How to Add Captions to Facebook and Instagram Video Ads

Captions let your video ad make sense without sound, and they make spoken words accessible. Meta gives you two ways to add them inside Ads Manager: bring your own subtitle file, or let Meta transcribe the audio and then correct its draft. Both happen in the video editor while you build the ad, and both save the captions onto the video rather than onto one ad.

How do you upload your own caption file?

1. Start creating your video ad and upload or create the video in the ad creative section.
2. When the video has loaded, click Edit video.
3. Click Captions.
4. In the Video captions section, click Upload captions.
5. Click Select file, choose your .srt file and click Save.
6. Finish editing the video and complete the ad.

How must the SRT file be named?

Meta requires the format filename.[language code]_[country code].srt. For a video named ice_cream_ad with US English captions, the file is ice_cream_ad.en_US.srt. Meta says captions will not upload if the name is written incorrectly or uses the wrong language and country code. The help article lists every supported code; Meta’s developer documentation for video captions shows the US English code written as en_US, in the file name filename.en_US.srt.

You can create SRT files with most video editing software.

How do you generate captions automatically?

1. Load your video in the ad creative section and click Edit video.
2. Click Captions, then Generate automatically.
3. Wait; Meta says generating can take several minutes.
4. In Review your captions, hover over a caption to edit or delete it, or over its timestamp to change how long it shows.
5. Click the plus sign to add a caption, and tick Pause video while typing if you want.
6. Click Save to video, then finish the ad.

Meta’s limits: automated captions are only available in English and can only be used on Facebook and Instagram. If your video has no sound, or Meta cannot detect sound, you can only add captions manually.

Why design video ads for sound off?

Meta’s Instagram video best practices say most people watch with the sound off, so your message should be clear from visuals alone, using subtitles, on-screen text and strong images. Meta recommends adding subtitles for any spoken dialogue for accessibility and clarity. The same page says music or voiceover can still lift engagement for people who listen, and reports that feed video ads watched with sound on had a 2.25 times higher call-to-action click-through rate.

Advantage+ creative also has a music enhancement for image ads: Meta says music that is not AI-generated can be delivered on single image and carousel ads, and AI-generated music can be delivered to Facebook Reels for single image ads.

FAQ

If I change the captions in one ad, do other ads change too?

Yes. Meta says captions are added to the video, not the ad. If the same video runs in several ads, the captions appear in all of them, and editing the captions in one ad changes them in every ad that uses that video.

Can I download or share captions Meta generated?

Yes. After saving, click Options next to the captions file to delete, share or download it. Meta says sharing creates a link to your captions that expires after 72 hours, so download the file if you need to keep a copy.

Who sees the captions once the ad runs?

Meta says that after your ad begins to run, your video captions show to everyone who views the video. Check them in the preview before publishing, especially automatic captions, which you can edit line by line in the review window.