Attention metrics are getting plenty of, well, “attention” from brands and advertisers in 2024. Using privacy-friendly behavioral data to gain deeper insights into user engagement carries too much potential for the buy side to ignore. But could attention metrics fundamentally change what advertisers expect from a publisher’s premium inventory? 

DV helps publishers better understand attention and its potential impact with our Quality and Attention Benchmark Report, which offers a snapshot of key industry metrics every quarter. For a deeper dive into what attention metrics are, and their place in the buyer-seller relationship, read on.

What Are Attention Metrics?

As a relatively new form of measurement, attention can be measured in a number of ways. The process has yet to be standardized, but the MRC has provided early guidance around attention criteria to help marketers across the industry better understand them. Attention metrics provide a way for advertisers to move beyond traditional metrics like viewability and clicks, and drive positive outcomes across the marketing funnel. 

How Can Publishers Benefit from Attention Metrics?

As buyer preferences continue to evolve, it might be seen as a hassle for publishers to keep up. But the fact is attention metrics have seen some remarkable growth among advertisers in recent years. According to DV's survey, 96% of advertisers worldwide were utilizing attention metrics as recently as February 2023. It’s clear that buyers see these measurements as a valuable component of their long-term strategies, but publishers stand to benefit from these tools as well.

Making use of this advertiser interest is an opportunity. Attention offers new ways for publishers to showcase the value of their premium inventory. For instance, since internet users can reportedly encounter up to 10,000 ads a day, it’s not uncommon for their impact to be diluted due to a phenomenon called “banner blindness”. This refers to when users either consciously or unconsciously ignore an ad, even if its viewability is high. Attention metrics give publishers a chance to show their buyers that their audience engages with the content they see. Depending on the size and interest level of that audience, it can even be a metric that plays to a publisher’s advantage.

For premium publishers, having more ways to stand out from their competitors is never a bad thing. That’s exactly what attention metrics can provide.

Bridging the Attention Gap Between Advertisers and Publishers

As third-party cookie deprecation nears its long-awaited conclusion, solutions have emerged that can help facilitate the privacy-friendly exchange between publishers and advertisers. 

DV is enabling this partnership with DV Authentic Attention, DV’s attention solution that analyzes over 50 data points on the exposure of a digital ad and consumer’s engagement with a digital ad and device in real-time. For exposure, DV Authentic Attention^® evaluates an ad’s entire presentation, quantifying its intensity and prominence through metrics that include viewable time, share of screen, video presentation, audibility, and more. For engagement, DV Authentic Attention^® analyzes key user-initiated events that occur while the ad creative is displayed, including user touches, screen orientation, video playback, and audio control interactions. 

Billions of impressions are measured each month and measured against the DV average. For additional clarity, the indices are benchmarked against a standard score of 100 over a 28-day rolling window. For instance, an index of 125 means that performance is 25% better than the standard benchmark score. 

DV’s attention solution is the first to receive MRC accreditation for all attention metrics, and it offers advertisers and brands comprehensive attention-based data that drives campaign performance in near real-time. This buy-side attention data is also available to media partners in DV Pinnacle.

Attention metrics are more than a passing fad, but publishers can think of them as a natural extension of the existing ad performance dialogue between buyers and sellers. Something that can foster a more trustful relationship, and help both find continued success with each other in an industry where the only constant is, and always will be, change.

Download our Quality and Attention Benchmark Report for more information on DV Authentic Attention, and the regional and global insights that it can provide. Interested in DV Publisher Suite? Reach out today and schedule a demo with us!