The elements that boost ad visibility

Miratech has completed the first study on how the content of an ad influences its visibility.
Our findings? The most effective ads are those that show a sensual man, include text, and are well integrated with the web page.

Our study focused on how the content of an ad influences its visibility. We tested a sample of users in our eye tracking labs. The users were asked to navigate freely on 8 blogs that had been redesigned for the purposes of the study.

For the first time, the detailed results of the study are now available in a white paper:
eye-tracking-etude-publicites.pdf (PDF 3,5 Mb – in French)

The study is divided into two parts. The first part covers graphical elements. The second examines criteria relating to people featured in ads.

Using graphics effectively

1 - The “Text” criteria has the greatest impact on ad visibility. If you add text, you can expect the visibility to almost double!

Presence of text

Here is an example of a heat map to illustrate our point:

Carte chaleur présence de texte

2 – After text, the presence of a face is the next most influential factor on the visibility of your ad:

Presence of face

The example above is obvious: ads that feature a face attract a lot more attention!

Carte de chaleur présence d'un visage

3 - The last criteria we studied, that was shown to have a strong impact on ad visibility, is visual integration or how well the ad blends in with the web page

Integration with the page

Here we can see clearly that the complementary ad block (same tones) is more eye-grabbing than the ad on the left with its loud colors:

Carte de chaleur intégration dans la page

Winning graphical elements

The presence of both text and a face are the two most influential factors affecting ad visibility.

Here is a pie chart to illustrate the relative influence of each element:

Winning graphical elements

The winning combination for graphics

So the winning combination to achieve optimum visibility is…

…text + face + good page integration

Example of an ad that combines the winning criteria

Example of an ad that combines the winning criteria

Effectiveness of criteria relating to people featured in ads

1 - The results are not surprising: a sensual-looking person attracts more looks.

Sensuality

The ad on the left showing a man with a bare chest got more looks from participants.

Carte de chaleur influence sensualité

2 - Surprisingly, the users (a mix of both men and women) tended to look more at men than at women:

Gender

In this example, the man was looked at much more than the woman:

Carte de chaleur influence du genre

Winning criteria when featuring people

Of the two criteria, sensuality has a far greater impact than gender:

Pie chart showing the relative importance of each criterion

Pie chart showing the relative importance of each criterion

The winning combination when featuring people

The winning combination to achieve optimum visibility is…

…a sensual man

Exemple de publicité combinant les critères gagnants

Example of an ad that combines the winning criteria

Conclusion

Miratech has exposed the criteria that have the most significant impact on ad visibility.

Our study revealed the following key points:

  • Users looked at men more than women
  • The most effective ad is one that features text and a sensual man, and blends in well with the web page.

Detailed results are available in the white paper: eye-tracking-etude-publicites.pdf (PDF 3,5 Mb – in French)

News: Miratech won First Prize of the Be-UX Paris event for Wonder.Legal, a solution for creating contracts and legal documents with a simple form.