Consumers who
"dwell," or linger on ads, are more likely to convert from lookers into buyers. They not only increase the time spent with the creative piece, but conduct more brand-related searches on engines and
continually return to the company's Web site, according to a recent study.
Research from Eyeblaster, Microsoft Advertising and comScore provide evidence for the effectiveness of dwelling on
an ad as an engagement metric. Additional analysis by Eyeblaster suggests an impact beyond branding. Ads with a high dwell rate are more likely to have a higher conversion rate too, compared with ads
with a low dwell rate. Campaigns with ads that produce a low dwell rate increased site traffic by 10%, compared with those with a high dwell rate at 17%.
Dwell is divided into two metrics:
dwell rate and average dwell time. Dwell rate measures the proportion of impressions that were intentionally engaged with by touch, interaction or click. Average dwell time measures the duration of a
dwell in seconds for consumers who engage with ads. In both cases, any unintentional time lasting less than one second is excluded.
Samples came from about 800 rich media campaigns that were
served by Eyeblaster exclusively on Microsoft Advertising sites between January 2009 and June 2009. The campaigns were ranked by total dwell scores. To ensure a distinct difference between high and
low dwell, the study analyzed campaigns that fell in the top and bottom 10% of the scale.
The results of the study indicate consumers who were exposed to campaigns that typically get people to
linger longer are more likely to search for brand-related keywords as compared to users who were exposed to campaigns with a low dwell times. The research found that consumers who were exposed to
campaigns with low dwell times increased brand related keyword searches by 12%, while consumers exposed to campaigns with high dwell times increased brand-related keyword search by 39%. This suggests
that campaigns with high dwell times are three times more effective at driving search than campaigns with low dwell times.
While research by Eyeblaster, Microsoft Advertising and comScore shows
the advertising effect of Dwell, Eyeblaster Research has found evidence that Dwell works beyond branding. In fact, there is a link between a higher Dwell Rate and a higher Conversion Rate, according
to the company.
Eyeblaster Research analyzed the results of more than 13,000 ads and 13 billion rich media impressions served between Q1 2009 and Q4 2009. Ads were divided into buckets according
to their Dwell Rate, and for each bucket calculated the average conversion rate.
The findings suggest that interactive ads that attract users to touch and play with them generate interest, and
ultimately a higher conversion rate. On average, a higher dwell rate yields a higher conversion rate. But the conversion rate is only one measurement to validate dwell. Since the aim is not to
generate conversions, but measure branding effectiveness.
Marketers striving to increase the time consumers spend on a display ad should place the creative pieces around editorial content that
require thorough reading, the research suggests. Place ads where people spend time on the Web page. The longer consumers spend on the publisher's Web site and with the content, the higher their dwell
rate becomes.
Consider instant messaging. Consumers tend to spend about eight minutes with the ads presented. During some of that time, however, the messenger window is covered by the browser or
other programs, but when consumers are actively chatting, they are exposed to the ads for a longer duration.
Marketers can combine video in the ad, and make the ads more assertive and visible.
Video ads perform better than ads without video. On average, adding video to ads increases the dwell rate by 29%, compared with banners without video. Video also nearly doubles the dwell time,
compared to ads without video. These results are similar across ad formats, verticals and ad sizes.