Move over CPM there's a new metric in town. Back in March 2013, Financial Times announced that the paper would roll out ad rates based on time rather than impressions. The attention metric, named Cost per Hour (CPH), stemmed from an attempt to change up the status quo that has been unchallenged for years and to even the playing field for premium publishers versus ad-giants such as Google, Yahoo, and Facebook. So what exactly is CPH and what are its implications for advertisers?
Cost per hour puts the focus on time rather than views. The goal is to create scarcity so media companies can place price tags on commercial time, similar to the way television advertising works. While Financial Times has a relatively small online readership (approximately 12 million monthly unique visitors across desktop and mobile), the paper found that its audience heavily engages with the content on the website. This is why FT is actively pushing the movement towards attention metrics. Other publishers are also following suit. To date, The Economist, Upworthy, and The Wall Street Journal are all implementing attention metrics to upgrade the viewability standard of their content. Media buyers also see the value in attention metrics. The belief is that pricing based on time will place more pressure on marketers and their creative agencies/departments to create more interesting content.
While there is a small contingent in favor of standardizing the CPH metrics, there's also plenty of resistance. Many agencies would like to keep the status quo as is. This could largely be due to the fact that they are already comfortable with the way the infrastructure currently works. Many large publishers that attract large audiences are also resistant of the shift. Of course, the current process is working for them and if it's isn't broke, then why should it be fixed?
As an actual viewer of online advertising content, I'm excited to see what this new metric can do for the quality of the advertising brands create. Marketers would have to work hard to create engaging advertisements that encourage viewers to stay on the page. While I see big players such as Facebook an Google irritated about the change, I do see opportunity for the smaller players to up their advertising ante.
Sources: Is Digital Advertising Ready to Ditch the Click, Cost per hour: A new metric for paid content
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