Attention on CTV vs Mobile: where the gaze actually lands

Connected TV averages more exposure time per impression than mobile. But exposure isn't gaze: in the home environment, the second screen competes directly with the ad — and eye-tracking data show that a meaningful share of the audience is looking at their phone while the ad plays on the TV.

Mobile starts from the opposite assumption: the screen is close, in the hand, and fills nearly the whole visual field. Vertical full-screen formats often deliver attentive seconds per impression competitive with CTV — provided the creative is built for the medium, not adapted from a 30-second spot.

The useful conclusion for a CMO is not 'channel X wins': it's that cost per attentive second (CPaS) reveals very different hierarchies from those that emerge via CPM. A low CPM with a high CPaS is a bad deal in disguise; a high CPM with a competitive CPaS may be the best investment of the campaign.

Comparing media requires a common metric. Attention is that metric — and it is what allows, for the first time, evaluating CTV, mobile, display and digital audio on the same unit.