Dive Brief:

• Mobile marketing companies Kargo and MediaBrix have released separate reports, each leveraging neuroscience and neuromarketing to better understand the neuro and biometric responses to certain ads.
• Kargo’s findings point to the effectiveness of smaller display ads while MediaBrix determined that embedded, opt-in views are better received compared to interstitials. 
• The insights into the consumer’s state of mind when an ad is served could help brands deliver ads that drive brand affinity rather than annoy consumers. 

Dive Insight:

The marketing industry is still trying to figure out how best to advertise to mobile users, as smartphones are much more personal than other devices, with consumers typically having them nearby throughout their day. Interactions are also often on-the-go and of short duration, another challenge for marketers.

Initial efforts to simply replicate desktop experiences on mobile are being met with pushback from consumers, who have complained that pop-ups and other intrusive ads are annoying.

The two reports point to how marketers are better trying to understand how consumers react to mobile ads, something neuroscience and neuromarketing research can help accomplish by monitoring neuro and biometric responses before, during and after the moment of ad delivery.

Overall, the MediaBrix study found that, compared to interstitial ads, people engage more with mobile video ads that are embedded in the app experience, opt-in and are perceived as adding value. For example, the full page video interstitial ads triggered fight-or-flight responses at a rate twice that of the embedded opt-in ads. 

Kargo’s key findings include that size did matter, but bigger isn’t necessarily better; interstitial ads that take over the entire screen are the most ignored by viewers; in-stream ads are preferred because engagement is user-controlled; and ad formats didn’t impact consumer opinion about the brand doing the advertising. The research also found that smaller, expandable ads created repeated views.

“A shocking amount of mobile ad dollars are going towards boring – or worse, annoying – ads that alienate consumers and negatively impact user experience,” said AJ Mathew, VP of Research at Kargo, in a release. “Ads that draw consumers in and attract attention are more impactful and effective, compared to large, interstitial ads that consumers are visually engaging with, but often because they are trying to close them.”