Using Attention Metrics

for Efficient Marketing

A guide from
Adelaide and the ANA
USING ATTENTION METRICS FOR EFFICIENT MARKETING: A GUIDE
Digital has offered poor proxies for quality.
Metrics like CTR, VCR, and viewability are
stand-ins. These metrics provide only an
imperfect, and easily gamed, view of quality.
Enter attention metrics.
Attention metrics calculate the likelihood of attention paid to an
ad placement. They offer a multi-dimensional perspective,
integrating myriad measurements into cohesive, research-
backed, and fast-moving quality ratings. These ratings can help
marketers optimize their campaigns in near-real-time, adjusting
spend based on the value of media instead of hygienic scores.

This guide covers the basics of attention metrics, some of the

ways attention metrics can improve digital media, and
responsible attention data usage.

“Attention Metrics are the common

language of media quality.”
Marc Guldimann | CEO, Adelaide

USING ATTENTION METRICS FOR EFFICIENT MARKETING: A GUIDE 2

Why Attention Metrics?
Wait: another metric? Marketers already rely on a suite of KPIs to measure campaign
performance. The average campaign takes a multi-channel approach out of necessity, given
ever-increasing media fragmentation. But with each channel comes a slightly different
measure of success. It’s an “apples-to-oranges” conundrum.

Attention metrics, on the other hand, offer marketers an “apples-to-apples” comparison of

media placement—a unified measure of placement performance across digital channels.

What Gets Measured

Attention metrics refer to data points used to model consumer attention to both media
placements and creative. These metrics range from loose proxies like viewability to exact
measures like lab- or panel-based eye-tracking that record actual gaze and focus.
Broad-spectrum attention measurement includes:

Size Position Viewability Relative Position

Duration Clutter Device Eye-Tracking

Research demonstrates each of these variables has a direct effect on the amount of attention
consumers pay to advertising.

USING ATTENTION METRICS FOR EFFICIENT MARKETING: A GUIDE 3

The Benefits of Attention Metrics
PLANNING

Reach is no longer uniform, and planning tools that treat it as such are missing an
opportunity to increase efficiency. Understanding true attentive reach helps cut down on
waste from over- and underexposure. Attention metrics also highlight underpriced attention.

CPM Attention

LOW VALUE HIGH VALUE

$16 100

Attention Score
$12 75
CPM

$8 50

$4 25

$0 0
Placement

Planners can look at their attention dashboard and quickly determine the best values—those
placements that are delivering healthy attention-to-cost ratios.

OPTIMIZATION

Today, campaigns are typically optimized to viewability or completion rates, easily-gamed

hygienic metrics that are fast but not very predictive of impact. Brand lift and attribution data
can take a long time to collect, making optimization hard; brand lift is notoriously slow,
sometimes not arriving until after the next campaign.

Attention metrics offer the opportunity to optimize toward a metric with proven correlation
to outcomes, and the speed and granularity of verification tools.

USING ATTENTION METRICS FOR EFFICIENT MARKETING: A GUIDE 4

 At Adelaide, we’ve seen that attention correlates to brand impact.
Attention vs Recall and Perception Attention vs Conversion Rate
70% 0.090%
“Yes” Response Percent

Perception

Conversion Rate
53%
0.060%
35%
Recall 0.030%
18%

0% 0.000%
0-4 5-9 10-14 15-19 20-24 0 1 2 3 4
Average Attention Units Average Attention Units

And that attention correlates better to brand impact than other

KPIs, such as viewability or VCR.
VCR vs Brand Consideration Attention vs Brand Consideration
100% 100%
“Yes” Response Percent

“Yes” Response Percent

75% 75%

50% 50%

25% 25%

0% 0%
0-24% 25-49% 50-74% 75-99% 100% 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30
Video Completion Rate Average Attention Units

Viewability vs Attention: Correlation to Sales Conversions

0.35 Attention vs Recall, and Perception
0.30
Correlation to ROI

0.25
0.20 180%
0.15 higher
0.10
0.05
0.10 0.28
0.00
Viewability Attention Units

USING ATTENTION METRICS FOR EFFICIENT MARKETING: A GUIDE 5

ATTRIBUTION MODELING

Multi-touch attribution tracks individuals across digital platforms (and even devices) to
record every advertising waypoint they have "touched" throughout a marketing campaign.
MTA is used to ascertain the contribution to a conversion, attributing performance to various
impressions and clicks. These values are arbitrary, however: they don’t provide a clear
picture of impact.

