Screen Size Matters: TV Ads Lead to More Sales Than YouTube or Facebook Ads

Research done by Dr. Karen Nelson-Field, Professor of Media Innovation, University of Adelaide and Executive Director Centre for Amplified Intelligence, shows several important points:

• There is a significant relationship between the attention paid to advertising and sales
• People pay more attention to the same advertisement on TV vs. Facebook or YouTube
• There’s a direct correlation between sales and video size (yes, size)
• The larger the screen, the bigger the sales impact

Now a lot of this seems logical. The more attention you give something, the more likely the message is to stick. You’re more likely to watch an ad on TV than you are to stop and watch a video as you’re scrolling through Facebook or searching on YouTube. But read on, there are some fascinating findings here.

Only 4% of Facebook viewing is actually active viewing. That translates to less attention, and fewer sales.

Screen Size And Screen Coverage Matters… A Lot

Dr. Nelson-Field reports there is a “material uplift in sales” when videos are larger than 50% of the screen and viewed for longer than 2 seconds. After 10 seconds, you get the most impact. But here’s the really important point:

100% screen coverage provides twice the sales impact over 50%, regardless of how long video was watched. Anything below 100% means diminished attention (and sales).

In addition, 100% screen coverage has an even larger impact when viewed on the largest screens. In other words, 100% coverage on a TV has a greater impact than 100% coverage on a tablet, phone, or laptop.

You can watch here entire presentation below. If the video doesn’t show, try this link.

A personal thank you to Bob Hoffman for pointing out this study. In his Ad Contrarian newsletter, he summarized the research as this: “The study conclusively (in my opinion) demonstrated the superior effectiveness of TV to both Facebook and YouTube video advertising.”