Mobile advertising: performance through creation
A study by the German Digital Economy Association (BVDW) examined the impact of creative design on the viewing duration of mobile ad formats.
Users now encounter ads on many different devices - but they are particularly striking on smartphones due to their relative size. Mobile advertising formats show a very strong attention-grabbing performance here. Almost all users look and do so for a very long time. This is the result of the "Power of Mobile Creation" study conducted by the Online-Vermarkterkreis (OVK) in the BVDW using eye tracking. According to the study, the quality of the creation has an influence on the viewing time of mobile formats.
Whether a user makes eye contact with a mobile advertising medium is almost 30 percent predicted by the creative. The duration of viewing, on the other hand, is 15 percent determined by the creative. Other influencing factors such as format, industry and environment are more important here, accounting for almost 45 percent. This means that creation is also a success driver for brand communication in the mobile advertising market. Compared with desktop, however, creative takes up more space on the smaller display of the smartphone and is seen by many users per se.
Successful advertising through good creation
All of the mobile formats examined generally show a strong attention-grabbing performance. Even with the smallest formats (the 6:1 banner or the 3:1 banner), four out of five users pay attention. For larger formats, the rate is almost 100 percent. The video Interstital performs best. Here, the average viewing rate is 99 percent, and the duration is around 4.8 seconds. In general, the difference in viewing time between the largest and smallest format is four seconds. What's more, the smaller the format, the greater the influence of the creative on whether or not the ad is viewed. "Large formats are perceived more strongly simply because of their presence on the screen. But with smaller advertising media, the quality of the creation plays a decisive role," says Jeannine Klar, Head of the Advertising Impact and Market Research Unit at OVK.
The duration of viewing is also determined by the quality of the creation. The larger the format, the stronger the influence of the creative on how long an ad is viewed. This is especially true for video content: Depending on the creation, the viewing time can vary by up to five seconds. Klar continues: "When planning a mobile campaign, the investment in creation is at least as important as the selection of formats. After all, only those who convince the user will receive the appropriate attention and the advertising medium will also be seen."
The study "Power of Mobile Creation" was conducted by the Mobile Advertising Unit (MAC) in the BVDW Online Marketing Circle (OVK). As part of the study, data was collected via eye tracking, among other methods. 237 people took part. Each participant was assigned to a group of four different environments and visited each for three minutes. The ads on the live pages were replaced in a controlled manner according to the available advertising space and the marketer guidelines. A total of 805 mobile advertising contacts were examined, and 14 environments were involved in the study: Seven of them as Mobile Enabled Website (MEW), five as App environment and two environments as MEW & App. Popular domains from the news, sports, entertainment and mail service sectors were represented. Eye tracking was used to record viewing duration, gaze distribution and interactions on the mobile website.
