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!
Here is an example of a heat map to illustrate our point:
2 – After text, the presence of a face is the next most influential factor on the visibility of your ad:
The example above is obvious: ads that feature a face attract a lot more attention!
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
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:
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:
The winning combination for graphics
So the winning combination to achieve optimum visibility is…
…text + face + good page integration
Effectiveness of criteria relating to people featured in ads
1 - The results are not surprising: a sensual-looking person attracts more looks.
The ad on the left showing a man with a bare chest got more looks from participants.
2 - Surprisingly, the users (a mix of both men and women) tended to look more at men than at women:
In this example, the man was looked at much more than the woman:
Winning criteria when featuring people
Of the two criteria, sensuality has a far greater impact than gender:
The winning combination when featuring people
The winning combination to achieve optimum visibility is…
…a sensual man
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.