Eye Tracking Reveals Hidden Truths About Effective Advertising

In one of our recent studies 180 participants wearing eyetracking equipment browsed three popular magazines on iPads By analyzing subjectsamp8217 eye movements including what elements within the digital magazines drew their attention how long they focused on said elements and what was effectively ignored the researchers recognized exactly what people looked at and how what they looked at compared to their stated enjoyment of reading the digital magazineInteractivity is the KeyThe real key to effective advertising we discovered is interactivity Interactive ad features capture readersamp8217 attention longer and engage them more Ads that require user action such as playing a video swiping the page or clicking a button perform far better than ads that just sit thereTo attract interaction ads must have easily displayed video text with relevant information or clearly defined buttons amp160amp8211 or better yet all three Placement seems to matter too The closer to the front of the magazine the more attention an ad receivesVideo Holds Attention the Longest Increases Memorability In the study ads featuring playable video content engaged readers on average for 178 seconds almost double that of ads with static content Those ads with video in a major national news and politics magazine were recalled unaided by just shy of one in three readersThere was some difference in the ability to recall advertisements among readers however suggesting that design is just as important in mobile advertising as it is in print Advertising with stark contrasting colors draws attention but good content is key to engagement There is no onesizefitsall for advertisers looking to place their ads in digital magazines Advertisements should be tailored to match the look and feel of the magazine and give the reader useful informationReaders wonamp8217t watch videos if they donamp8217t see a clear familiar play button to indicate that the ad is not a static image Advertisers looking to incorporate video into advertisements in digital magazines should look to the magazine for consistency in creating a recognizable button that fits with the overall media formatAdditionally all relevant information needs to be featured on the first page of an advertisement or it will be ignored In a celebrity news magazine we tested 72 of respondents noticed the first page of any given ad while only 8 saw the second pageWhen Measuring Ad Effectiveness Measure the ExperienceFor years mobile ad spend has rapidly increased Video advertising revenues will grow 73 between 2013 and 2018 in the US according to Business Insider Standard measures of engagement views clicks etc can explain how people engage with the ad in terms of time spent Standard survey results ask individuals to recall what they saw remember how they felt and let researchers know what stuck in their headHowever these traditional measurements while extremely useful fail to measure the real experience of viewing an advertisement They canamp8217t get at subconscious reactions such as facial expressions nor can they account for those things that people saw but didnamp8217t rememberEye tracking allows researchers to measure visual interaction with digital advertisement to help brands and advertisers understand which aspects of the ads draw and hold the attention of the reader as the ad makes its impression It also identifies key areas that draw attention and for how long the viewers notice the important information in an ad It can also identify areas that people notice but fail to remember based on their recall in postsurveysUsing that information offers insight into improvement of messaging that can be made to help communications from advertisements be written into memory instead of being passively noticedFacial coding analysis takes the vieweramp8217s emotions into account as they experience a digital advertisement In this methodology consumersamp8217 facial expressions are recorded as they are exposed to stimuli such as video or static advertisements on a handheld screen During the analysis process researchers compare the recorded expressions to a database of human emotions to identify minute changes in emotional expression The biggest benefit is that it doesnamp8217t require viewers to fully understand the emotions they experienced the analysis does thatOnce analyzed brands learn what points during their engagement with a person incite joy surprise fear sadness disgust contempt or anger The analysts chart these emotions over time to understand the sequence of emotions experienced through an engagement period with an advertisementAs the way we experience media continues to change improving both the development of ad content and how we measure ads is critical Precise measurement tools like eye tracking or facial coding uncover how consumers experience advertisements and help advertisers strategically improve the future performance of their marketing communicationsThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageMyersBizNet management or associated bloggersamp160

Click to Make Your 2025 Contribution to Support the MediaVillage Education Foundation

Eye Tracking Reveals Hidden Truths About Effective Advertising

Author

Publish date

Channel

Kirk Hendrickson

"About That with Carl Mayer:" Alaina Donnellon (Episode 6) - By Carl Mayer

More Videos:

Click to Make Your 2025 Contribution to Support the MediaVillage Education Foundation

Eye Tracking Reveals Hidden Truths About Effective Advertising

Enjoying This Commentary? There's More to Love

Kirk Hendrickson

"About That with Carl Mayer:" Alaina Donnellon (Episode 6) - By Carl Mayer

The payment was successful

Cookies