Gone in Three Seconds

A great blog by Joseph Carrabis on iMedia Connection recently discussed the time users take to evaluate whether or not they will continue to look at a particular page.

NextStage conducted the research and found that the first 3 seconds are the most critical. This is called the “attraction” stage, in which users are deciding whether the information is interesting and want to continue perusing.

This is an interesting concept in relation to online advertising because this means that placement and ad content must catch the user’s eye within that 3-second time frame otherwise it will be lost. Knowing this will force advertisers to be more exact about where ads are placed on a page. It will also force them to be more creative about the content of the ad to achieve that "wow" factor.