Attention Metrics: The End of CPC?

Online advertisers are looking for new more accurate pricing models. Joe Slade, the commercial director of digital advertising and insight at The Financial Times recently told Adage “no one has come up with a new currency in digital advertising in – a while.” Slade thinks that cost per hour, CPH, which measures the amount of time an ad appears to online readers, could be a game changer for pricing digital advertising.

CPH and other attention metrics could completely transform online ads and the analytics industry.  Advertisers would be more confident that people are viewing their ads, and not just accidently clicking on them.  Therefore, changing what resources and funds they allocate to digital ads.  Attention metrics could also change how digital ads are created.  Online marketers would want to create more appealing and creative ads to keep the viewers attention for longer periods of time.

The Financial Times is not the only online media outlet to look at “so-call attention metrics.”  Upworthy and The Economist are currently investigating attention metrics, while not yet charging advertising using them.

            However there is resistance to change.  Online publishers and advertisers have spent years figuring out how to best buy ads.  Benjamin Zeidler told Adage “Agencies are among the entrenched interests. They're good at buying ads. They know how to do it. It's probably scary to change the mode of how they do business -- how they sell it, price and benchmark it.”

            As attention metrics become more common, cost-per-click may quickly become an outdated pricing scheme. 

http://adage.com/article/media/digital-advertising-ready-ditch-click/295143/