Why Most Ads Don’t Get Noticed – And What Really Drives Attention

Why It Matters

Brands are pouring money into digital media, yet most ads fail to hold people’s attention long enough to make an impact. This research explains why, and what advertisers must change to cut through the noise.

Key Takeaways

• Viewability is not the same as attention; most “in-view” ads are not actually being watched.
• Attention behaves differently across media channels, and ads often fail to meet the 2.5-second threshold needed for memory.
• Brands must tailor creative content to how people consume media on each platform, using channel-specific best practices.
  

The Myth of Attention: Why ‘In-View’ Doesn’t Mean ‘Seen’

The advertising industry has recently become preoccupied with “Attention”, whether people are truly noticing ads and whether current metrics capture this. But the surprise is misplaced. Audiences have always avoided irrelevant content, long before digital platforms existed. The difference today is that the conversation has shifted from traditional media to digital environments, where attention gaps are easier to measure.

The core issue is simple: the industry uses viewability, the technical measure of whether an ad appears on screen, as a proxy for attention. Yet an “in-view” ad is not necessarily watched. On social platforms like Facebook, Instagram or TikTok, users scroll past content in seconds. Even on television, a viewer may be physically present yet not paying attention to the screen. The gaps have always existed; they are just more visible now.

Digital channels further complicate this picture. Viewability is straightforward to measure because it is technology-driven. Platforms record scroll speed, how long an ad remains on screen, and how much of the ad appears in view. Attention, however, requires eye-tracking and facial-coding studies, which are harder and costlier to run. As a result, viewability remains the default metric at scale, while attention insights come from smaller, ad hoc studies, though industry teams are working on predictive attention models.

The 2.5-second rule intensifies the challenge. Research shows that people must actively watch an ad for at least 2.5 seconds for it to form a memory association. Yet most ads fail to clear this threshold. This disconnect leaves brands questioning how viewability and attention should shape creative and media planning.

Different Channels, Different Realities: Why One Size Doesn’t Fit All

A major mistake advertisers make is treating all media channels as if they capture attention in the same way. In reality, each platform has its own attention dynamics, shaped by how people consume content.

YouTube typically records high viewability because ads stay on screen for longer. But this can be misleading: people often wait impatiently for the five-second skip button, looking away from the screen until they can skip the ad. Meanwhile, social platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok deliver shorter viewability but higher actual attention, because users are actively scanning the feed, even though they rarely stop long enough to watch an ad in full.

This means the viewability/attention relationship is elastic and varies across channels. Platforms designed around rapid scrolling are inherently more distracting; those built for longer video formats can still suffer from low active engagement. Understanding this nuance is crucial. Brands should not increase or cut spend based solely on attention metrics.

What matters is recognising the unique consumption patterns of each channel and designing creative content that fits. The crisis is not that people have shorter attention spans, but that they have a lower tolerance for irrelevant content. To hold attention, an ad must feel relevant immediately, with a clear sense of the brand, the product and the message from the outset.

Creative That Cuts Through: What Works in Today’s Attention Economy

As attention grows harder to earn, brands must apply platform-specific creative practices that boost the chances of engagement.

On scroll-based channels, view-through rates are extremely low. Most videos are watched for fewer than three seconds. This makes early branding, rapid product cues and an immediate visual or audio hook essential. The content must stop the scroll, not compete with it.

On YouTube, skippable pre-roll ads dominate. Many viewers ignore the screen while waiting for the skip button, creating a different challenge. Here, audio becomes a powerful tool. Strong sonic branding can pull viewers back to the screen, making sound an under-used asset that brands should develop and deploy consistently.

New industry insights also shift how brands should brief agencies. Meta now advocates the idea that “6 seconds is the new 60 seconds”, urging brands to create multiple short-form videos designed to earn aggregated bursts of attention rather than sustained viewing of a single long ad. This reflects the reality that people dip in and out of content across a day, rarely giving one ad long, continuous focus.

Analytics Partners expands on this with its “lots of littles” approach, emphasising that brand building now relies on many small, consistent touchpoints. The campaign idea must carry cohesively across formats, placements and stages of the consumer journey. What matters is not the duration of each view, but the collective impact of repeated, coherent exposures.

Business Implications

• Design for relevance: People tolerate only what feels meaningful. Clarity of brand, product and message must appear within seconds.
• Tailor creative to the channel: Scrollers need fast hooks; YouTube viewers need strong audio cues. Do not assume attention behaves the same everywhere.
• Adopt short-form, multi-asset campaigns: Replace single long videos with multiple six-second pieces to accumulate attention across touchpoints.
• Use attention insights wisely: Attention metrics should inform creative direction, not dictate channel spend.
• Build distinctive brand assets: Sonic cues, visual identifiers and consistent themes help brands register even in short exposure windows.
  

 

Authors & Sources

Author: Ramanathan Vythilingam (Nanyang Technological University)

Original Magazine: Greenbook

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