Harness The Power Of Attention & Drive Superior Business Results

Harness The Power Of Attention & Drive Superior Business Results

Jessica Miles, Integral Ad Science’s (IAS) ANZ country manager, explains in this op-ed that harnessing attention as a metric for digital ad campaigns will yield big bottom-end lifts and make for a better understanding of media quality.

Attention is one of the most complex and widely discussed topics in digital media. Defining it has proven difficult, but industry experts unanimously agree that harnessing attention is pivotal to executing a successful advertising campaign. With this content explosion and an increasing number of platforms and channels available, marketers have found it challenging to break through the noise with their messages, making attention an appealing and essential concept in advertising.

Fragmented and fleeting consumer attention

In digital advertising, attention refers to the degree of focus and engagement users have with an ad. The more attention an ad receives, the more likely it is to drive desired outcomes, such as increased brand awareness or conversions. Therefore, measuring attention is essential in understanding an ad campaign’s effectiveness and making data-driven optimisation decisions.

Currently, methods for measuring attention in digital advertising tend to rely on a small sample of media quality metrics, like viewability or time-in-view. While these metrics can deliver information about whether or not a consumer has seen an ad, the picture of attention remains blurry. Eye-tracking methods, which monitor consumer eye movement while viewing an ad, can provide valuable insight into the deeply human aspect of attention by understanding where consumers focus their gaze — but this method is often costly and time-consuming.

On the other hand, signal-based measurements are generated when a consumer interacts with an ad, like user-initiated scrolls or click-to-play. This method is more cost-effective and less time-consuming than eye-tracking measurement, but it provides less detail about whether a user has actually seen or focused on the ad.

Given the dynamic nature of digital advertising, marketers may begin turning to hybrid measurement, which combines both signals and eye-tracking. This approach can provide a more comprehensive understanding of user engagement by combining the detailed information of eye-tracking measurement with the real-time data provided by signal-based measurement.

Measuring — and capturing — consumer attention can be daunting and confusing for marketers. However, one of the most straightforward steps a brand can take to increase the likelihood of attention is to deploy strategies focused on media quality metrics and contextual relevance.

Gauging consumer attention with viewability and media quality metrics

Viewability is critical for measuring overall consumer attention levels because it measures whether an ad was in-view and therefore had the opportunity to be seen by a user. After all, if an ad isn’t viewable, it cannot drive attention.

Advertisers can use viewability metrics to identify which ad placements and formats most effectively capture attention. They can also use this data to optimise their media buying strategy by prioritising placements with higher viewability rates.

IAS recently conducted a study with a major consumer packaged goods (CPG) brand to determine the impact of in-view ads on attention and outcomes. The IAS in-view ads resulted in a three times higher return on ad spend (ROAS) than ads that were not in-view, highlighting the importance of ensuring that ads are seen.

Media quality metrics are essential to the end-to-end ad journey and can be used in tandem with other measurement frameworks to help drive better outcomes. Another study used these metrics to show how an increase in viewability and brand safety also increased time-in-view (with an average 57% uptick in conversions).

Optimising media quality can help increase time-in-view, but there’s a balance that marketers are looking to find in these processes. In the CPG brand study, ads that remained in view between three and 10 seconds over-indexed at driving incremental sales compared to shorter and longer time-in-view ranges. This suggests marketers can use an ideal time-in-view range to gain attention and provide the most opportunity to drive incremental sales.

Holding audience attention with contextual relevance

Contextual relevance refers to the correlation between the ad and the context of the surrounding content. Advertisers can use contextual targeting to identify the most appropriate content and placements for their ads, increasing the chances of the ad being seen and engaged with by the target audience.

In a recent ad experiment, IAS tracked user eyesight onscreen to gauge how much time consumers spent with a display ad for HP laptops in conflicting content environments. One environment was contextually aligned with the ad, and the other was not.

After analysing these variables, the study concluded that consumers were four times more likely to remember the HP brand in the contextually relevant scenario versus the misaligned content environment. Moreover, consumers reported being 14% more likely to purchase from HP after seeing the in-context ad than the out-of-context ad.

As privacy regulations are implemented and third-party cookies fade away, more and more brands are leveraging contextual targeting technology to ensure their campaigns align with user preferences and that marketers are reaching an audience interested in what’s being advertised.

Contextual relevance captures attention, while media quality metrics measure attention

As consumers’ attention becomes increasingly fragmented and scarce, marketers look to different forms of attention measurement and optimisation tools to drive greater engagement and outcomes. Some of the most accessible metrics available are media quality metrics.

With the upcoming deprecation of third-party cookies, contextual approaches and attention metrics will become even more critical. This approach is marketing by mindset. Measuring what resonates with audiences based on multiple data points — and drives business outcomes — will be essential. Simply pulling together a random assortment of metrics and slapping an ‘attention’ label or only focusing on one to the exclusion of all others does not provide real value. Successful marketers are tapping into these instincts to fuel more effective campaign outcomes.

If you want to learn more about attention, IAS has published a whitepaper and first-of-its-kind model that predicts the likelihood an impression will lead to a result.




