We are exposed to more than 1,700 banner ads each month, yet we only see half this number. Marketing is crucial for companies wanting to stay ahead of competitors, but capturing their audience’s attention is a more complex endeavor than it may seem on the surface. If you’ve ever wondered why some online ads seem to hold your attention more than others, it could be that the people who made them have a better understanding of the science behind attention capture. In his 2016 book, Captivology, Ben Parr explained the scientific principles behind catching – and holding – an audience’s attention. So what are the principles successful marketers are applying when we find ourselves sucked into an advertisement?

Three stages of attention

Attention can be thought of in three stages: immediate attention, short attention, and long-term attention. Parr says that the secret of successful attention capture lies in making the audience pass through each stage in order. Immediate attentions are unconscious and subconscious reactions to stimuli. Online advertisements will use certain symbols and colors to catch our immediate attention. From here, we move into short attention, which is where we consciously decide to pay attention. This is the type of attention we use when we’re watching a TV program or reading a news article.

While we’re passing through this stage, successful marketers are making sure their content is new, creating something we want to pay attention to. The final stage is long attention, and here, advertisers want us to hook onto a long-term interest in their idea so that we want to become familiar with it. Long-term attention is what we’re applying when we watch not just one episode of a TV program, but the whole series.

Triggers for attention

So how do advertisers make sure they capture our attention at every stage? Parr identified seven attention triggers that successful marketers use for this: automaticity (the thing that forces people to look in the first place), framing, disruption, reward, reputation, mystery and acknowledgement. All of these triggers require marketers to use psychological tricks to hook us in and capture our attention, leading us through the three stages. These encompass many elements, ranging from the effects of color, through to the release of dopamine in the brain when we perceive a reward from investing in a company’s products (for an example, a luxury car brand insinuating that buying their car will give us an elevated position in society).

The challenge for businesses

Understanding the science of attention capture and how to get us to pass through each stage of attention has always been important to advertisers, but in an increasingly online world, many industries without psychological training are having to figure out how to capture the attention of their audiences. Even legal firms now use SEO optimization tactics to reach new clientele and stand out in search engine rankings. From here, they have to work to make sure their site captures the attention of the person who’s landed there, triggering their attention and leading them through the stages in order for them to stay.

In his book, Parr recommends three specific psychological studies for business leaders to understand why people are attracted to particular content and what stimulates their rewards centers. One of these is a 1970s study by Hasher and Goldstein, which illustrates that repetition can override an individual’s frames of reference and existing biases. This speaks to his framing trigger, and is what will be utilized by successful companies who have captured your immediate attention once you’ve clicked through to their page.

It’s easy to think of advertising as a creative art, but in fact, the most successful marketers are aware that it’s much more than this: it’s a science. The challenge faced by companies who want to hold our attention and get us interested in their products and services is understanding how to harness the power of that science without psychological training.

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