Advertising is nothing without an attentive audience. However, with consumers exposed to thousands of ads daily, securing this attention is becoming increasingly difficult. To address this challenge, today (May 18th, 2023) IAB Europe, the European-level association for the digital marketing and advertising ecosystem released a new guide to attention in digital marketing. The guide aims to provide an introduction to the topic and spark wider industry debate around how attention measurement should develop over the next few years.

Digital marketers face a perfect storm of challenges that threaten to disrupt existing advertising metrics, including audience fragmentation, the explosion of new creative models, and the deprecation of third-party tracking cookies. Concurrently, the advertising industry is coming under pressure to adapt to more sustainable practices to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, many advertisers are looking for new measurement approaches to ensure better business outcomes and to reduce waste, which are bringing attention measurement tools and methodologies to market.

This guide to attention in digital marketing provides an overview of what attention is in digital advertising and why attention measurement is gaining interest now. “In a world where consumer attention is increasingly difficult to secure, this guide provides a valuable introduction to the topic of attention measurement in digital advertising,” said Helen Mussard, CMO of IAB Europe. “It answers key questions brands are currently asking about attention measurement, including why it’s important, what tools are available to measure attention, what are the use cases for these tools, and how can brands best integrate attention into their digital advertising campaigns.”

The guide was written by 19 industry stakeholders from IAB Europe’s Brand Advertising committee including DoubleVerify, Microsoft, GroupM, Kantar, FreeWheel, Scibids, ShowHeros, Teads, Eskimi, PubMatic, Verve Group, Xaxis, Viznet, and Vidmob. IAB Europe also worked with The Attention Council to ensure cross industry collaboration and harmonisation.

Commenting on contributing to the guide, Emmanuel Josserand, senior director brand, agency & industry relations, FreeWheel said ‘’According to our 2022 Marketers survey, Advanced TV Uncovered, one of the biggest challenges in our media industry remains measurement, often cited as one of the main inhibitors of ad spend. In such a difficult economic environment, where budgets are coming under a lot of scrutiny, reaching consumers is no longer enough. Increasingly marketers need to understand how well their campaign performed and if viewers have actually paid attention to the ads, which is where attention measurement comes in. Attention measurement has come to the forefront of industry interest as an alternative solution, due to the inability of online measurements to provide effective reports on ad exposure and the actual real impact on consumers. But attention measurement is still very new and often mis-understood. This IAB Europe Guide is an invaluable resource for anyone to explore what “attention” really means and how it can be a powerful tool in our measurement arsenal’’.

Rob Gedge, global solutions & innovation manager at Xaxis added “GroupM’s focus of delivering ‘fewer, more effective ads’ is key to our work here at Xaxis. By measuring and optimising towards higher attention environments we can look beyond standard digital KPIs and deliver brand uplift that is more in line with clients’ business outcomes”.  

The guide to attention in digital marketing is now available on the IAB Europe website for free download here.

Commenting on why brands should take notice of attention and the new guide, Justin Adler, director of product strategy – quality & compliance, MediaMath said “Attention is one of the most asked-about metrics by our clients, this guide by IAB Europe is a great starting point for any brands looking for next-generation metrics that correlate to the outcomes they care about most.”