Understanding and working with AOIs

• Bulk AOIs Setup
• AOI suggestions
• Creating and Editing AOIs
• Editing and renaming AOIs
• Hiding and deleting AOIs
• Copy-pasting AOIs
• Guidelines for creating AOIs
• Manual AOI Tracking for Video

 

Bulk AOIs Setup

Need to configure several assets at once? The Bulk Setup flow makes it quick and effortless.

1. Select your assets

   Click the thumbnails of the assets you want to include. This activates the toolbar—then simply choose Bulk Setup to get started.

2. Define your objectives

   Set the objectives for your selected assets. Once defined, the platform automatically suggests relevant Areas of Interest (AOIs) based on those objectives.

3. Refine your AOIs

   In the AOI Bulk Setup step, you can draw, edit, or reuse existing AOIs. Apply them to all assets at once or customize them individually—whatever suits your workflow best.

4. Save or compare

   When you’re finished, select Save Selection to return to your folder view, or Compare Results to save and move directly into comparison mode.

 

AOI suggestions

Whenever you upload and predict an image or video, AOIs are automatically detected for you and suggested in the AOI suggestions panel:

•  Images: AOIs suggestions are created for Branding, Product, Headline Text, Body Text and Call to Action. 
•  Videos: Branding AOIs are auto-detected and tracked throughout the video. You can now also draw your own AOIs on any element and let AI track them across the footage. See Manual AOI Tracking for Video below

In addition to the overall results, video AOIs also provide results for every individual frame throughout the video. These results shown directly on the video, as well as displayed together with Cognitive Demand and Focus in the graph below the video to visualize the AOI impact over time.

The video AOI for Branding is also autodetected and suggested on our AOI suggestions panel.

 

Creating and Editing AOIs

To calculate the impact for a specific element in creative, you have to select an AOI and confirm your selection from the AOI suggestions. 

If an element should be an Area of Interest or the bounding box of the suggested area is not precise enough for you, our AOI tools give you the freedom to fully customize the shape of your AOI, so you can ensure it fits any element.

•   Draw rectangle: Click and drag anywhere on the image to create a rectangular AOI.
•   Draw polygon: Click around your element to create the corners of the polygon, and finish the AOI by clicking on the first corner you added.
  
  

 

Editing and renaming AOIs

Editing AOIs

If the shape of your AOI doesn't quite fit the element in the way you wanted, there's no need to start over. Simply click on the move button so you can edit the AOIs.

Renaming AOIs

To change the name of an AOI, hover over the AOI on the image or in the AOI panel on the right side, and click the    icon that appears. In the window that then opens, you can change AOI Name and then click Save.

 

Hiding and deleting AOIs

Hiding AOIs

AOIs can be turned on and off individually by clicking on the toggles next to each AOI in the AOI panel on the right side of the screen.

You can also turn off all AOIs by clicking on the  Show AOIs toggle in the left toolbar or in the top right corner of the AOIs panel.

Deleting AOIs

To delete an AOI, hover over the AOI on the image or in the AOIs panel on the right side, and click the    icon that appears. In the window that then opens, click on the Delete AOI button to delete the AOI.

To quickly delete single or multiple AOIs, you can also use the   Move and resize tool to select AOIs by dragging a box over them or clicking them individually while holding the Shift key, and then clicking the Delete or Backspace button on your keyboard to delete all selected AOIs at once!

 

Copy-pasting AOIs

Quickly compare impact on similar areas by copy-pasting AOIs from any image to any other image in Neurons AI, so you can be sure the AOIs are exactly the same.

1.  Open the Comparison view.
    Choose the assets you want to compare.
2. Select your copy-paste option.

You have two ways to copy and apply AOIs (Areas of Interest) across assets:

• Option 1: Apply all AOIs — Automatically applies all AOIs from one asset to every other media you’re comparing.
• Option 2: Copy all AOIs — Allows you to manually choose which media to paste the AOIs to.

3. Finalize your setup. After copying or applying AOIs, you can:

• Save the selection to keep your current setup for later, or
• Compare the results to open the Compare View, where you can analyze the assets side by side.
  

Copying an AOI in comparison view

 

Guidelines for creating AOIs

AOI Annotation Guidelines

How to set up Areas of Interest consistently in Neurons AI

Why consistent AOI setup matters

Areas of Interest (AOIs) are the labelled elements you draw on a creative in the Neurons platform. They allow the platform to calculate specific impact scores — such as how much attention your CTA receives, or how well-remembered your branding is.

Because scores are calculated relative to the AOI boundary you draw, inconsistent setups lead to incomparable results across assets or teams. This guide ensures everyone marks up creatives the same way, so your data means the same thing across the board.

What is an AOI?

An AOI is a bounding box drawn around a specific element of your creative. Once drawn and labelled with the correct type, the platform calculates how that element performs across all metrics: attention, focus, cognitive demand, engagement, and memory for images, and attention metrics for video and mixed media.

The platform will auto-suggest AOIs when you upload an asset - but these suggestions should always be reviewed and adjusted to ensure accuracy. For bulk uploads, use the Bulk Setup flow to apply AOIs consistently across multiple assets at once.

AOI type definitions

There are five AOI types. Use the table below to determine which label to apply to each element. Multiple instances of the same type (e.g. two CTA buttons) should each be annotated — see the Multiple instances section for details.

 

How to draw bounding boxes

Add a slight margin - always

Every AOI should be drawn with a small amount of padding around the element, not tightly cropped to its exact edge. This accounts for the 'halo effect' - the natural spread of attention around an object's edges that the platform's model captures.

A tight crop will miss attention signals that fall just outside the element, leading to an underestimate of how much viewers engage with it.

Merge overlapping elements into one AOI

When multiple instances of the same element type appear close together or overlap (this is most common with Product AOIs), draw one merged bounding box around all of them - not individual boxes for each. This matches how benchmarks are collected and produces more accurate results.

Note: it is fine for different AOI types to overlap. For example, if a brand logo sits on top of a product, the Branding AOI and Product AOI will overlap - that is expected and correct.

Visual examples

The examples below use the same creative to show the effect of different bounding box approaches on the reported attention score.

The merged, padded boxes are the correct setup. It captures the full attention directed at both cans, including the halo around each. The split boxes artificially divide attention between two AOIs, while the tight box undershoots by cutting off attention at the edges.

Multiple instances of the same AOI type

It is perfectly fine, and often correct, to annotate multiple instances of the same AOI type on a single creative. This applies to all five types: a creative can have two Branding AOIs (two different brand logos), two Headline AOIs (a print ad with two distinct headline areas), or three CTA buttons.

 

Reading your results

AOI attention scores

The attention figure shown on each AOI represents the percentage of total viewer attention that falls within that area during the exposure. This means all AOI attention percentages on an image do not need to sum to 100% - unlabelled areas (background, faces, environmental elements) also receive attention, even though they are not scored.

Image AOI contributions to other metrics

For Cognitive Demand, Engagement, and Memory, AOI contributions show how each labelled element shares in the overall score. These values always sum to 100% between labelled AOIs - they describe how the total is distributed, not what drives it.

There are no individual benchmarks for single AOIs in these metrics. Use the contributions to understand relative emphasis: if overall Cognitive Demand is below benchmark, the contributions help you identify which element is responsible.

Unlabelled elements

AOIs only cover what you have explicitly labelled. Unlabelled elements - faces, background imagery, people, textures, products in use - can still attract significant attention and influence scores. Always check the heatmap alongside the AOI scores to understand the full picture.

 

Manual AOI Tracking for Video

See the full video AOI guide here.