A new research study compiled by Lumen has found that a significant amount of digital advertising is not being viewed at all, and suggests many marketers are not productively applying the effective techniques learned from other platforms.

Conducted in partnership with Aimia, analysis commenced in January of this year and researchers installed laptop-mounted eye tracking cameras on 300 consumers’ laptops to gather visual data on what they notice while online; recording a total of 30,000 minutes of data and  evidence relating to around 15,000 digital ads.

Results concluded with only 44 per cent of digital display ads receiving any views at all, and just nine per cent of those ads received more than one second of attention. In addition, four per cent of the ads in question garnered more than two seconds of engagement.

Managing director at Lumen, Mike Follett, commented: “The best digital ads do get looked at – but they tend to be simple, elegant, beautiful ads that a creative department would be proud of, rather than moving direct mail pieces. When developing digital ads, creatives should ‘think like a poster’ rather than taking their cues from ‘performance marketers’, who have literally nothing to teach the advertising industry.”

Read more on the study here