Is ‘attention’ becoming advertising’s new currency?

For years, marketers have relied on impressions, reach and clicks to gauge the success of their ad campaigns. But these traditional metrics don’t answer the critical question - did the ad actually hold consumer attention?

 Globally, advertisers are increasingly turning towards attention-based metrics, measuring how long a user looks at, scrolls past, listens to, or interacts with an ad. This shift signals a move away from simply tracking whether an ad was served to proving whether it was genuinely seen.

Measurement firms such as Nielsen and MOAT are already piloting attention-time KPIs with select advertisers. Meanwhile, global platforms like YouTube and Meta have begun experimenting with formats designed to maximise attention span, while Indian agencies are exploring tools to plug these measurements into performance dashboards.

 The urgency is underscored by findings from B&C, which reveal that nearly 75% of media consumption now happens while users are multitasking. In such a fragmented environment, impressions and reach no longer guarantee impact. Instead, the spotlight is shifting toward quality engagement, contextual relevance, and creative effectiveness as attention becomes the most valuable currency in advertising.

Raja Chakraborty, CMO, Continental Coffee, said more than budgets, creative strategy has gone through a change especially for digital ads. There is now a mix of long format and short format. “Master films are complemented with reels with stronger attention hooks landing with the core message. While choosing influencers, we do not go by just the sub base of the influencer, we also check the average views of the content which is a better indicator of the content’s attention, similarly we try to make our content as original as possible so that content don’t look forced, sometimes it may have an attention hook but looks fake which can lead to low believability,” he added.

This was further reinforced by Aakash Goplani, Account Director at SoCheers, who said that in a market oversaturated with advertisements and numerous brands competing for attention, measuring clicks has begun to feel redundant (excluding conversions, of course). “Attention has become the true currency of impact, distinguishing between content that is actually seen and content that is merely scrolled past. Brands that do not adapt now, or at least start experimenting with this approach, risk paying for visibility without achieving any real influence.”

Goplani further highlighted that several global studies show a strong correlation between optimising for attention, measured through factors like time spent in view and depth of interaction, and improved outcomes such as brand recall and purchase intent. He pointed out that brands in categories like consumer packaged goods and automotive have already begun experimenting with attention-led advertising strategies, reporting stronger brand lift and higher conversion rates compared to standard viewability-based approaches.

Nisha Sampath, Brand Consultant and Managing Partner at Bright Angles Consulting LLP said, “For the longest time, advertisers and marketers have acknowledged that time is the most valuable (and most scarce) currency that consumers can give.” She added that while marketers acknowledge this, most still tend to rely on time tested KPIs like reach and impressions.

For Dermabay, attention is defined as the level of engagement and resonance its content creates with the target audience. The brand views attention not merely in terms of metrics such as time spent or recall, but also in how audiences interact with its content and whether it aligns with their values and interests.

 “We're working with several platforms and agency partners that offer attention-based KPIs, including social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube, as well as ad tech platforms that provide advanced metrics like attention tracking and engagement analysis,” said Simran Kaur, Co-founder & COO, Dermabay.

Budgets are increasingly being redirected from pure reach campaigns to attention-optimised media, according to Goplani. He noted that in today’s hyper-cluttered market, impressions no longer guarantee impact. Even advertising platforms are innovating with formats such as interactive video, connected TV (CTV), and shoppable ads to maximise attention. While reach will continue to matter, particularly for FMCG players and new product launches, marketers are prioritising investments where engagement can be demonstrated rather than assumed. “In today’s environment, attention isn’t just a metric; it’s the marketplace,” he said.

Can attention-metric become the standard?

As attention becomes the new north star for marketers, the question now is whether it can evolve from an experimental KPI into an industry standard.

Industry experts suggest that attention could serve as a more reliable metric as it bridges the gap between visibility and effectiveness. Unlike impressions or clicks, which indicate that an ad was served or superficially engaged with, attention measures the quality of interaction - how long audiences viewed, listened, or engaged, and whether the content resonated.

With media consumption increasingly fragmented and multitasking on the rise, demonstrating that an ad captured genuine focus is seen as critical for driving recall, brand lift, and purchase intent. Standardising attention as a core metric, many believe, would better align campaign measurement with actual consumer behaviour and ensure marketing spends are linked to impact rather than mere exposure.

According to Sampath, attention is inherently a qualitative metric that can vary from person to person. She explained that it is also highly context- and category-dependent. For instance, consumer attention tends to be higher for ads about bikes but lower for categories like lubricants. “Hence the benchmarks for attention need to be defined for each category, which is a painstaking task. Even getting consensus on such a benchmark would be a challenge.”

 Experts also agreed that the widespread adoption of attention metrics will ultimately depend on the accuracy and consistency of the measurement parameters. Without reliable and standardised methods to quantify attention, across platforms, formats, and categories, marketers may remain cautious about integrating it as a core KPI. Establishing credible benchmarks and industry-wide validation, they noted, will be key to driving trust and largescale adoption.

Marketers won't invest significant money in this approach without a solid level of trust. Once the ecosystem demonstrates its reliability, attention will no longer be just a buzzword; it will become the new baseline KPI,” Goplani explained.

 However, experts noted that CTR cannot be the defining metric for every ad. Bottom-funnel campaigns, focused on product attributes or RTBs, will continue to rely on CTR as a key performance indicator. In contrast, ads aimed at driving brand consideration or awareness should be evaluated through metrics such as engagement rate, view-through rate (VTR), and the quality of audience interactions or comments.

“Ads which are created to drive brand consideration and awareness may not have CTR as the key metric; this will have engagement rates, VTRs, Comment quality as the important metric,” Chakraborty concluded.

 Thus, once the ecosystem demonstrates its reliability, attention will no longer be just a buzzword, it will become the new baseline KPI.