Caption

In video marketing, captions are the text displayed on screen during a video. They serve two purposes: making the video accessible to viewers with hearing disabilities, and conveying information to the majority of social video viewers who watch on mute.

On TikTok, Reels, Shorts, and LinkedIn, the majority of video is consumed without sound. Captions are not optional — they are the primary way information is communicated in social video.

Effective captions for launch videos use short bursts (3–5 words at a time), high-contrast styling (white text with a dark outline or background), and position key information in the center of the frame where it is readable on mobile.

Tools that automatically generate captions from audio: YouTube (built-in auto-captions), Submagic, CapCut (auto-caption feature), and Adobe Premiere (transcription feature).

In a broader sense, "caption" also refers to the text description of a post on Instagram or other social platforms. Launch captions should stand alone — someone reading the caption without watching the video should understand the core value proposition.