Scaling Attention Measurement with Lumen

As interest grows around Attention measurement within the advertising industry, it’s paramount for marketers to stay up-to-speed with the latest and greatest on innovative solutions that helps them understand the value of their investment. Snapchat and Lumen partnered together to offer innovative Attention measurement, taking results from in-lab experiments and applying them to scale real-world measurement. Read all about the journey here!

Introduction to Attention in Advertising

In an era where the media landscape is cluttered with content and consumers have a multitude of channels and platforms to choose from, capturing and holding consumer attention has become a paramount challenge for advertisers and marketers. Advertisers, now more than ever, are going beyond viewability and investing in sophisticated means to measure attention, understanding that it's not just about reaching eyes but engaging minds. Furthermore, they are looking for scalable methods that go beyond lab-based measurement towards tools made to measure real-world impressions.

Attention Measurement with Lumen

Snapchat has partnered with Lumen since 2021 on a phased approach that took our journey from underneath the microscope to the real-world marketplace. Lumen originated with a focus on using eye-tracking glasses to measure gaze on advertisements in controlled lab environments and is now using that data to inform a scaled attention measurement approach.

Initially, Lumen’s lab-based measurements provided invaluable insights into how Snapchatters paid attention to video ads, paving the way for the analysis of augmented reality (AR) advertisements. Marked by the integration of biometric data with traditional media delivery data, the underlying history between our organizations helped in the transition from the lab to a scaled measurement tool.

Lumen’s attention measurement toolkit offers a range of metrics, including percentage viewed, which predicts the likelihood of an ad being seen; average view time, forecasting the duration an ad is likely to be viewed; attentive seconds per thousand impressions (APM), a product of the percentage viewed and average view time; and ACPM, which measures the cost per thousand attentive seconds.

Capture Attention and Drive Results

The efficacy of Lumen’s approach was put to the test through a proof of concept analysis of over 700 campaigns spanning technology, consumer packaged goods (CPG), and e-commerce sectors from 2022 and 2023. A modeled output was created and compared to results from historical in-lab studies as well as how our results compared to our peers, which revealed three pivotal findings:

Modeled results were in-line with expectations: The modeled results closely matched our expectations in terms of where each of our formats netted in its ability to garner attention, especially with Commercials and Lenses achieving high performance, and how they compared to other social platforms.

Correlation with Brand Lift: When we took a look at campaigns that were able to successfully capture at least 1 second of attention per impression, we saw a direct impact on a brand’s ability to achieve higher and more significant lift with Ad Recall, as measured with a brand lift study.

Optimize Through Creative and Objective: In addition to understanding the context and relevance behind Lumen’s attention measurement, we also found actionable insights related to optimizations. Notably, Commercials and AR formats achieved significant attention, justifying their premium costs due to the immersive engagement they foster.

From the Lab to the Real World

The findings from Lumen’s marketplace measurement proof of concept affirm that attention metrics serve as a powerful and efficient leading indicator for advertising success. By leveraging varying auction objectives and adhering to creative best practices, advertisers can further refine their strategies to maximize attention. We also recommend having a robust mix of multiple ad products to start testing and creating a path towards maximizing attention for your brand.

As the digital advertising landscape continues to evolve, the ability to measure and optimize for attention will enable efficient and holistic understanding of attention being garnered across campaigns. We encourage advertisers and marketers to explore the potential of attention metrics by collaborating with us or Lumen to integrate attention measurement tools into your advertising strategy and ensure your campaigns not only reach but resonate with your target audience. Embrace the future of advertising, where attention is not just captured but cherished.

Learn more about our previous research with Lumen.