MULTI-TOUCH ATTRIBUTION MULTI-TOUCH ATTRIBUTION + ATTENTION

vs

When used in conjunction with MTA tactics, attention metrics provide a high-resolution view
of the impact of each impression—rather than a discreet count. Augmenting campaigns with
attention metrics enriches every touchpoint in the attribution model.

CREATIVE A/B TESTING

A/B testing creative is the gold standard for good reason—it takes an evidence-based
approach to find the best option. That approach can be limiting, however. A tweak to a CTA
button can increase conversions; a bump in logo size might juice brand awareness. But in
both instances, best practice requires changing only one element at a time. Split testing
allows for comparing two distinct designs, but the results become murky. What's a brand
marketer to do?

Adding attention metrics to the mix offers benefits here, too. Attention metrics enable a
normalized view of media quality. Advertisers can run a campaign, quickly analyze
fast-moving attention metrics to find equally attentive placements, and then introduce
either an A/B or split test on creative.

USING ATTENTION METRICS FOR EFFICIENT MARKETING: A GUIDE 6

Which version is attracting more attention? Simply compare the resulting attention metrics,
then heavy-up on the winning variation.

NORMALIZE INTRODUCE A/B MEASURE TEST HEAVY-UP ON

TO ATTENTION OR SPLIT TEST RESULTS WINNING VARIATION

80 80
Avg. Attention

Avg. Attention
60 60
40 A vs B 40 B
20 20
A B
0 0
Placement Placement

SEQUENCING

Similarly to attribution, layer attention data with your DSP user-level data to supercharge
creative sequencing.

1 1 1 2 vs 1 2 3 4

Customize the sequence based on how much cumulative attention a consumer has paid to
each stage, pathing or branching at attention thresholds to guide consumers through your
brand story.

USING ATTENTION METRICS FOR EFFICIENT MARKETING: A GUIDE 7

Using Attention Metrics Responsibly
Attention metrics respect consumers' right to privacy. Fingerprinting based on attention
metrics data—or any data—is strongly discouraged. There are some aspects of attention
metrics, such as eye-tracking or device orientation tracking, that marketers should never
capture without permission. Responsible attention metrics do not surreptitiously seek access
to a consumer's device to measure real-world attention responses. Instead, these responses
are modeled in laboratory or panel settings with informed subjects.

Enabling Greater Efficiency

Attention has always underpinned successful advertising, but the popularity of attention
metrics is a recent phenomenon. Responsible, research-backed attention metrics can
improve both the efficacy and efficiency of digital advertising. Attention metrics offer a
powerful new toolset to assess the quality and value of media—at a time when efficiency is
more important than ever.

Armed with the ability to evaluate the likelihood of attention for every placement across
channels, marketers gain a powerful tool to improve their bottom line—driving the same
brand impact for less spend, making this apples-to-apples metric a win-win.

Adelaide has demonstrated that optimizing to attention increases

efficiency versus optimizing to viewability.
Indexed Ad Spend for Equal Sales ROI Indexed Ad Spend for Equal Brand Lift
$100K $100K

$90K $90K

$80K $80K

$70K 13.33% $70K

lower 27.63%
$60K $60K lower
$50K $50K
Viewability Adelaide Viewability Adelaide

USING ATTENTION METRICS FOR EFFICIENT MARKETING: A GUIDE 8

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New York, NY 10014 New York, NY 10017
[email protected] 212.697.5950

USING ATTENTION METRICS FOR EFFICIENT MARKETING: A GUIDE. COPYRIGHT © 2020 PARSEC MEDIA INC.