Where models’ eyes should look in ads

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📝 Context

Topic: Ads | Ecommerce
For: B2C. Can be tested for B2B
Research date: February 2021
Universities: University of Houston

You’re rolling out a new ad campaign for an app that parents can use to help educate their children about financial safety. 

It’s come down to two main ad concepts to choose from:

• Following a teenager, who always looks away from the camera, going about safely and happily shopping in their day-to-day life

• A spokesperson, staring at the camera, explaining the dangers of financial fraud for teenagers

Science says, you should choose the second option. Here is why.

P.S.: 🙏 Thank you to all the hundreds of you who voted on the insight format improvements last week! We will be moving to using a 👀 Real-life example regularly moving forward. When it comes to the 🎁 Bonus at the end, I want to experiment a bit more. So today, you can find a Trivia question at the end!

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📈 Recommendation

If your product is bought mainly for pleasure (e.g. a decorative candle, spa experience), models in your ads should look away from the camera.

If your product is bought mainly for its functionality (e.g. insect-repellent candle, accounting services) or involves negative emotions (e.g. charity appeals, anti-smoking), people in your ads should look directly at the viewer.

Your ads will be more effective, and people will be more likely to buy.

🎓 Findings

• Ads for functional products or those related to negative emotions (e.g. preventing skin cancer) are more effective (sales, clicks, sign-ups) when people in the ads look directly at the viewer. For pleasurable products, ads are more effective when people in the ad look away from the viewer.

• In a series of 5 experiments, researchers found that:

  • When a model in ads looked away from the camera:

    • An online ad for a sunhat generated 30% more sales

    • An ad for a watch was rated 19% higher

    • An ad on the dangers of smoking generated 40% more sign-ups (75.2% vs. 53.8%)

  • When a model or spokesperson in ads looked directly at the camera:

    • Ads about functional aspects of a cafe (its location and convenience) were 12% more effective when the model looked at, rather than away from, the camera.

🧠 Why it works

• When someone is looking away from the camera in an ad, it’s easier for us to imagine ourselves in their position.

• For ads of pleasurable products, we want to imagine ourselves having or using that product ourselves, so a model looking away increases its effectiveness.

• In contrast, when someone looks directly at the camera (and the viewer) in an ad, it highlights the separation between us and the person in the ad. This is why it’s a better option for negative ads (e.g. the negative effects of smoking), we don’t want to be in their position.

• Direct eye contact also makes the model or spokesperson feel more credible and trustworthy to us than someone looking away from the camera, so we give more value to what they say (e.g. explaining a product’s functional features).

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✋ Limitations

• The study looked at static image ads only. It’s likely, but not tested, that the effect holds for video ads as well.

• The research didn’t account for the direction (top, bottom, a specific corner) of a model’s gaze in an ad and whether that impacts how people respond to it.

• The type of gaze and size of the model’s pupils may also strengthen or weaken the effect, but this wasn’t looked at.

• Though an averted gaze makes it easier for viewers to imagine themselves in the position of the model in an ad, it’s unclear if this effect works in the same way if celebrities or well-known personalities are used, as compared to normal people.

👀 Real-life example

Oh Polly’s online store displays its apparel products by showing models wearing them. This is pretty standard. But look closer, and there are big improvements that can be made.

❌ Issue: These are clearly products bought for enjoyment, not utility. The model should not be staring directly at the user, which creates distance with the product (I’m wearing it, not you!). This is the opposite of the thinking we want to encourage.

✅ Solution: Someone on Oh Polly’s ecommerce team must read the Science-based Playbook of Ecommerce Optimization, because they are now trialing, for a few product listings, some drastic improvements.

Why this is a big improvement:

• The models are looking away, making it much easier for the shopper to imagine themselves in their place

• Instead of a plain background, they are shown in the context of where the clothes might be used. This is proven to increase purchase intentions for women (interestingly, it does not work for men).

• The image above is a screenshot of an animation. The models are actually moving (e.g. the wind is blowing in their hair). Videos or GIFs are known to be more effective than static images for these types of products.

• Bonus: the team at Oh Polly has been delightfully creative here. The models of different products displayed next to each other interact with each other! (e.g. one model drops a few lemons, which roll to the feet of the other models). Scientifically, it’s unclear what effect this has. While it likely creates positive emotions and delight, it might also prove to be a distraction from actual sales.

🔍 Study type

Lab and online experiments, field experiment (Facebook ads campaign for a sunhat).

📖 Research

How the Eyes Connect to the Heart: The Influence of Eye Gaze Direction on Advertising Effectiveness. Journal of Consumer Research (February 2021).

🏫 Researchers

• Rita Ngoc To. Bauer College of Business, University of Houston.

• Vanessa M Patrick. Bauer College of Business, University of Houston.

Remember: This is a new scientific discovery. In the future it will probably be better understood and could even be proven wrong (that’s how science works). It may also not be generalizable to your situation. If it’s a risky change, always test it on a small scale before rolling it out widely.

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