Marketing

Why measuring Attention is one of the smartest and simplest things you should be doing

February 28, 2024
A girl starting at her computer screen, touching her eye glasses with one hand, looking focused
Nandini Agarwal
Written by

Nandini Agarwal

Content Marketer

Introduction

We can all agree that attention is one of the core elements of marketing. It's so critical that Google's AI research arm DeepMind has built a tool called "Attention Is All You Need". Modern AI allows you to predict attention, and if you're not already using this to drive better results, you are missing out. Let's examine why measuring attention is one of the smartest and simplest things you can do.

Why wouldn't you measure attention?

To make your marketing work, your message must be noticed. It's that simple. If I don't see it, I won't remember it. And if I can't remember it, I won’t be able to recall it, which means all your investments have been in vain. From that perspective (visual), attention is crucial for marketers. It's what marketers need to build on, makes logos noted, and is required to build memorability and good messaging. Attention is what lets people discover, see and process your message. It creates brand associations and helps people decide if they want those new things or not. An ad that nobody sees or a logo that doesn't get associated with your content is squandering media money. Let's agree that if we could predict attention at a low cost, there would be no reason not to measure.

The challenges of getting noticed

Conventional eye tracking is expensive, relatively slow, and challenging to implement. Eye-tracking solutions can be costly, especially when hiring experts who know how to properly implement and use eye-tracking devices. A typical eye-tracking study involves an operator who will analyse the data of your subject's pupils as they look at different stimuli. This process can take hours or even days.

This depends on what kind of data you want to track and how many participants are needed. In addition, conventional eye tracking isn't always reliable. The sample size is relatively small, introducing room for outliers. This can make it hard for marketers to interpret the results later on.  


Simplicity

We believe that measuring attention is one of the smartest and simplest things you can do to improve communication. Nowadays, using AI is easy and takes less than a minute. With the AI-powered expoze.io platform, we automatically predict and track the visibility of content. It gives you actionable insights into how people see your Ad. This information helps you guide actionable decision-making for ads and marketing purposes. Not based on opinions but science. All this without hiring additional staff or contracting outside firms for costly research taking weeks.

One simple subscription covers everything from the basic plan (which offers real-time image processing) to pro-level functionality like multi-user capabilities and complete video analyses.

Why attention measurement should become a no-brainer

Attention prediction can help you understand if essential elements like your logo will be seen and how easy it is for your content to stand out.

The bottom line is that: the prediction of attention provides a clear and actionable benchmark for success or failure, clearer than any other test method available today. It can help you understand what people are (and are not) looking at and find ways to change that on the spot. It allows marketers to improve, by understanding how to get their content across, and avoid costly failures. All of that is constant and at a fraction of the cost of conventional research.

Measuring attention with AI. Let's avoid waste

Much time and, above all, money is wasted on content that doesn't get seen. You can avoid this by measuring (visual) attention. See if your ads and the essential components you try to get across will get noticed. Learning how to avoid wasting time on things that don't work is helpful.

By measuring attention, you can already figure this out during production and assembly if something isn't working and improve it on the spot. It saves both time and money! Finally, spending a big budget and not taking time to test for the basics makes no sense. You spend time and money on things people won't remember because they didn't get noticed. By measuring attention with AI, you'll know what works best. And people will remember what they see from your brand!

Conclusion

In the end, predicting visual attention is one of the smartest and simplest things you can do as a marketer. It will help you make better (data-driven) decisions about your creativity and become a wiser marketer at the same time.


Takeaways: Measuring attention can significantly impact your creativity by helping you understand what people see. If you pay attention (pun intended), you can make decisions that benefit everyone involved in the process!

Related Articles
A woman sitting in front of her computer, distracted with her phone

Duration-Based Attention Metrics: A Siren Song for Marketers?

Skip the Long Ads! Quality over Quantity for Attention Marketing. Learn how to craft impactful ads that resonate & ditch misleading duration metrics.

READ MORE
A mother with her two kids standing at a grocery store, all confused what to buy because of too many options

Understanding Hick’s Law: How Can You Make Users Decide Quickly?

Want to make your customers buy faster? Hick’s Law can help you with that. Learn all about it with examples of big brands applying it.

READ MORE
A laptop which shows an AI bot in it with a stack of pencils kept on the left side of the laptop

AI Marketing Automation: What You Need To Know

Looking for a smart strategy to enhance your marketing and productivity? Try AI marketing automation. Learn how you can use this and the tools available.

READ MORE

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter.

Stay ahead of the competition with a monthly summary of our top articles and new scientific research.