Riddle Marketing Report 2025: Interactive formats increase engagement by 300 percent
The average time spent on static websites is just 56 seconds. Riddle’s new Marketing Report 2025 shows that interactive formats increase engagement time to 169 seconds—three times as long. These findings are based on 3.13 billion answered questions, which generated a total of 32.8 million hours of attention.
Riddle, market leader for interactive content formats in the media environment, publishes its Marketing Report 2025 and points out the dwindling attention on the web. The average time spent on a static website is just 56 seconds. For marketing teams, for whom attention is the currency for advertising, data and subscriptions, this figure is a clear warning signal.
The analysis shows that content rarely fails because of the topic. It fails because it doesn't demand anything from the user. Passive content works less and less often, even though digital content has been built for years precisely for this purpose. Read, scroll, click and move on. Users' expectations have changed. Platforms such as Tiktok, games and interactive apps have shifted the scale. Users want to react, join in and actively participate.
Format change brings triple dwell time
"The old model of 'track as much as possible and hope it works' no longer works," says Boris Pfeiffer, founder and CEO of Riddle. "The real surprise comes when it's not the content that changes, but the format."
The same content as an interactive quiz increases the average dwell time to 169 seconds - three times as much engagement compared to static websites. The Riddle analysis is based on 3.13 billion answered quiz, survey and other question formats, which generated a total of 32.8 million hours of attention or 3,771 years of active user interaction based on all analyzed campaigns.
Zero-party data is becoming a necessity
At the same time, the pressure on publishers is growing: third-party cookies are disappearing, the GDPR is being enforced more strictly and tracking is increasingly being rejected. Dwell times and data quality are falling. If users can no longer be tracked in the background, only one thing remains - they have to be asked. This is exactly where zero-party data comes in: Data that is shared consciously and voluntarily because users receive real added value.
Interactive quiz formats are one of the few digital tools where this exchange works. Users take part because they want a result. Publishers receive data because users actively provide it - and remain fully GDPR-compliant.
Publishers are faced with a conflict of objectives: they need to achieve longer dwell times, comply with data protection, deliver better user data, maintain trust and secure monetization at the same time. Many formats only address one of these points and neglect others - with poor performance as a result. According to the Riddle Report, interactive formats show what is possible when the dynamic changes: Users stay three times as long, voluntarily share information and thus strengthen the relationship between publishers and audience. Engagement increases automatically because users not only consume, but actively participate.
The figures speak for themselves: 56 seconds of passive scrolling versus 169 seconds of active participation. Those who go along with the format change resolve many conflicting goals. Dwell time, data quality, data protection and trust are mutually reinforcing. Interactive formats not only attract more attention, but also strengthen the relationship with users.
