• by Colin Kirkland , March 16, 2023

Fractal Analytics, a global provider of artificial intelligence (AI) for companies like Pepsi, P&G and Visa, has announced a new framework that uses neuroscience to study how people make purchasing decisions based on ads -- offering a solution for ecommerce brands to increase their conversion rates.

Fractal says the click-through rate (CTR) of banner ads is at an all-time low, and the company believes it is crucial to understand the thought processes behind consumer engagement with digital stimuli.

The “Final Second Framework” aims to tackle this by spotlighting the step-by-step neurological responses elicited by the visual stimulus, timed brain responses, and the composition of the stimulus required at each stage for that response.

“Marketers have been trying for decades to turn around faltering digital stimuli engagement numbers,” says Fractal Analytics’ Biju Dominic, adding that the Final Second Framework works to underline key nonconscious decision-making factors and time frames –– “approach, liking and wanting” –– that marketers can use to address engagement with banner ads.

As explained by the company: “The brain's first reaction to any stimulus is to either ‘Approach’ that stimulus or ‘Avoid’ that stimulus. By providing the ‘Category Benefit cues’, one can help generate an Approach behavior in about 350 ms." The company says this leads into "'Liking' behavior,' which is most influenced by the past experiences of the brand in about 100 ms."

After "Liking Behavior," Fractal says, consumers move to "the ‘Wanting’ stage, which is "motivated by the Emotional High the brand provides and the Perception of price reward. Liking-Wanting decision is taken in a matter of 470ms.”

According to research that the company will release next week, the Final Second Framework has discovered that most people decide whether to buy something they see in an ad within just 920 milliseconds. 

“Particularly interesting is that a lot of this decision-making happens unconsciously, without people even realizing it,” Fractal says in a statement.

The new framework is designed for marketers. Dominic adds that Fractal wants the framework to help marketers redesign the “four places of persuasion” which include banner ads, shopping ads, product titles and images used in the product display page.

Founded in 2000 in Mumbai, Fractal’s clients includes Fortune 100 and 500 companies such as Google, Wells Fargo and Reckitt Benckiser. At the beginning of 2022, Fractal raised $360 million from private equity company TPG Capital Asia at a $1 billion valuation.