Psst - are you paying attention? 

Stop us if this sounds familiar. Someone is watching a video on YouTube on a computer and an ad break arrives. Some people will watch the ad, but others will run to make coffee or glance at their phone or anywhere other than their screen while the ad runs on screen.

We know that attention is incredibly important for brands looking to get their message in front of audiences that are being pulled in many different directions. And advances in technology have made it easier for brands to track attention through biometric data, data signals, proxies or surveys. As these enhancements are more readily available, brands and their agencies are increasingly paying attention to attention.

Like, right now, you’re probably reading this, but your mind may be wandering elsewhere. Snap back into attention! We promise it’s worth it.

But it’s not enough to know whether someone watched the ad, but what they did afterward. That’s why it’s so important to tie it to sales lift, so brands can attribute bottom-line impact to their advertising. In fact, over 64% of CPG marketers use sales lift to measure campaign outcomes. ¹

We recently partnered with Integral Ad Science (Nasdaq: IAS), a leading global media measurement and optimization platform, to help a leading media agency understand how successful its beverage clients’ ads were at capturing attention and how that affected sales. Thanks to advanced machine learning technology, which powers both IAS’ and Circana’s solutions, it is easier and more accurate to measure results than ever before. 

By leveraging IAS's Quality Attention™ product, which unifies media quality and eye tracking with machine learning to deliver proven results, in a Circana Sales Effect study, we were able to show how attention scores performed when it came to incremental sales.

Our joint study examined the impact IAS’ scores had across the campaign, comparing sales KPIs for the households exposed to placements with higher attention scores to lower attention scores. Unsurprisingly, we found that higher attention boosts sales performance compared to placements with low attention. 

Higher IAS attention scores were a key indicator in driving incremental sales in the campaign. In addition, sales lift and return on ad spend were higher for quality attention placements with scores above 60.

The test ultimately demonstrated a 157% increase in incremental sales and 40% increase in sales lift, while increasing ROAS by 6%.

Takeaways for all

Circana's Sales Effect studies provide even more granular and precise insights – the kind you need in today’s marketplace. You get a new level of detail that drives actionability and a precision that delivers the intelligence on how the creative, audience, frequency and media impact your campaign outcomes. Knowing which components of your campaign drove the biggest incremental sales impact translates into more effective future campaigns.

For CPG advertisers, knowing how media attention can lead to valuable sales results means they should include it in their overall marketing analytics approach. Studying attention by platforms both pre-campaign and over time helps brands make smarter decisions about where to allocate their dollars. 

Check out the full case study results and be sure to connect with us for questions on how you can measure the sales impact of attention metrics for your next CPG campaign. 

^{1 Circana & CMO Council, Optimizing Outcomes in Media Marketing, 2023}