Car giant Toyota has just run a trial using eye-tracking tech and says the results will change its approach to online display advertising.

The company took the step after observing that the majority of viewable display ads are not seen by online users.

In Summer 2022, it teamed up with eye-tracking company Tobii to run an A/B test campaign around its hybrid electric car models. Group A was served a viewable impression without the attention optimisation algorithm. Group B was served the same impression with the algorithm.

Toyota and Tobi, along with partners Xaxis, The&Partnership and Acceleration, then teamed up to build an attention optimisation algorithm that took into account the likelihood of attention.

The impact of the algorithm was a 77 per cent lift in click to conversion rate and a 23 per cent increase in conversions.

As a result, Toyota decided to expand its campaign to achieve lower funnel performance as well.

Jan Casserlöv, Marketing & CEX Manager at Toyota, said: “It was an easy decision to continue using it. At Toyota, we appreciate that The&Partnership, Xaxis and Acceleration are ahead of the curve, finding new ways to maximise the outcomes of our advertising efforts. It’s exciting for us to be a part of the journey.”