Attention! If people don't look at your ads there will be no effect
Pulse helps marketers make better media investment decisions.
Pulse uses eye-tracking technology to identify if people view your online ads, and for how long.
Your Pulse dashboard enables you to monitor the attention levels for your ads and media platforms used. Align your media costs and attention generated to reduce waste, improve attention levels and boost advertising effectiveness versus your key competitors.
Why does it matter?
On average* only 15% of all desktop ads served are actually seen by human eyes*. In other words, 87% of all impressions are worthless, as they have no possibility of creating any effect whatsoever for their brand. Pulse can help you improve this, as it helps you optimize your digital media investments against key attention metrics, which in turn will increase your advertising effects. Quickly and with granularity.
Attention data also helps you understand how your messages work in different channels. If you only have 1.5 seconds of attention you can't tell a full story, or introduce a new product. And if your video ad gets an average of 2.8 seconds of attention, people must be able to understand whom the ad is for in that time. If they don't, the impact your ad could generate will still be lost on your brand.
Viewability is an important baseline metric, but it only represents the possibility for someone to see the ad. It says nothing about whether they actually saw it. But with attention data, that uncertainty no longer exists. And as only ads that are seen can have any effects, attention is the metric you want to focus your attention on, too. Both to understand the quality of your advertising, and the quality of the media you buy.
*Data based on aggregated attention data, Sweden, Desktop, Jan-Dec 2022.
Powered by Pulse & Tobii attention data.
"Not seen. No effect
Ad-fixation describes reality better
Percentage of delivered impressions that generate attention
Ad fixation/ Delivered impressions
2022
Percentage of viewable impressions that generate attention
Ad fixations/Viewable impressions
2022
Average attention time Total attention time/Ad fixations
2022
Does your online advertising get the attention it needs?
And do you adapt your online advertising to the attention it receives?
For online advertising, the choice of media channels and ad platforms determines your ability to create attention. The creative execution and your targeting will of course play a role too, but only within the confines and possibilities determined by the choice of media. So the trick is to first capture as much attention as you can with the available budget by selecting the relevant media platforms. And then secondly to align your creative and message strategy to the attention you receive to impact people's minds. Only then do you get the full impact of your online advertising.
"It's all about how much human attention you get for your money"
Karen Nelson-Field
Online advertising efficiency
How well does your brand's online advertising capture people's attention? Or in more formal terms, what precentage of your delivered impressions result in viewed ads? Equating viewable impressions to views is highly misleading - but unfortunately also only too common - and means we risk making the wrong conclusions about our online advertising performance and efficiency.
Instead, track the attention your ads, and your competitors', receive and benchmark your performance. And move from share of voice based on spend to a more relevant share of voice based on attention received.
Maximize output and cut activities that don't perform
How much attention does your brand get?
Buy the right impressions and maximize the attention you get for your budget. Sort and analyze by channel, publisher and format to determine your best cost-vs-attention options.
- Buy impressions with high attention levels
- Increase reach
- Stop buying ineffective impressions with low low attention levels
- Save money and improve both effectiveness and efficiency
Align your creative message with the attention you receive
How much attention does your brand retain?
How long do people actually look at your ad? The attention you receive differs significantly between platforms. This affects your creative executions, both what you can say and how you say it. Choose digital platforms and formats based on what you want to achieve, and tailor your creative executions accordingly.
What does pulse do?
Pulse tracks how people behave online, including what ads their eyes focus on and for how long. Pulse is a subscription service for advertisers and their partners that delivers attention insights for brands based on continuous passive eye-tracking data from panels of desktop and mobile users.
Pulse is 100% independent from all internet platforms, publishers, ad servers and digital trading platforms. Pulse provides a highly advanced and neutral tool for analyzing the quality of your advertising and media performance across media channels, social platforms, publishers and formats. All of this with data and reporting comparing your brand to the chosen competitor set in your category.
Try Pulse today and
Get ahead of your competition
Don't just take our word for it
Pulse by the numbers
Impressions/Fixations
12% of all impressions on desktop resulted in human attention.
Average Fixation Time
On average, Swedes look at an ad on desktop for 2,38 seconds.
Unique brands tracked in Pulse
Pulse is currently tracking and monitoring 250 brands.
What makes Pulse different and better
Pulse tracks what real people do, in the real world, on their own computers and mobile devices. It is 100% independent from walled-garden Internet platforms, publishers and ad servers.
The panels are 100% passive & always on; we do not control or influence people. They are statistically weighted to correspond to the geographical area analysed.
Data is collected daily, and insights are available on demand. Actionable insights are best collected over time and compared on an ongoing basis.