Please login with linkedin to comment

integral ad science

Latest News

Archibald Williams Wins NBA Digital, Activation & Fan Engagement Accounts For APAC
  • Media

Archibald Williams Wins NBA Digital, Activation & Fan Engagement Accounts For APAC

Independent brand and digital agency, Archibald Williams (AW) has been appointed to lead the NBA account across the APAC region. The NBA is one of the most prestigious sporting leagues in the world and basketball is one of the fastest-growing sports in Australia. Effective immediately, AW said it was “excited” to work across all digital, […]

QMS Champions Creativity As First Most Contagious APAC 2023 Sponsor
  • Advertising

QMS Champions Creativity As First Most Contagious APAC 2023 Sponsor

Leading digital outdoor company QMS has announced it is the first-ever inaugural partner for Most Contagious APAC, the landmark London event by creative and strategic intelligence company Contagious, which will be showcased in Australia on Tuesday, 12 December in Sydney and Wednesday, 13 December in Melbourne. Most Contagious is an event that delivers key advertising […]

OMG’s Annalect First To Get Meta’s Advanced Analytics
  • Technology

OMG’s Annalect First To Get Meta’s Advanced Analytics

Omnicom’s data and analytics division Annalect has partnered with Meta, giving it access to Advanced Analytics (AA) – one of Meta’s privacy-focused measurement solutions – to provide Omnicom’s clients with future-proof, next-level measurement. Omnicom is the first holding company to have access to AA. AA allows advertisers to combine their first-party data with Meta’s ads […]

AKQA Launches Eco-Conscious AI DIY Assistant Encouraging People To Gift More Sustainably
  • Technology

AKQA Launches Eco-Conscious AI DIY Assistant Encouraging People To Gift More Sustainably

WPP’s AKQA has launched Fixmas.gift, an environmentally conscious AI-powered DIY assistant, affectionately known as Fixie, for a one-stop solution for all things repair. Fixmas.gift hosts an array of guides and inspiration to empower people to prolong the lives of their belongings or purchase pre-owned items that need a little love and care. Fixie can: Help […]

Marc Collister: AI & Automation Set To Revolutionise Creativity In 2024
  • Opinion

Marc Collister: AI & Automation Set To Revolutionise Creativity In 2024

Marc Collister (pictured) of P2 Content Creators spills the beans on his 2024 predictions drawing from two decades of experience in the advertising, film and television industry. I’m certain it will come as no surprise that in 2024, we can expect our industry to move at breakneck speed again. With even more rapid shifts in […]

Opinion

by B&T Magazine

B&T Magazine
Zeno Group Australia Bolsters Client Offerings With An Expanded Creative Services Portfolio & New Senior Leader
  • Marketing

Zeno Group Australia Bolsters Client Offerings With An Expanded Creative Services Portfolio & New Senior Leader

Zeno Australia has announced expanded creative design capabilities and the appointment of Jim Michell (lead image) to its senior leadership team. The new moves support strong growth in the region. Zeno Australia’s clients, including Abano Healthcare, Motorola and Yorkshire Tea, can now tap into a suite of creative design services to augment the agency’s work […]

Assembled Media Inks TikTok Creator Campaign for BIC
  • Campaigns

Assembled Media Inks TikTok Creator Campaign for BIC

Assembled Media, is drawing upon the creative power of TikTok Creator Marketplace to help generate unique, impactful content for iconic stationery brand, BIC. The social activation campaign titled ‘A Pen for Every Side of You’ promotes the flexibility of BIC’s 4 Colours pen and is active nationwide on the BIC Stationery TikTok account. The campaign […]

Big data and analytics visualization technology with scientist analyzing information structure on screen with machine learning to extract predictions for business, finance, internet of things
  • Media

IAB Launches Fourth Module In Its Marketing Measurement Innovation Series

IAB Australia has launched ‘Evolution in Market Mix Modelling’, the fourth module in its Marketing Measurement Innovation Series, which has been developed by IAB Australia’s Ad Effectiveness Council. The module explores what is driving the increased use of MMM and how the technique is evolving with advances in computing power and machine learning to provide […]

Aerial view of a coal fired power station with large cooling towers emitting co2 into the atmosphere. With its lights already turned on the power station is illuminated in moody twilight.
  • Media

Scope3 Expands Carbon Measurement Capabilities To Include DOOH Advertising

Scope3, the collaborative sustainability platform leading the decarbonisation of media and advertising,  announced the addition of digital out-of-home (DOOH) to its emissions measurement. With DOOH ad spending predicted to grow from $17B in 2023 to nearly $24B by 2028, measuring this channel brings us one step closer to understanding the total impact of digital advertising […]

January 14, 2023 - New York, New York, USA: 2023 NRF Big Show press conference with Composition 2024 NRF Singapore.    Photo by Ian Wagreich / © Ian Wagreich Photography
  • Marketing

Now Open For Registration – NRF 2024: Retail’s Big Show Asia Pacific

NRF 2024: Retail’s Big Show Asia Pacific, is now open for online registrations for the main conference. Jointly organized by the National Retail Federation and Comexposium, Retail’s Big Show Asia Pacific will take place from 11 – 13 June, 2024 at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Singapore and is expected to draw thousands […]