Dive Brief:

• To launch its Keep manual toothbrush, Colgate-Palmolive used Eye Square's new Ad to Cart tool for real-time ad testing to see what mobile ads are most effective in encouraging shoppers to add the toothbrush to their cart, according to a case study shared exclusively with Marketing Dive.
• The tool displays ads across Amazon, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube and asks users to simulate a purchase in the category of the ad they were exposed to, followed by a questionnaire to assess the effectiveness of the ad. The CPG company was able to tailor messaging, creative and spend accordingly based on Eye Square's insights and analysis of consumer responses.
• Colgate's partnership marks the first use of Eye Square's new tool, which blends the explicit and implicit reactions of a user with their immediate perceptions, per Eye Square, and offers valuable behavioral shopping metrics to inform campaigns.

Dive Insight:

Eye Square's new tool demonstrates the effectiveness of testing ads in the context of e-commerce sites and social media platforms, where many consumers already spend much of their time. For Colgate's trial, the CPG brand could gather behavioral tracking data and survey responses from consumers to provide a clearer picture of the ad's influence on potential customers' decision-making around buying a toothbrush. Real-time insights like Eye Square's allowed Colgate to quickly tweak its campaign based on how consumers were responding to the ads they saw online.

Tools like Eye Square's are being developed in response to the skyrocketing growth in online and social shopping. Brands across categories are turning to these types of tools to maximize ad efficiencies and reduce wasted ad spend. While traditional methods of market research often lack in terms of providing real-time insights to an ad campaign, online surveys and tracking tools can help brands like Colgate make campaign adjustments on the fly based on consumer data

Many consumers today are experiencing ad fatigue, caused by the inundation of branded messages and ads while shopping, reading or socializing online. Most ads hold a viewer's attention for mere seconds, according to Helen Wolf, insights lead for Colgate's North America Innovation Accelerator.

"Our research with Eye Square enabled us to measure not only consumer behavior, but the reasoning behind their choices. Deploying in-context advertisements on platforms like Instagram and Facebook allowed us to understand what makes a message successful in each medium and tailor our collateral accordingly," she said in the announcement shared with Marketing Dive.