Businesses generate profit by providing products or services to their customers. Usually, each business has a product that they offer to the audience. However, creating an audience around a given product or service is challenging. Particularly in this era of informed audiences, people are likely to pay little attention to your marketing messages. People no longer like the salesy content.
With this being the reality, some entrepreneurs have come up with new strategies. This strategy involves creating an audience and monetizing by allowing advertisers to show ads to the crowd. A good example of such a strategy is the attention merchant business model. But what does this model entails? Read on to learn more.
What is the Attention Merchant business model?
As the term suggests, businesses using this model capitalize on the audience’s attention. Attention merchant is a business model where the entrepreneur develops a way to capture the audience’s attention and monetize it by helping advertisers feature their ads to this crowd.
The model involves developing a strategy to build a crowd and then promote certain products and services to them. With technology and internet access, this model is becoming a new way of doing business.
People pay attention to their smartphones and PCs on platforms such as Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. So, the platform owners take advantage of this attention to profit.
How does it work?
The attention merchant works through creating an audience and then monetizing its attention. Usually, businesses using this model create a platform where the audience can access their desired information without paying a coin.
For instance, people can watch free movies, listen to music, or play games on these platforms. As they concentrate on these activities, the merchants pop endless ads and get payment from the advertisers.
In this essence, the model has three players. The first player is the merchant who owns a platform. The merchant uses this platform to build a large audience by allowing free use and access and capitalize on their attention.
The second player is the audience or the platform user. As they use the platform, they pay attention to their favorite activities. These activities can be a movie, music, game, or reading a novel.
The advertiser is the third party in this model. They are businesses requiring an audience to promote their products and services. For this reason, they pay the merchants to allow them to access the audience’s attention on their platforms and showcase their ads.
So, the main product of attention merchants is the audience’s attention. In other words, they make money by selling the crowd’s attention to the advertisers.
Examples of Attention Merchant business model
Attention merchant business model is a common approach in the 21st century. With the internet becoming a basic need, everyone is spending maximum time online. Companies and influencers are utilizing the attention they get from their audience to earn some cash. However, they are a number of companies that use this model.
Facebook is an excellent example of ranking tech companies utilizing the attention merchant model. This company allows users to post and use Facebook for free. As one scroll through the news feed, the company feature sponsored ads from advertisers. Also, Facebook allows people to view videos and pop up ads in between the video. The advertisers bid to capture the audience’s attention on Facebook.
Google is another company applying this concept through its video-based social media platform: YouTube. On YouTube, you can search and watch any video without paying a dime. However, you can expect some ads to pop up which interrupt your experience. This aspect is a form of Google monetizing your attention.
Other platforms applying this approach include Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and other free online gaming platforms and apps.
Pros and Cons of the Attention Merchant business model
The attention merchant business model is a great idea for people with crowds. It can help you maximize your profit. However, it has its share of advantages and disadvantages. You need to be aware of these aspects before considering your operational model. Here they are:
Pros
No product development process
Many business models involve the product development process. You must develop an idea, take it through the designing process, and produce the product before launching it to the market. This process takes time and money.
All you need is the power to capture people’s attention for attention merchants. You do not need a product as their focus our attention is what you monetize. As such, no complex product development process is required. In essence, you can use free platforms to create an audience, making this model cost-efficient.
Easy to operationalize
Certainly, every business requires a model to serve its customers efficiently. Some models are hard to operationalize as they feature complex phases and processes. The case is different for the attention merchant model.
As a user of this model, your role is to develop an audience and capture its attention. This aspect can be using inborn talents or professionalism. With the audience, you can easily capitalize on their attention and earn money from it.
Readily available customers
The audience is the new dime in this era. As competition in the market surges, every business is seeking a way to reach out to a wider crowd and deliver their brand messages. This means that they will approach any person who attracts and controls the actions of a given audience.
Having a crowd that pays attention to you attracts customers who want to deliver their brand messages. So, you do not struggle to find customers for your ‘product’ (the audience’s attention).
Cons
It depends on your ability to maintain the attention
While it is easy to capture people’s attention, you cannot determine how long it will last. This aspect makes it a challenge for people to use this model as their sole concept. To sustain your business, you must invest in developing attention capturing information that can be a challenge at times.
Conclusion
As you can see, the attention merchant business model can be an ideal approach for businesses or entrepreneurs with power influence. If you can capture the long-lasting attention of a certain crowd, you can consider applying this model and make some money from your influence.
