captioning, video updates for ads

Social media giant Facebook on Wednesday introduced new features for video ads on its website, including automated captioning for sound-off videos and other updates to help advertisers better use its platform.

"Creatively, mobile video draws on the craft skills and experience we have 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," Mark D'Arcy, chief creative officer, creative shop of Facebook, said in a statement.

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.

The other updates include reporting and buying options for video ads.

Advertisers will now be able to see the percentage of people who have viewed their videos with sound globally.

In a research, Facebook found that when feed-based mobile video ads play loudly when people aren't expecting it, 80 percent react negatively towards the platform and the advertiser.

By including captions, advertisers can increase video view time by an average of 12 percent, the findings showed.

"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," Matt Idema, vice president, monetization product marketing at Facebook, said.

"Video advertisers that tailor their creative with visuals that get people to stop scrolling and watch will drive the best business results on Facebook," Idema added.