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Chartbeat Demonstrates Below-the-Fold Ad Placement Is More Valuable Than Originally Assumed

Amy Gesenhues on March 21, 2013 at 12:06 pm

Chartbeat, a provider of web-analytics software, is on a mission to convince publishers that below-the-fold ad opportunities may be more valuable than top of page ad placements.

Using a cross-section of data from publishers in their network, Chartbeat found that web visitors are only engaged for a few seconds at the top of the page, while 66 percent of a visitor’s Engaged Time over a 24-hour period happened below-the-fold, the area of a page not visible when the page is opened in a browser.

According to Chartbeat, their Engaged Time metric is a more effective way to measure visitor activity because it monitors actions in one-second increments, such as scrolling or moving a cursor while a browser tab is open.

Lauryn Bennett, Head of Brand at Chartbeat, confirmed that they are seeing a correlation between higher Engaged Time and higher brand recall. After conducting an online study with 1,500 people, Chartbeat found that brand recall was significantly higher for ads on pages with high Engaged Time. When viewing an article for a five-second period, only 50 percent of readers were able to the identify the ad on the page after viewing it; but, when the viewing time was increased to 15 seconds, 70 percent of readers were able to identify the ad they had seen, proving that readers were more likely to recall a brand when their Engaged Time on a page with an ad was increased.

Last December, Chartbeat offered a select number of publishing clients access to a beta version of their new ad sales dashboard that displays Engaged Time metrics. Using the dashboard, Chartbeat clients can see the amount of Engaged Time website visitors are spending in front of ad placement areas and other specific sections of their site. Chartbeat believes this data will likely increase the value of below-the fold ad placements and create new advertising opportunities for publishers.

Chartbeat’s Ad Sales Dashboard

(tip AdAge)

About The Author

Amy Gesenhues

Amy Gesenhues is Third Door Media's General Assignment Reporter, covering the latest news and updates for Marketing Land and Search Engine Land. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs.com, SoftwareCEO.com, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy's articles.