Eyeblaster’s latest benchmark report has found Australian’s have the lowest average dwell time and dwell rate for online advertisements globally.

The report juxtaposed Australia and New Zealand, North America, East Asia, Europe, South Asia and South America and analysed the results of more than 13 billion rich media impressions globally in 2009. It found a direct link between high dwell rate and and high conversion rate.

When a consumer engages with an advertisement for longer, the chance of conversion increases. On average, increasing dwell from 5% to 15%, increases conversion rate by 45%, from 0.4% to 0.6%. This offers further credence to the importance of engaging creative in the digital space.

The report also analysed the dwell rate by vertical within Australia. The technology and internet vertical performed best at 12.8%, followed by sport at 10.5% and retail at 9.3%. Surprisingly, news and media performed the poorest of all verticals in Australia, at a 2.6% dwell rate and average dwell time of 23.6 seconds [Ed: not even close to Marketingmag.com.au’s much more robust dwell time].

“These metrics are evidence that user interaction with an advertisement increases the dwell time, which directly affects conversion rate and brand awareness. Australian advertisers need to tap into the unique benefit of engagement that online advertising can offer,” said Carolyn Bollaci, Eyeblaster country manager, Australia and New Zealand.

Bollaci offers the following tips for advertisers looking to increase conversions:

• select advertising real estate around editorial content requiring thorough reading
• use video (the report found this increases dwell rate by 29%), and
• be assertive by utilising features such as expandable banners.

Eyeblaster also points to recent research conducted by Microsoft, comScore and itself that confirms digital campaigns with high dwell are more effective for branding. The results indicate that campaigns with a high dwell triple brand related keyword search, increase traffic by 69% and increase brand engagement: number of page viewed and time spent on the advertiser’s site.

The full report can be read here.