Look over here! What eye tracking studies really reveal
Darren Hamer, Managing Director UK, EyeTrackShop, looks at new studies that reveal the overlooked pitfalls with ad viewability.
The first hurdle for all advertisers is ensuring that their advertising is seen. The online advertising space has always sold itself on its measurability and trackability, ensuring that advertisers have as transparent an environment as possible.
Improvements in technology and measurement have meant that online advertising has gained a new metric, viewability. The measurement of an ad’s length of viewability can be used as a proxy for determining the likelihood that an ad has been seen, and paid for accordingly.
What remains open to debate however is exactly what we mean by viewability – how does viewability translate into being seen?
The UK IAB has determined that an ad is ‘visible’ if over 50% of the banner is in view for 1 second or more and that it has the potential to be viewed. What needs to be understood in terms of this new metric however is that the opportunity of being seen is not the same thing as actually being seen.
Results from over 2,000 eye tracking studies performed by EyeTrackShop over the last 16 months reveal that, on average, 30% of visible display ads did not attract the consumers’ attention – even when viewed for a length of up to 10 seconds.
In other words, 1 in 3 ads were not looked at despite being “viewable”.
The Media Rating Council (MRC) in the US recently released their Viewable Impression Advisory, which revealed that viewability rates for live campaigns ranged from 80% to just under 10%. When we applied biometric eye tracking data to this, it was revealed that a 30% devaluation (minimum) of the figures is needed (from 56% to just under 7% with reference to actual outcomes instead of opportunity to view).
The implications of this mean that in the best case scenario 44% of advertising spend is wasted on impressions that never reach the consumers’ eyes. Worst case, as much as 93% of impressions are going unseen.
Without wishing to teach anyone to suck eggs, lesson number one on a marketing crash course: attention is the first step towards purchase intent and brand loyalty.
EyeTrackShop recently undertook a study in the US to analyse the impact of ad placement on a site, as well as the overall structure of the site itself (the degree of competition with other stimuli on the site such as content type, pictures, large headlines, other ads, quality, etc.)
In the study, identical 350×250 ads were placed in the right column on a selection of entertainment sites; the placement differed on average by a range of 250 pixels up and down in the column. Each ad was tested by 150 people representing the general population in the US.
The study provided some interesting results, and should provide serious food for thought for marketers. All of the ads tested were 100% viewable, yet responses to different placements differed radically. Some ads were seen by the entire test group, while others were seen by as little as 19%.
Additionally, consumer engagement with the ads varied greatly depending on their placement; ads placed slightly higher on the page were gazed upon three times longer, were noticed more than twice as quickly and had a 78% higher ad recall.
This simple study from EyeTrackShop illustrates above all two things. First, viewability does not imply that an ad has been seen (see above image). Complementary studies and metrics of this type will be needed to help marketers spend their money online wisely.
Relying solely on viewability is, as it turns out, nothing but a guessing game.
Second, the type of media and the choice of placement affect the ads’ chances of getting attention and getting the opportunity to charm the consumer into trying the product or rebuying the product.
If the transaction model for online advertising is going to move beyond the measurement of conversion (which may work for some campaigns but ignores the needs of brand advertisers) marketers need additional knowledge in order to be able to place online ads effectively, rather than relying on guesswork or a ‘gut instinct’.
Brands need to know who saw their advert and how long they looked at it. With this information to hand, brands can optimise their online ad spending, and leverage the value online advertising offers as an arena for engaging with consumers.
Perhaps it is time for a new standard in online measurement, one that measures how much your ad is being seen rather than the outdated viewability measure.