Snap wants you to prioritise attention over impressions. Here’s why

Snapchat is introducing a new advertising metric called Attention Per Mille (APM) following research that suggests traditional digital advertising measurements are failing to capture genuine consumer engagement, particularly among Generation Z audiences.

The social media platform's latest study, 'Attention Advantage', conducted in partnership with attention measurement firm Lumen and media agency WPP Media, reveals that 70% of viewable digital ad impressions in India receive no visual attention from users, representing approximately $4.13 billion worth of wasted advertising spend in the country's $5.9 billion digital advertising market.

The APM metric measures how many units of attention advertisers receive per 1,000 impressions, calculated by multiplying the percentage of people paying attention by average attention time by 1,000.

This represents a departure from industry-standard view-through rates (VTR), which only measure whether an advertisement played on screen rather than whether users actually viewed it.

"Marketers intuitively understand that not all of the impressions that they're serving or ads that they are putting on platforms get seen by the audiences," explains Amit Chaubey, head of marketing science, APAC at Snap Inc.

"While the ad might play, people might skip the ad or pay attention somewhere else. What's the point of an ad if nobody saw it?"

The research, which involved more than 3,000 respondents aged 16-34 across India using eye-tracking technology, found that attention proves eight times more effective than viewthrough rates in predicting brand recall and four times more effective in predicting brand favourability. A 5% increase in attention can lead to twice the gains in brand perception, according to the study.

The Gen Z attention deficit

The findings highlight a particular challenge with Generation Z consumers, who demonstrate 34% lower attention to social media advertising compared to millennials. This "attention tax" means advertisers targeting Gen Z audiences must spend 16% more on media costs to achieve the same attention levels as older demographics.

"That becomes an attention tax you're paying. And we wanted to give advertisers a playbook with learnings that could increase the attention that you want from Gen Z by about 22 percent," notes Chaubey.

The research suggests this presents both a challenge and opportunity for brands, given that India's 377 million Gen Z consumers represent the largest generational cohort in the country's history, with collective spending power projected to reach $2 trillion by 2035. 

This also positions Snapchat as a valid contender for brand attention, given that the platform currently boasts more than 250 million monthly active users in India alone, with 90% of its daily active users aged 13-34. 

Platform performance disparities

The study's competitive analysis reveals significant variations in attention capture across different social media platforms.

Snapchat's formats, particularly its augmented reality lenses combined with video advertising, captured 4.27 times more attention than Facebook, 2.4 times more than Instagram, and 1.3 times more than YouTube, as per the report.

AR lenses emerged as the standout format, despite being skippable, delivering twice the attention and three times the efficiency of traditional video advertising. The research identifies AR lenses as the most cost-effective method for purchasing attention, with costs four times lower than YouTube skippable advertisements and three times lower than YouTube non-skippable and Facebook in-feed video ads.

As things stand, Snapchat has three major ad formats to offer to advertisers. "There is the immersive, full-screen video. You can use it for a short or longer duration. There's also in content advertising, and then we have AR lenses," Chaubey elaborates.

In addition, Snap has recently launched Sponsored Snaps in India, which is essentially the ability for advertisers to reach out to consumers in the chat field or organic environment. 

"We are finding that's working really well in the initial tests that we have done. So I think all of this is providing an ecosystem of formats and an ecosystem of consumer touch points to advertisers."

Beyond platform and format considerations, the research identifies specific creative elements that enhance attention capture. User-generated content (UGC) style advertisements demonstrate high impact on attention metrics, whilst consistent brand presence throughout advertisements and strategic use of music also prove effective.

The study found that brand presence at the beginning of advertisements and persistence throughout significantly impact attention levels, whilst product demonstrations and on-screen text provide mid-level attention improvements.

Industry-specific insights emerged across different sectors: automotive advertising performs best with AR lenses, whilst the apparel, beauty, and food sectors benefit most from video and AR combinations. Quick-service restaurants still achieve strong results with traditional video formats, though combining with AR unlocks additional value.

Industry adoption and measurement infrastructure

Snapchat is democratising access to attention data through partnerships with measurement providers, including Integral Ad Science (IAS) and DoubleVerify, allowing advertisers to access attention metrics within their existing campaign reporting frameworks.

The platform maintains a global partnership with Lumen to provide attention prediction capabilities for live campaigns, moving beyond theoretical research towards practical implementation tools for media planners and advertisers.

"This report does not just exist as a report," emphasises Chaubey. "There's a playbook, and there's also the ability to access the data on live campaigns going forward. We partnered with WPP media, who are the global leaders in media planning, and bring the voice of marketers to this. And we wanted to make sure that this research was answering a very relevant question for the India market."

Broader market implications

The research addresses universal challenges facing the digital advertising ecosystem, with attention patterns proving consistent across international markets when controlling for creative and audience factors.

However, India's digital landscape is particularly affected due to the predominance of Gen Z users who demonstrate greater comfort with immersive, mobile-native advertising formats.

"Gen Z behave similarly across markets," Chaubey observes. "It's just that when I look at Japan versus India, Gen Z is so much more prevalent in India versus Japan."

The findings suggest a fundamental shift towards human-centric measurement approaches in digital advertising, moving away from device-based metrics towards authentic engagement indicators. 

The research indicates that incorporating attention-based planning could boost Gen Z audience engagement by up to 22%, potentially addressing the engagement gap that currently penalises advertisers targeting younger demographics.