Why most of your ads never get seen

ADVERTISING has always been about being seen.

- SCOTT REINDERS

Yet the uncomfortable truth is that most ads online are not.

The latest wave of attention research from Karen Nelson-Field’s Amplified and Connect (part of The Up&Up Group, Africa's largest independent group of creative companies) shows that up to 80% of digital ads never register with a human audience.

For years, the industry has comforted itself with tons of funnel impressions, as if buying them guaranteed impact. What we now know, and probably what you always suspected, is that viewability does not equal attention.

This gap is more than a technicality.

It is costing brands globally an estimated $200-billion a year.

Worse still, it is not just wasted spend. When people half-see an ad or scroll past it too quickly, their brains often misattribute the memory to a competitor. In other words, brands can end up funding the salience of their rivals. That is not inefficiency, that is leakage.

"When people half-see an ad or scroll past it too quickly, their brains often misattribute the memory to a competitor. In other words, brands can end up funding the salience of their rivals."

A first for South Africa

Until recently, all of this evidence came from overseas markets.

That changed with the first human attention data capture was conducted in South Africa.

Working with four brands across finance, telco, retail and food, the research captured real-time human attention and emotional response in digital advertising using facial recognition and biometric tracking.

The design was rigorous.

Around 800 panelists were recruited per platform, from YouTube to TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and Open Web display.