Survey-Based Brand Lift

A survey-based brand lift study surveys two groups: people who saw your ads (exposed) and people who did not (control). It compares their answers on awareness, ad recall, favorability, and purchase intent. It is the main way to measure campaigns that do not drive immediate clicks, such as brand, video, and awareness campaigns.

How it works

Most measurement looks at clicks and purchases, but much of advertising’s effect is on how people think about a brand, which shapes what they do later. Someone who remembers your ad and likes your brand converts differently from someone who has never heard of you. Brand lift surveys ask people directly what they recall and think. The difference between exposed and control answers is the effect of the ads.

How to do it

Choose 3 to 5 metrics that match the campaign goal from this set: aided awareness, unaided awareness, ad recall, favorability, message association, consideration, purchase intent.
Set up the exposed and control groups through the ad platform’s brand lift tool or a research firm.
Write specific questions you can reuse across studies. For example: “Which of these brands have you heard of in [category]?” and “How likely are you to consider [Brand] for your next [purchase]?” on a 1 to 5 scale.
Survey during or right after the campaign. The effect fades, so late surveys understate it.
Break results down by audience, creative, and frequency to see which ads and targeting moved perception most.

What to measure

Absolute lift: exposed minus control, in percentage points. For example, 38% vs 25% aided awareness is 13 points.
Relative lift: absolute lift divided by the control rate. In the example, 13 / 25 = 52%.
Cost per lifted user: spend divided by the estimated number of people whose answer changed.

Best practices

Run studies on campaigns with broad reach and enough frequency to collect enough responses.
Keep results from past studies so you know what normal lift looks like in your category.
Use the results to fix creative. Strong recall with flat favorability means the ad is memorable but not persuasive.

Common pitfalls

Too few respondents or too short a study, giving results too wide to use.
Leading questions, such as “After seeing this ad for [Brand], how do you feel about them?”
Treating stated intent as purchases. Measure intent lift and conversion lift separately.