DoubleVerify, which sees more than 65 billion impressions weekly, on Tuesday released its first global report on attention metrics from the DV Attention Lab.
The Q3 2023 report -- spearheaded by Daniel Slotwiner, senior vice president of attention at DoubleVerify -- measured the difference in average performance across industries, driven by varied media strategies and tactics.
Media & Sports, Health & Pharma, and Education were the top three-performing industry segments, with average attention levels of 117, 113, and 108, respectively.
The top performers tend to use engaging and timely content. For example, Media & Sports ad campaigns often contain visuals, live-action content, and updates about ongoing or upcoming events, leading to higher engagement.
Travel, Financial Services, and Telecom were ranked the lowest. The study also found interesting attention metrics between regions, with APAC doing well and other markets, such as LATAM, lagging.
The benchmarks were produced by the DV Attention Lab. It is based on more than 50 data points calculated in real-time, and tens of billions of impressions measured per month, and is benchmarked against an average score of 100 across a 28-day rolling window. An index of 125, for example, indicates the performance of that index is 25% better than the benchmark score.
When asked how he describes his work in attention metrics at DoubleVerify to someone outside the ad industry, Slotwiner said it was easier when he worked at Meta, but heads toward describing the effectiveness of ads and how they work.
"If people want to go deep, I talk about the supply of inventory, quality and how attention build on that," he said.
Although attention metrics does not rely on third-party browser cookies, he said there is an important connection between the two. There is a need for some type of proxy to measure the outcome of ads, and he believes attention metrics will become the choice to overcome the deficiencies from the deprecation of cookies.
Slotwiner also called out the report's regional data as some of the most interesting.
"Regions like APAC that performed well speaks to the trend toward mobile first in an app," he said.
Attention trends vary significantly by region, influenced by diverse inventory buying strategies. In APAC, media investments predominantly target in-app inventory, leveraging the region's historically strong video performance. This focus results in above-average attention for ads on mobile apps.
In LATAM, ad performance is generally lower. Over half of the region’s display advertising creatives were small-format and purchased programmatically. Without optimization, this can result in lower attention metrics.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is on track to change attention metrics, Slotwiner said.
"We are firm believers the combination of attention metrics and artificial intelligence will really improve performance for advertisers," he said. "We already see the changes in how creatives are produced. Brand safety and classifications will make advertisers more comfortable."
Slotwiner, who spent nearly 10 years at Meta in its research department, said AI will help the industry measure attention across all platforms and drive more efficient outcomes. DoubleVerify is using attention indices inside the algorithmic optimization product. The company has seen clients use it to optimize the inventory bought on demand side platforms (DSPs.)
“We’ve seen advertisers take attention, apply AI, and see improved ROI results,” he said. “Initial tests saw a 63% improvement in attention levels. The first proof of concept looked at just improving attention levels, but have since worked with clients to try and improves different KPIs like sales.”
Source: mediapost.com
