Understanding attention in walled gardens

Optimising to cost-based attention metrics can significantly lift both brand and business outcomes in social media contexts, according to an Australian attention-based ad agency.

Playground XYZ’s research into consumer behaviour on actual platforms, not simulations in an artificial environment, combined eye-tracking with environmental and behavioural signals. Subsequent AI enhancement helped the company understand when people are likely to be looking at ads on social. 

Why it matters

Layering attention metrics on top of existing ones means marketers are able to look anew at the efficiency of digital video advertising across different formats. Widely used metrics such as viewability and completion rates don’t give a true picture of what is really happening. Even average attention time is not necessarily a useful guide for marketers who are seeking to optimise digital advertising.

But price, in the form of cost per thousand attention seconds, adds another dimension to the process of finding the right media mix for brands. 

Takeaways 

• Over 12 months, a global financial services brand rebalanced its spending on this basis, from 20% brand/80% performance in 2021 to a 45/55 split in 2022.
• It reported a 144% uplift in spontaneous brand awareness and a 41% increase in brand consideration.
• The member base rose 37% and cost per acquisition fell by 50%.

What’s next?

Get started with benchmarking, advises Playground CEO Rob Hall. Speaking at London’s MAD//Fest, he predicted a future of outcome-based trading.

BEC