Clocked Out: Rethinking Dwell Time
Why do people care about dwell so much? We believe that perhaps they confuse dwell with interest and they're desperately trying to correlate what people do at an event or at an exhibit, with resulting impact, to justify event marketing budgets. So why is it a mistake to equate dwell time with impact and what can you do about it?
1. What dwell is (and isn't)
For in-person events and exhibits, dwell time does not reflect engagement. Unless you can prove that more time in your experience actually correlates to greater impact (like higher purchase intent), the measurement is meaningless. For digital experiences, we all know that dwell time can include time away from the computer refilling coffee, grabbing a snack, or letting the dog out.
Simply put, dwell time measures aren’t reliable.
2. When and how to use dwell
So what can dwell tell you?
Booth dwell, and other heat mapping measurements, should be paired with other KPIs and goals to paint a more accurate picture of attendee behavior.
For in-person events, you should set throughput goals for individual experiences and track time spent against those targets to identify if people are moving too fast or too slow through each experience. For digital events, you should also be setting targets, and tracking how many participants fall within those parameters. For example, thinking about a trade show booth through a set of time dimensions:
The 5-second impression: The booth design needs to deliver fast impact with passers-by (and to stand out from the competition).
The 2-minute elevator pitch: A visitor approaches the stand and wants the overview: “What’s this company all about?” In 2-minutes or less this interaction should include the most critical information about the brand and why it is different. More time than this isn’t what the visitor is looking for.
The 5-minute demonstration: You may want a lot of people to see your products which means keeping demos short and snappy. You don’t really want people ‘dwelling’ for too long here.
The 30-minute consultation: For qualified visitors with real interest, a longer chat might be needed. (And if even MORE time is needed, it might make sense to schedule a post-show meeting).
All of these timed experiences are important and deliver impact - more time is needed for some, less for others - but each must deliver impact.
3. Managing expectations
Some stakeholders have latched on to the concept that more time spent equals greater impact. Take the time during your planning process to help them understand why you need to pair dwell with other indicators, and how to evaluate actual time spent vs time spent targets.