Why Attention Is No Longer Just a Metric—It’s a Guarantee

As we head into this year’s IAB NewFronts, economic uncertainty continues to loom large for marketers, and the pressure to prove the impact of every dollar is intensifying. Brand leaders are shifting from reach to outcomes—and attention has become the bridge between media delivery and business impact. Attention is more than a metric—it’s the proxy for outcomes.

Which outcomes? The ones that matter—not just vanity metrics. Our research shows that high attention drives significant lifts across awareness, consideration, site traffic, and subscriptions. At this year’s IAB NewFronts, Neala Brown spotlighted Guaranteed Attention as a key evolution of our platform. We’ve moved from measuring attention to transacting on it. By guaranteeing an outcome-driving metric, Teads helps brands move beyond basic delivery and prioritize placements and environments that lead to action. 

We’re entering the quality era of advertising—and with it, the outcomes era. It’s no longer about buying more impressions; it’s about buying the right ones. Quality placements that genuinely capture consumer attention are proving to be the most reliable drivers of results. Optimizing for attention allows marketers to go beyond basic delivery metrics and identify high-value consumer moments that drive real business outcomes.

Teads has long invested in attention as a cornerstone of our platform strategy. Over the past two years, we’ve refined a global approach rooted in three pillars: reach, efficiency, and attention. Each plays a role, but attention is the multiplier—the factor that transforms passive exposures into meaningful engagement and real business results. At this year’s IAB NewFronts in New York, Teads unveiled guaranteed attention as a core step in the evolution of our platform.

And not just any results—the ones that matter. High attention has been shown to drive measurable lifts across awareness, consideration, site traffic, and subscriptions.

The Data Is Clear: Attention Outperforms Viewability

New research reveals that transacting on attention significantly outperforms viewability when it comes to driving real brand outcomes:

• For aided brand awareness, attention delivers a 55.5% higher lift than viewability.
• For purchase intent, attention drives a 28.6% higher lift.¹

This confirms what marketers have long believed: while viewability may confirm an ad appeared, attention confirms it had an impact.

Today, attention is evolving into a tangible, transactable metric—thanks to exclusive placements, strategic partnerships with Adelaide and Lucid/Cint, and proprietary technology.

Teads is currently piloting industry-first Attention-to-Outcome Guarantees, combining three critical inputs:

• AU (Attention Unit) scores across screens from Adelaide

• Teads’ proprietary performance benchmarks by media type, inventory, and creative

• Engagement and purchase behavior data that connects attention directly to results

Together, these fuel Effective Attention Guarantees—a beta program enabling brands to plan, activate, and measure against attention thresholds proven to drive outcomes. As part of this program, Teads conducted a log-level analysis of a Q1 2024 campaign, where Adelaide’s attention measurement was executed. AU scores were successfully matched to impressions, enabling real-time optimization based on attention-qualified media—and offering clear proof that attention-based planning delivers both efficiency and performance at scale.

This campaign proved that attention delivers on both quality and efficiency. Over 75% of users experienced repeat exposure—nearly 80% of those exposures occurred in placements that met the AU quality threshold. Impressions and reach above the AU floor steadily increased, showing that optimizing for attention doesn’t limit scale. High-quality placements also maintained net new reach longer and drove stronger net reach percentages as delivery scaled—making attention-qualified media the more effective and efficient path to outcomes.²

Not all impressions are created equal. These findings demonstrate that frequency alone does not drive results unless it is paired with quality. Without the right media environments, added exposures can dilute rather than strengthen performance.

This insight is reshaping how top brands plan media:

• Quality first: Prioritize high-attention environments that consistently deliver better brand outcomes

• Smarter frequency: Use attention data to optimize not just how many times you reach someone—but where and how it happens

• Guaranteed outcomes: With attention-backed models and pilot programs now in market, media can be planned—and purchased—with confidence

Whether through exclusive CTV or premium display, attention-backed planning ensures every campaign works harder.  And now, with scalable, research-driven models, attention has moved from a directional insight to a guaranteed lever of success. Because when attention rises, so do your results.

Sources:

1- Adelaide, 2024

2- Teads and Adelaide Attention Analysis, Q1 2024