Video Localization: What It Means and How to Get Started

Localizing video is harder than it should be.

It's typically an expensive and time-consuming process that often produces results where the quality is somewhat questionable (especially when the video uses technical terms or regional accents and dialects).

I've seen a number of video localization projects get shelved before they started as companies realized how much work was really involved.

I've written this guide to give you an overview of video localization methods, to help you avoid costly pitfalls, and to show you how you can use modern tools to generate high-quality localized videos quickly and easily.

What is video localization?

Video localization is the process of adapting a video's dialogue, captions, graphics, and cultural references to suit the linguistic and cultural preferences of a different audience.

The biggest part of a video localization project is typically the translation of the video's dialogue, captions, and written visuals.

The other, more subtle part is the adapting of the video's content to suit a different culture.

This usually involves the adjustment of elements like images, colors, date and time formats, references, puns, idioms, and the overall message of the video so that it resonates with the target viewers.

Why is video localization important?

If localizing video content takes so much time and money, why do companies bother doing it?

Benefit 1: Enhanced audience engagement

Localized videos that use the target audience's language and cultural nuances resonate much more strongly and can achieve much stronger emotional connections and viewer retention.

In my experience working with video in an instructional setting (i.e., with training and educational videos), I've found that localizing video content consistently improves learning outcomes and completion rates, and I've found that the effect is even greater when the topics are more on the technical side.

More broadly, localized video content feels personalized and drives improved customer trust and higher conversion rates for products and services.

Benefit 2: Expanded reach

A widely cited Harvard Business Review study found that:

• 72.1% of consumers spend most or all of their time browsing websites written in their own language
• 72.4% of consumers are more likely to buy a product if product information in their own language is provided

That's a lot of potential customers for businesses to be missing out on if they're not localizing their video content.

A related benefit is that localizing your video content can boost your search engine visibility in different regions, which helps to drive more organic traffic to your brand.

Benefit 3: Compliance with regional norms

Video localization is an important part of ensuring that your content adheres to local laws and cultural sensitivities, which helps to reduce the risk of miscommunication or causing offense.

Sometimes video localization isn't optional — it's often a compliance requirement for companies that operate in the financial, legal, and medical industries.

Benefit 4: Competitive advantage

If your company is operating in a competitive market, you'll want to take advantage of every opportunity to differentiate yourself that you can find.

Localizing video content can help you differentiate your brand from competitors who may be relying on simple translations, or perhaps the competition isn't localizing its video content at all.

Repurposing existing video content through localization maximizes the value and impact of your video content without the need for entirely new production, which helps to improve the ROI on your video content production.

Did you know?

Companies that are switching to video production using AI are already saving a lot on localization. Teleperformance, for example, creates AI videos in 40+ languages and reports $5,000 in savings per video.

Check out more success stories

How to approach video localization

Step 1: Understand your audience

The first step to video localization is understanding who your target audiences are, and then deciding which markets you should be localizing videos for. Start by looking at your domestic market for localization opportunities.

For example, if you're operating in the US, it might make sense to optimize for Spanish-speaking audiences before localizing your video content for any international market.

In general you're looking for signs of strong engagement with your existing content that could be supercharged with localization. These signals can be found in a number of places, so try to get creative.

I typically look at metrics like completion rates by region, and I've also found that analyzing comment sentiment in different languages can lead to some interesting insights.

Step 2: Decide what content to localize

You've got a few questions to answer in this section:

What videos should I localize?

Not all of your video content needs immediate localization. The right move is to focus your efforts on localizing the content that will bring you the highest return on your investment.

This typically means you should be choosing a video that performs well with your existing audiences while also being a relatively simple video to localize (i.e., a short video without complex on-screen visual elements).

It's always a good idea to test extensively before launching any large localization project.

A good way to do this is by localizing a few short videos and monitoring their impact in the markets you are considering. Doing this before you scale can help you avoid any nasty surprises.

What type of translation should I choose?

