SAN FRANCISCO, April 9, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- An online advertising eyetracking study using Eyetools, Inc.'s heatmaps technology, conducted for "MarketingSherpa's 2008 Online Advertising Handbook + Benchmarks," shows that placement on the page is an important and often missed metric for advertisers. The eyetracking study from Eyetools, which shows what is seen and what is ignored by a website visitor, indicates that for advertisers, the context in which an ad is served is just as important as the ad itself.
"MarketingSherpa's partnership with Eyetools, the innovator and patent holder of eyetracking technology, is by far the best way to show our readers what on-screen content is actually being viewed by computer users," said MarketingSherpa Senior Analyst Tim McAtee. "Their eyetracking heatmaps showed conclusively that just being above the fold makes a huge difference, but more importantly that ads placed in high-traffic areas of the page are much less likely to be ignored. This is data that will certainly help our clients improve the economics of their ad campaigns."
Using eyetracking enables advertisers to understand the true value of their ad impressions, which in turn, allows branding campaigns to become more efficient and improve ROI. "Purchasers of MarketingSherpa's Online Advertising Handbook + Benchmarks will recognize the value of eyetracking heatmaps as a way to save money by targeting the most effective marketing concepts and designs before incurring the expense of going to market," said Eyetools CEO and Founder, Greg Edwards.
He continued, "Since 2005, we have been working with MarketingSherpa on a number of their handbooks and guides. Eyetools' partnership with an organization that has this real-world focus has helped us transform our technology from the research stage to the marketable stage. This new handbook, which features our eyetracking heatmap study, reflects the expertise of the MarketingSherpa team in knowing what practical advice to dispense and what data to provide to back it up."
The Eyetools heatmap is made by using proprietary Eyetools analysis software with special computers that track the eye movements of a sample of computer users to see where they actually look on the computer screen. The testing process has three steps:
- Working with the client to identify the demographic group and the activities or tasks to be tested; Eyetools recruits the people or the client supplies the people
- Collecting and analyzing the data
- Analysis and discussion of the results of the study with the client
Eyetools, Inc. technology grew out of Stanford University research. Their pioneering eyetracking interpretation and visualization software now is widely used among:
- Agencies who use it in online marketing studies for their Fortune 1000 companies
- Large corporations who use it to test ad campaigns, landing pages, websites, and emails
- Companies of all sizes who use it to test web page design, landing pages and prototypes
About Eyetools
Eyetools, Inc. (www.eyetools.com) is a services company focused on automating the analysis of eyetracking data. They provide eyetracking analysis software and expertise as a service to enable companies to easily apply eyetracking data as a means to optimize websites, shopping carts, email campaigns, and landing pages. Eyetools is the worldwide technology leader in this space, leveraging sophisticated eye-movement research and visualizations developed at Stanford University. They hold the patent on "eyetracking heatmap" visualizations, the industry standard for presenting eyetracking data.
About MarketingSherpa
MarketingSherpa (http://www.marketingsherpa.com) is a research firm publishing practical case studies and benchmark guides for its community of marketers and thousands of weekly case study readers. Topics covered include practical how-to and exclusive data and proven tactics in business-to-business marketing, ecommerce marketing, email marketing, search marketing, telemarketing, media relations, landing page design, marketing measurement and online subscription marketing. The firm also operates six annual Summits attended by thousands of marketers. MarketingSherpa, along with MarketingExperiments and InTouch, is part of the MECLABS Group.