Commentary

The Eyes Have It

To better understand why less than 1% of viewable display ads get clicked, the teams spent several weeks testing 30 adults in a lab using technology such as eye tracking, wireless EEG (electroencephalography) headsets to measure emotions and attention, biometric scanners to measure "overall arousal," and facial trackers.

The results, published in a paper by the Advertising Research Foundation, were revealing but not entirely promising for marketers, says the report. Heat maps, created using the eye-tracking software, showed that people are incredibly good at skipping over ads. Time spent looking at (banner) ads was less than 200 milliseconds per view, while time spent looking at interstitial ads was slightly more than 800 milliseconds. According to Light Reaction scientist Paolo Gaudiano, that's pretty "insignificant."

Gaudiano, explains that "Even though they're clearly viewable in the field of view… it's equally clear that they might as well not have been there… you can see their eye scanning across and reading… and you can see them slowly, gradually sliding the page up… as their eye hits the top of the ad… they just jump right down… continue reading as if the ad wasn't even there… "

Digging deeper, researchers found that the majority of the time people spent viewing the interstitial ad was focused on finding the ever-ellusive "X" that closes it. However, Gaudiano said the two formats end up being viewed roughly an equal amount of time if efforts to close the ads are taken out of the equation.

However, says the report, while interstitials might perform incrementally better for visual attention, results from the EEG suggest the full-screen pop-ups frustrated users to the point that they registered negative emotions. On the other hand, banner ads registered slightly positive.

The results were meant to inform Light Reaction's theory of the "Perceptual Pathway," a framework to better understand how human sensory systems respond to advertising through a series of stages that begins with viewing an ad and ideally ends with a conversion. e.g… Viewable Ad / Notice / Attention / Emotion / Relevance / Timeliness / Successful Outcome

“… these (are) questions that can easily be tested in a very systematic way… “ Gaudiano concludes  "… but it could be used to address some very, very specific issues that are front and center right now…"

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2 comments about "The Eyes Have It".
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  1. Douglas Ferguson from College of Charleston, July 25, 2016 at 7:52 a.m.

    Here's the simple explanation: Most people detest advertising, especially unsolicited interruptions and screen clutter. So even if websites get tough about ad-blockers, the money spent to influence customers is mostly wasted because, as the story relates, "people are incredibly good at skipping over ads." In simpler times, audiences viewed print and television with no control over the consumption. If I wanted to reach my target customer, I suppose I would invest heavily in outdoor advertising along the highway, which are still tough to avoid.

  2. Dissertation Globe from Marketing, August 7, 2016 at 1:26 p.m.

    This is great! Thanks

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