Clear, precise definitions for the terms that actually matter in 2026 performance marketing — attention science, creative design, and the metrics that predict CTR before you launch.
The vision and cognitive-science concepts that describe how humans actually look at ads.
Attention heatmap
A color-coded overlay on an ad creative showing where viewers are predicted to fixate — hot zones get the most attention, cool zones get almost none.
ReadSaliency map
The raw, model-generated probability surface under an attention heatmap — a grayscale image where brighter pixels are more likely to be fixated.
ReadF-pattern scanning
The eye-movement pattern viewers use on text-heavy layouts: two horizontal sweeps at the top and a vertical skim down the left edge.
ReadVon Restorff effect
A 1933 psychology finding that items which differ from their context are remembered and noticed disproportionately — the basis for isolation in ad design.
ReadThe design-level concepts that determine whether your creative earns the first fixation.
Visual hierarchy
The order in which elements in a layout compete for attention — high-converting ads have one dominant element, not three.
ReadHeadline salience
How visually prominent your primary headline is relative to everything else in the creative — legibility, contrast, size, and placement combined.
ReadAd creative fatigue
The decline in CTR and ROAS as the same audience sees the same creative too many times — usually measurable after 3–5x frequency.
ReadThe metrics and scoring concepts used to evaluate whether a creative will actually convert.
CTA visibility
The probability that a viewer's eye actually lands on your call-to-action in the first 1–2 seconds of exposure — the single strongest attention-side predictor of CTR.
ReadGlossary entries are designed for quick reference. If you want the bigger picture — how these concepts fit together into a creative workflow — these pillar guides and blog posts go deeper.
Upload any static ad creative and get an attention heatmap plus element-level scores for every metric in this glossary. Free to start.