What you will find in the article
- Pause ads reached 92% visual attention when paired with 30-second video ads
- Pause ads increased brand connection by 11 percentage points
- Contextually aligned pause ads raised purchase intent by 20 percentage points
- Video ads build awareness; pause ads deepen brand connection and purchase intent
-
Pause ads saw a 92% visual attention rate when used alongside 30-second video ads (87% attention rate) and 15-second video ads (76%) within a content session.
-
Pause ads also contributed to an 11 percentage point increase in brand connection among general pause ad viewers and a 20 percentage point increase in purchase intent when the ad was contextually aligned with what the viewer was watching.
-
Brand favorability increased 24 percentage points among existing customers who viewed a pause ad.
Why a joint strategy works
Pause ads and standard video ads serve two separate purposes that, when combined, move viewers along the marketing funnel.
-
Video ads build awareness at the upper funnel by introducing new brands to viewers, building a narrative, and establishing broad reach, notes Kara Manatt, EVP of Partner Intelligence at Omnicom Media.
-
Pause ads meet viewers at the mid-funnel, where they can deepen the connection a viewer already has with a brand and move them closer toward purchase intent. They also occur during natural breaks in viewing rather than interrupting the program, making them uniquely positioned to reinforce awareness from a standard ad.
-
And over half of viewers pause content for 1 to 5 minutes, per 2025 Magna Global and DirecTV data, offering a sizable window to deliver a campaign’s message.
Source: content-naf.emarketer.com