Wajeez Blog

Tobii Technology, a leader in eye tracking and gaze interaction, in partnership with Mediative, Canada’s digital marketing company released the findings of a new eye-tracking study, revealing that, regardless of device, the leaderboard banner ad remains the most visible and effective way to reach consumers online.

There will be nearly 70 million tablet users in the US by the end of 2012, an increase of more than 100% over 2011, and it is a growth that is expected to continue through 2015. -eMarketer 

The study, titled “The Effectiveness of Display Advertising on a Desktop PC vs. a Tablet Device,” used the Tobii T60 and X60 Eye Tracker to record the gaze patterns of participants and to measure what specific types of ads (leaderboard banner, skyscraper and big box) received the most attention on both a PC and an iPad. In regards to leaderboard banner ads, Mediative and Tobii researchers found the following:

• Most visible ad format on the iPad:
  Leaderboard banner ads on the iPad performed significantly higher than other ads on the iPad, as consumers fixated on them 44 percent longer than the next best performing ad, thus engaging longer with its content.
• More visible on the iPad than on the PC:
  Leaderboard banners held the user’s attention 22.5 percent longer on the iPad than on a PC. However, leaderboards on the PC were seen more than twice as fast as on the iPad.
• Most effective attention grabber:
  For both PC and iPad, leaderboard banner ads were the most effective in grabbing the consumer’s attention. Across devices, these ads were seen the quickest and had the highest percentage of people noticing them.

Based on these observations, the research team concluded that the top part of the web page still remains the most visible and most coveted real estate on the web, regardless of device. The team also recommends that, as the media landscape is becoming increasingly more fragmented by the availability of new mobile devices, online advertisers need to be mindful of the display ads they place as well as how they will most likely be consumed by the target audience.

Key findings:

• Leader board ads on the PC were seen quicker than those on the iPad, but the leader board ads on the iPad held attention for longer, and were looked at by almost as many people. Therefore, leader board ads on tablets have the potential to be more effective.
• On both the PC and iPad, leader boards were the most effective ad, being seen quicker and with fewer Fixations Before than other ad types on the page. This ad type also had the highest percentage of people noticing/ fixating on them. This solidifies the notion that top and centre ad placement remains a strong and privileged place to be.
• On the iPad, leader board ads had better engagement metrics than all other ads types on the page. Fixation Duration, Visit Duration and Visit Count were all greater for leader board ads.

This comes on the heels of a recent research by IgnitionOne, a digital marketing solutions provider managing over $1 billion in online advertising, which revealed that tablet users spent 30% more time on site and had 20% higher engagement than PC users. This engagement was even higher within the retail vertical, proving the value of reaching this audience.

The report, which includes trends across online advertising, also stated that U.S. mobile and tablet search grew to 16.3% from 14% of total search budgets and had a year-over-year (YoY) increase in spend of 167.5%. Total paid search spending grew at 17.8% YoY, representing a slight acceleration compared to the last quarter.

Key findings:

• Tablet users are most engaged
  Compared to PC users, tablet users spent 30% more time on-site and had 20% higher Engagement Scores (proprietary user-level scoring metric).
• U.S. search growth up almost 18% YoY
  While growth was flat quarter-over-quarter (QoQ), paid search spend in Q3 was up 17.8% compared to the previous year. Growth was tempered by a weaker than expected back-to-school season in retail and the continued general weakness in the macro-economy.
• Yahoo! Bing Network spending continues to accelerate in US
  Google CPCs grew YoY for the first time in 2012 (up 7.7%) but Yahoo!/Bing saw CPCs increase at nearly triple this at 26.1% YoY.
• Mobile and tablet advertising grows as percentage of spend
  U.S. Mobile grew to 16.3% from 14% of total search budgets with a YoY increase in spend of 167.5%. This represents a deceleration from the massive growth rates experienced in the first half of this year.

APPENDIX:

• The history of Banner ads: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_banner
• Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) standards: http://www.iab.net/guidelines/508676/508767/displayguidelines

Ad Unit Sizes:

• Leader Board: 728 x 90 pixels
• Skyscraper: 160 x 600 pixels
• Big Box: 300 x 250 pixels