You don't need to use the same translation approach across all of your video content.

I suggest testing adding subtitles to some videos and dubbing and voiceovers to others so that you can monitor the ROI of each option.

Step 3: Choose the right video localization tool or service

Once you've chosen the video content you want to localize, the audiences you want to localize for, and the type of translation you want to use, it's then time to decide how you're going to create your localized video.

You have two main options:

1. Use a localization platform: Upload your video to a video translator tool that will process it and then automatically generate subtitles or dubbing for your video content. This is likely to be the more cost-effective, quicker, and more scalable option, but the translation quality might be lower.
2. Hire a localization agency: Hire a company that offers translation services to carry out your localization strategy for you. This is typically the more expensive, slower, and less scalable option, but the translation quality might be higher.

Video localization methods

Subtitles

Subtitles are a fast, cost-effective, and low-immersion option for video translation.

They involve the translation of spoken dialogue into on-screen text without any audio alteration, and are an ideal choice for quickly expanding the reach of a video, testing new markets, and enhancing accessibility.

I've seen a lot of companies start with subtitles as the first step in a video localization strategy, with the next step typically being investing in dubbing in the markets that show traction.

This staged approach helps to reduce the risk of video localization while still allowing them to validate the potential of new markets.

Captions

Subtitles are more commonly used in the context of localization, whereas captions are more commonly used in the context of accessibility.

Captions are similar to subtitles but they also transcribe non-speech elements like music, sound effects, and tone, which all help the viewer to understand the context of the video.

Many regions now mandate that all commercially produced video content provide captions.

Dubbing

Dubbing completely replaces the original dialogue of the video with new dialogue in the target language, with the new dialogue track lip-synced to match the speaker's on-screen mouth movements.

Aside from the new dialogue, the original sound effects, music, and ambient sounds usually stay the same.

Voiceovers

Voiceovers keep the original audio in the background while a narrator in the target language speaks over it.

It's typically cheaper and faster than dubbing, but also less immersive.

AI dubbing

Dubbing has historically been the better option for video translation as it leads to much better engagement and immersion, with the trade-off being that it's slower and more expensive.

However, AI dubbing tools like Synthesia can now provide fast and budget-friendly dubbing while maintaining natural-sounding results.

Common video localization pitfalls

• Embedding text in videos: You'll want to keep on-screen text in editable layers so you can edit it during the translation process.
• Ignoring regional variants: Try to customize your translations for different language regions. Don't mix up Spanish from Spain with Spanish from Mexico — native speakers will definitely notice the difference.
• Underestimating text expansion: You should expect around 10-30% text growth for most languages compared to English, so try to leave room for text expansion.
• Skipping native review: You should always get your translated video reviewed by a native speaker (from the correct region) to ensure cultural accuracy and that the speech sounds natural.

How to localize videos with Synthesia

Synthesia's AI dubbing can translate any video into 130+ languages and accents while preserving the original speaker's voice with perfect lip sync.

There's a free version for you to try that lets you upload your video file or translate a YouTube video.

Here's my step-by-step guide to video localization in Synthesia.

1. Open AI Dubbing

‍Sign in to Synthesia and open AI video dubbing from the left sidebar.

Alternatively you can go straight to our AI dubbing tool.

2. Upload your video

‍Upload a file or paste a YouTube link to create a dubbing project.

3. Choose target language(s)

‍Pick your target languages.

4. Adjust a few more settings

Choose if you want to add lip-sync and subtitles.

The 'Adaptive' video duration option adjusts the duration of your dubbed video to fit the translation. If you don't want this, choose 'Original'.

5. Generate

‍Click Translate/Dub.

Each speaker will be dubbed with the original timbre preserved and perfect lip-sync.

A folder will appear in My videos with the original and dubbed versions of your videos.

6. Share or publish

‍Play or download the dubbed video.

If your plan includes it, enable the multilingual video player so viewers switch languages automatically based on their browser settings. You can try it out on the video above by swapping between Spanish and English versions.