Write for the sound-off viewer first

Assume the first pass is silent. That means the opening claim has to appear as text on screen, and the visuals have to make sense without narration. Write the burned-in text as its own line in the script — not as a caption you will generate afterwards — because designing them together produces a much tighter video than transcribing one into the other.

Facebook counts a three-second view as a view, which sounds generous until you realise that is also roughly how long you have before the thumb keeps moving. Put the most concrete thing you have in that window: the result, the number, the before-and-after frame.

Burned-in captions for the whole video, not just the hook. A large share of Facebook watch time never turns sound on at all.

What Facebook rewards that other platforms do not

Comment threads. Facebook distribution still leans heavily on meaningful interaction, and its audience is far more willing to write a paragraph than TikTok's is. Scripts that take a position, ask a question with a real answer, or describe a local situation reliably out-earn scripts that just deliver information.

Length tolerance. Sixty to ninety seconds is comfortable here, and in-feed video can run longer if the story justifies it. You still cannot waste the opening, but you do not have to compress everything into twenty seconds the way you would on TikTok.

Groups and shares. A video that is useful to a specific community gets pasted into that community by someone else, which is the single highest-leverage distribution mechanic Facebook has. Write for one identifiable group rather than for everyone.

Common Facebook video mistakes

Cross-posting a TikTok with the watermark and the TikTok cadence. It reads as borrowed and the pacing lands wrong for the audience.

Relying on the caption above the video to carry the hook. Many viewers see the video before they read anything.

Skipping captions entirely — the most expensive and most common mistake on this platform.

Ending with a link and no reason to click it. Say what is on the other side, specifically, in the last line.