Left vs right – who wins?
Key Findings: left vs right
• Lumen eye-tracking shows that readers’ viewing is biased towards right hand pages of a
spread and adverts on the right are seen more: 94% see full page ads on right-hand page,
89% view when on left-hand page
• However, RAMetrics data shows the impact of left or right position is marginal on ad
performance – and far outweighed by the strength of creative
• Ad recall is slightly higher for ads placed on right, but not when like by like sizes are
compared
• Brand and action measures slightly favour left-hand ads
Source: RAMetrics. Countries: England/Scotland. Left – 30 ads from 20/09/2016 to 03/04/2017, Right – 31 ads from 03/11/2016 to 03/04/2017. Score base: read the newspaper.
Left vs right - Ad recall
64%
61%
left
right
Source: RAMetrics. Countries: England/Scotland. Left – 30 ads from 20/09/2016 to 03/04/2017, Right – 31 ads from 03/11/2016 to 03/04/2017. Score base: read the newspaper.
Left vs right - Ad recall
left
69%
right
70%
58%
57%
47%
Full page
Half page
47%
Quarter page
Source: RAMetrics. Countries: England/Scotland. Most recent ads in each size, 47 full page, 49 half page, 48 quarter page. Score base: read the newspaper.
Left vs right ad comparison
brand measures
engagement
attention + recognition
42%
41%
action
44%
price
image
36%
32% 33%
28%
24% 24%
27%
32%
28% 29%
26% 26%
30%
27% 26%
26%
23%
22%
19%
15% 14%
19%
16% 16%
15%
13% 14% 12%
12% 13%
9%
Source: RAMetrics. Countries: England/Scotland. Left – 30 ads from 20/09/2016 to 03/04/2017, Right – 31 ads from 03/11/2016 to 03/04/2017. Score base: read the newspaper.
11% 10%
Eye tracking shows attention leans right
Right hand pages naturally get more attention
Share of dwell time on double page spread
2017-05-25, Metro, P14 & P15
42%
Right hand page
Left hand page
58%
Ads get higher standout on the right hand page
94%
89%
100%
67%
1.4”
73%
1.4”
80%
68%
60%
77%
74%
77%
73%
60%
Left hand page
Right hand page
40%
20%
0%
10x7
Source: Lumen eye tracking. Base: 34,742 impressions
17x7
25x4
FP
The natural gaze path means left hand ads seen last and less

The eye naturally tends to start in the middle of a page

It then scans to the right, and back across

This means ads in the lower left position are more likely to
be missed
Source: Lumen eye tracking. Base: 34,742 impressions