Silverpush, the contextual intelligence company, today (17th February, 2026) released a first-ever attention study on the impact of contextual intelligence for YouTube advertising with agency partner Epitaph. By working with Lumen, the global attention measurement company, Silverpush and Epitaph analysed more than 60 million impressions across 30+ campaigns to see if contextual video advertising on YouTube generated higher attention.
“We believe in the power of context for YouTube advertising and our clients have seen great results across the funnel from it,” says Scott Stewart, executive vice president at Epitaph Group. “Now, by analysing attention scores for these campaigns, we have a new way to show that performance.”
When compared to standard YouTube advertising attention benchmarks, Lumen found that contextual YouTube advertising powered by Silverpush and Epitaph drive:
- +12% higher viewed rate (relevance)
- +22% higher average view time (engagement)
- +37% higher attention per mille (efficiency)
“At Lumen, we know that context is a key factor behind high attention to ads. By showing strong scores across the board, this attention study found that Epitaph and Silverpush consistently drive higher relevance. This, in turn, keeps YouTube audiences engaged and ensures much higher efficiency by delivering YouTube ads that actually capture people’s attention,” says Donia Baddou, global VP of partnerships at Lumen Research.
With additional attention studies across social and YouTube campaigns planned, Epitaph will now build an advanced buying model that focuses on relevance, context, and attention. In part powered by Silverpush, Epitaph clients will now be able to deliver video ads more effectively and efficiently to inventory and placements that are guaranteed to be high-quality and high-attention.
“We are thrilled to show that context truly does drive a lot more attention for advertisers,” says Jeff McCann, RVP of Canada at Silverpush. “Our work with Epitaph’s clients has shown that contextual intelligence makes a big difference, and now the results from Lumen prove that, when a video ad is delivered at the most relevant moment in a viewer’s journey, they’re more likely to pay attention – and take action.”
Silverpush will incorporate attention metrics from Lumen as a new layer of measurement for clients going forward to both better show a holistic picture of ad performance as well as understand the quality of context, quality, and relevance on YouTube.
