Sponsored video posts work

Videos in the Tumblr dashboard attract more attention.Although click figures can provide exciting insights, they do not show which individual elements of a website users pay attention to. To investigate how Tumblr users perceive advertising on the platform, Yahoo's social blogging service teamed up with eye square to test the impact of a sponsored video post that was displayed in users' personal Tumblr dashboards. The eye-tracking analysis, in which test subjects' eye movements are recorded and analyzed, was carried out with participants in Berlin and London.Videos are eye-catchers"Moving images are highly relevant for all target groups," says Steffen Hopf, Vice President Yahoo Germany & France. "The test video achieved a high reach among both smartphone and desktop users." 92 percent of participants saw the video post in their dashboard. The average time spent on Tumblr was higher for users accessing Tumblr via a computer than for smartphone users. While desktop users spent an average of 33 seconds looking at the video, mobile users spent 19 seconds. "However, this dwell time is an enormous amount of time for mobile devices," explains Steffen Hopf. Regardless of whether Tumblr is visited via desktop PC or mobile device, users start scrolling after 10 seconds on average. During this time, their attention is focused entirely on the upper area of the dashboard.Score points with the right placementThere are also clear differences between smartphone and desktop users in terms of the time spent on the posts further down the dashboard. For the latter, the longer they have to scroll, the shorter the time spent on the individual posts. Those who swipe their finger across the smartphone screen, on the other hand, pay significantly more attention to the sixth, eighth and 13th posts because scrolling typically stops at these points when swiping vertically at high speed. In general, the swiping motion leads to a faster downward movement in the dashboard for mobile users - and therefore to greater attention for posts further down. "This shows that the position of sponsored posts should be chosen strategically. If you want to reach smartphone users in a targeted manner, you can also score points by placing them further down the dashboard," says Steffen Hopf.