Lengthier blog posts stand a better chance of gaining attentive readers on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, and especially during ‘business hours’.

That is according to a new study from AddThis, a Virginia-based media tracking firm which analysed the behaviour of over 50,000 anonymous web browsers to ascertain a peak time gap for viewing content across the US.

The company’s ‘How Scrolling Matters’ report for Q2 informed media planners and native advertisers that ‘scrolling behaviour’, or the inclination to scroll down on multi-page content, is 55% more likely to occur on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and subject to a 20% boost between the recognised working hours of 9am – 5pm.

AddThis claimed such findings dispel the myth that people have more time to read web content when they are out of the office.

Thinking promotion, not production

Other readings from the report highlighted best practices for publishers looking to monetise their on-page content. Tests from AddThis revealed that placing ads on pages optimised with content sharing and engagement tools led to a 85% increase in their viewability.

However, the study claimed that too few advertisers were paying attention to optimisation techniques when deploying their content, bemoaning a concerted focus on producing media at the expense of its ability to drive engagement.

Content-focused advertisers were left to rue their production-placement balance as AddThis found that sites with higher engagement rates – possibly boosted by the aforementioned tools – delivered a 30% uptick in brand awareness.  

Social links fail to impress  

In other takeaways from the study, social media and its ability to encourage scrolling on medium and long-form content was subject to a great deal of focus, but for the wrong reasons.

After examining the behaviour of users who were directed to a piece of content via social, AddThis discovered that 65% bounced after visiting just one page. This may be down to browsers looking to social media for a concise view of the day’s events, and scrolling through lengthy pages of content may not suit their agenda.

This still does not prevent site readers from sharing a piece on social media, as ‘scrollers’ were seen as 46% more likely to link to an article on Facebook. Despite being known for its favourable reputation among bloggers, network rival Twitter chimed in with a slightly lower total of 33%.