Comparison

Neurons vs Realeyes

The cleanest philosophical split in attention measurement: Neurons predicts what viewers would do; Realeyes watches what panelists actually did. Which one you need depends on whether you're iterating or validating.


What Neurons does best

Instant, repeatable attention prediction grounded in years of eye-tracking research: heatmaps, focus metrics, brand norms, team workflows. No recruitment, no fieldwork window — rerun after every design change. That's the shape iteration needs, packaged for enterprise brand and agency teams.

What Realeyes does best

Behavioral ground truth. Opt-in panelists watch your ad on webcam while computer vision reads attention and expression — real disengagement from real people, aggregated into scores major platforms and advertisers have used. When the meeting demands "humans actually watched this," observation carries weight prediction can't match.

Head-to-head: where each wins

Speed and marginal cost: Neurons — predictions are effectively free to repeat; every Realeyes test recruits and pays humans. Evidentiary weight: Realeyes. Iteration fit: Neurons. Emotion readout: Realeyes measures it; Neurons focuses on attention. Both sell through enterprise channels without public rate cards (our Neurons pricing guide covers what to ask; Realeyes follows classic fieldwork economics).

The feed-native third option

Both platforms answer general viewing questions. Feed advertising asks a narrower, harsher one: does this survive a swipe decision every second? PreTestAds was built on that question — AdCortex™, trained on fMRI brain-response data, scores second-by-second engagement against 76 top-performing TikTok ads, returning Hook Strength, the drop-off second, and the full curve in minutes, from about $2 per test, first free. Full comparisons: vs Neurons · vs Realeyes.

The verdict

Iterating on design and layout at enterprise scale → Neurons. Validating finished creative with observed humans → Realeyes. Screening feed creative at volume → the per-test economics decide for you: prediction, benchmarked against ads that won the format, cheap enough to run on every cut.

Screen every cut, validate the winners

Feed-benchmarked attention in minutes — first analysis free.

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Frequently asked questions

Should I choose Neurons or Realeyes?

Neurons for unlimited, instant, per-asset attention prediction — screening and design iteration. Realeyes when stakeholders need observed humans: real panelists watched, computer vision measured actual attention and emotion. Prediction scales; observation convinces.

Is measured attention more accurate than predicted attention?

Measured is ground truth for the panel observed, but carries sampling limits, fieldwork costs, and turnaround. Prediction trades that certainty for speed, price, and repeatability. Mature stacks predict during iteration and measure for final validation.

What's a cheaper option than either for feed ads?

PreTestAds — engagement prediction trained on fMRI brain-response data, benchmarked against 76 top TikTok ads, about $2 per test with results in minutes. Built specifically for the swipe-to-kill feed context rather than general viewing.

By Chris Krecicki · Published