• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, August 16, 2011

An eye-tracking study conducted by EyeTrackShop suggests that if Google+ offered brands an option to place ads on the social network, site visitors would spend at least as much time gazing at them as they would with ads on Facebook.

EyeTrackShop conducted the study in Sweden, enlisting 54 participants for two days and using the home pages of both Facebook and Google+. It set out to determine whether the social network could become the stronger advertising platform of the two. 

The Google+ page layout, similar to Facebook, made it easy for EyeTrackShop to create a mock-up of what a page might look like with ads. During the study, both Google+ and Facebook initially attracted the attention of visitors to the middle of the page. From there, the average viewer shifts their gaze left and up. Respondents then scan the top of the page from left to right before following the right rail ad column from top to bottom. 

About 50% of participants fixate on at least one of the ads on Facebook. They first fixate on the ads about five seconds into the session. On average, they remain on the ad for about one second. 

For the test, the same ads were placed on Google+ showing similar results. Since Google+ and Facebook pages look and track eye movement, the study concludes that ads placed on Google similar to Facebook would perform in a similar way. 

EyeTrackShop displayed the ads for 15 seconds. It took most participants five seconds to find the ad on the page, and they spent one second looking at it. When Facebook ads were overlaid on Google+, the study results suggested a similar outcome.

"We think Google is positioned to make massive revenue on ads in Google+, and in turn, give advertisers an improved return on investment compared with ads running on Facebook," said Jeff Bander, senior vice president of client services at EyeTrackShop, formerly MRC International. "On a benchmark of 74%, only 53% saw the ad on Facebook. People also spent less time looking at the ad on Facebook." 

EyeTrackShop's online ad-tracking platform gives agencies, marketers and brands insight into how ads or Web sites are perceived by visitors or consumers. Participants can opt in to the study from any computer equipped with a Web camera, which the platform uses to determine eye movement.

Through the camera, the Web-based platform takes 20 pictures per second of the participant's eyes. The site visitor sees the page layout for a predetermined amount of time. For the Google+ and Facebook social network study, the participants looked at the page for 15 seconds. Data is gathered, and results are available within 48 hours.

Bander, who joined the company in April to build out a dedicated sales team for U.S. clients, said MRC set out to determine the impact of ads in Google+ and whether the social site offered a similar service and layout to Facebook.

It's not the first time that EyeTrackShop has tested ads on Google properties. In fact, the company worked with Google in Sweden to test banner ads on YouTube through the company's eye-tracking technology . The study, conducted in the first quarter, was intended to test the effectiveness of a display campaign for Scandinavian Airlines SAS, which ran a masthead ad campaign on YouTube.