Using 3Play Media’s captioning and transcription services, Discovery Digital Networks* conducted a controlled study on the effects of adding closed captions to YouTube videos. In doing so, they were able to quantify the value of captioning video content.
What did they find? Let’s dive in.
Based on the results of this study, Discovery Digital Networks rolled out captioning for the rest of their video content. They were pleased with the demonstrated increase in views, and believed that the projected gains would be profitable for their channels.
Discovery Digital Networks’ study shows that adding closed captions to YouTube videos can have a dramatic immediate impact on views, and by extension, ad revenue.
Discovery Digital Networks found an overall increase of 7.32% in views for captioned videos, a statistic that they were very pleased with. This finding suggests that videos with captions help to improve overall viewership.
Discovery Digital Networks found that the greatest gains in views were seen during the first 14 days after adding captions, with a 13.48% increase. They established no significant impact on shares and other engagement metrics.
Discovery Digital Networks wanted to be certain that the closed caption files were being indexed by YouTube’s search engine. To test this, they searched for a phrase that appeared in the transcript of the video, but not in the video title, description, or tags.
The captioned video ranked 4th on YouTube for the query, showing that YouTube does in fact index closed captions and factors them into search rank.
How many views does it take to make back what you spend on captioning your YouTube videos? Let’s break it down:
With a 5-minute video, it would take 17,000-170,000 lifetime views to make back the money you spent on captioning, depending on your CPM earnings.
Hypothetically, a channel with around 130 million views, like DNews, could expect to gain approximately 10 million views as a result of captioning (assuming the documented 7.32% increase).
The cost of captioning all of the content on DNews (about 1100 videos, each around 3 minutes long) would be approximately $8,250.
Assuming $1-$10 CPM, the 10 million expected views attributable to captioning would equate to earnings anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000.
In this case, the cost of captioning would be paid back and more: it could even provide over 10x return on investment.
(Keep in mind that this estimate is based only on views, and many other factors play into video monetization, including co-publishing videos on YouTube and your own website, engagement metrics, advertising, and implementing YouTube SEO best practices.)
Through working with 3Play Media, Discovery Digital Networks transcribed 125 of 334 videos. The transcribed videos were published across 8 of their channels, including DNews, What’s the Big Deal?, and Tekzilla.
Data was collected corresponding to the date that captions were turned on for each individual video and was analyzed on a day-by-day basis. This process normalized the difference in views between recently published videos and videos that were published prior to being captioned; it also normalized the effects of viral videos on the data.
Discovery Digital Networks controlled the experiment by measuring the data obtained from the 125 transcribed videos against the remaining 209 uncaptioned videos.
*Update: Discovery Digital Networks was sold by Discovery Communications into Group Nine Media in December 2016 and, as such, no longer exists.
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