CMO Guide For Measuring Attention: Viewability Metrics

If attention is an outcome that leads to sales and customer loyalty, then the advertising industry should embrace attention. 

But measuring attention is not trivial. And that's why we published our latest report, "The CMO Guide for Measuring and Managing to Attention Outcomes.” 

We recently covered our guide's first chapter on Interaction Metrics. 

Now let’s cover the next topic of our next chapter: Viewability Metrics. 

What about metrics like screen real estate, video completion rates or audibility? These, too, are meaningful proxies to optimize toward attention outcomes. You’re likely to achieve better attention outcomes if your ad is viewable on screen versus not, or if your video plays until the end, or if the sound is on. But the potential to see and hear is not attention. 

What if the ad is partly viewable on a website page for six seconds, though your attention is focused on another page, in another tab, inside another browser, or on another device -- for that same six seconds? 

What if the ad is audible, but the volume is turned down while you stream a podcast from your mobile phone via headphones full blast? What if the video ad completes, but you put your device down to go to the bathroom two seconds in? 

These examples are not quality exposures nor attention outcomes. At best, they met an industry standard for an impression and failed to deliver impact.