Length of ad attention needed depends on desired outcomes

Attention plays an important role in moving consumers toward a purchase, but new research suggests marketers also need to understand how the nature of attention varies across different digital ad campaigns, based on factors like brand market position, creative execution, and brand outcomes. 

A study* by the attention measurement platform playground xyz highlights the role of its Optimal Attention metric, defined as the minimum target attention time (the length of time, in seconds, that an ad is looked at directly) that’s required to deliver sustained increases in brand outcomes. This determines just how much attention is needed, depending on the desired outcome, and whether a campaign is targeting upper, mid, or lower-funnel results. 

Key insights 

• Attention drives rapid upper and mid-funnel outcomes. Consumer awareness, recall, and consideration are all strongly influenced by core attention metrics. Increases in the majority of outcomes also occur quickly, with most seeing a lift prior to 10% of an ad having been watched.
• Optimal Attention differs for each brand outcome. On average, it takes 1.4 seconds of consumer attention to drive a 10% lift in brand awareness at the top of the engagement funnel. For mid-funnel results, however, a longer attention threshold is required: 1.6 seconds for consideration and 3.9 seconds for prompted recall. The level of lift achieved also differs significantly per outcome. 
• Creative execution is the primary driver of Optimal Attention. In 94% of ads analyzed, the thresholds for Optimal Attention were notably different depending on what creative was used – versus the platform that content appeared on, which had less impact on performance. 
• Brand size is a factor: Larger brands with a baseline awareness above 75% are almost 1.5 times more likely to get lift with an Optimal Attention threshold of below two seconds. They’re also almost twice as likely to have an Optimal Attention threshold below one second. 

 Why attention matters

“Different brand outcomes and creative executions ‘convert’ attention differently,” explains playground CEO Rob Hall. “Brands can be empowered to craft more impactful campaigns by understanding how exactly attention affects customers at different stages of the marketing funnel.”

*The study analysed behavioral eye-tracking data from approximately 20,000 participants exposed to 55 video ads that ran across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube. This was combined with a neuroscience analysis of 1,800 ads, to understand how consumer attention is shaped at both a conscious and subconscious level.

Sourced from playground xyz