The Attention Recession: Why CPMs Are Rising While Engagement Is Falling
Digital Advertising Trends 2025: Understanding the Attention Economy Crisis and Strategies to Improve Marketing ROI
There's a crisis happening in digital marketing that no one wants to talk about: we're in an attention recession. While advertising costs continue to climb, the quality of attention brands receive is plummeting. CPMs are at all-time highs, but engagement rates, dwell time, and conversion quality are at multi-year lows across every major platform.
This isn't just a temporary market correction—it's a structural shift in how human attention works in digital environments. The average consumer now encounters over 5,000 brand messages per day, up from 500 just two decades ago. But human attention capacity hasn't increased. If anything, it's decreased due to the cognitive load of managing multiple digital environments simultaneously.
The platforms have responded by optimizing for engagement metrics rather than attention quality. They've created infinite scroll mechanisms, push notification systems, and algorithmic feeds that capture attention moments but destroy attention depth. Brands are paying premium prices for fractional seconds of distracted eyeballs rather than meaningful moments of focused consideration.
The smartest brands are adapting by shifting from attention capture to attention cultivation. Instead of fighting for moments, they're building environments where customers choose to spend time. Instead of interrupting, they're creating value that pulls audiences toward them. Instead of optimizing for reach, they're optimizing for depth.
This requires completely different metrics and strategies. Attention cultivation success isn't measured by impressions or clicks—it's measured by return visits, time spent, and action taken. It's not about reaching more people; it's about creating deeper relationships with the right people.
The brands that will thrive in the attention recession are those that stop treating attention as a commodity to be captured and start treating it as a relationship to be earned. In a world where everyone is fighting for attention, the real competitive advantage goes to those who deserve it.