A campaign can generate clicks, views and conversions. But those numbers don't always tell you what the advertising actually changed in people's minds.
Did consumers become more aware of the brand? Did they start considering it? Did the campaign strengthen the perception it was designed to build?
That's where a brand lift study can help.
A brand lift study measures whether exposure to advertising leads to a measurable change in how consumers think about or respond to a brand. Rather than simply looking at brand health after a campaign, it is designed to isolate the incremental impact of the advertising itself.
In this guide, we'll cover what a brand lift study is, how it works, which metrics to measure, when to run one and how to turn the results into better advertising decisions.
A brand lift study is research designed to measure how exposure to advertising changes consumer perceptions or intentions toward a brand.
For instance, a standard brand health measurement might tell you that 52% of consumers consider your brand. A brand lift study is designed to answer a different question: Did seeing this advertising make consumers more likely to consider the brand?
To answer that, brand lift studies typically compare two groups of consumers:
Both groups answer the same questions about the brand. The difference between their responses provides an estimate of the advertising's effective lift.
This makes a brand lift study different from simply measuring brand health after a campaign because the goal is to understand whether the advertising contributed to a change.
First, create two comparable groups of consumers.
One group is exposed to the ad. The other isn't.
The groups need to be sufficiently comparable so that differences in their responses can reasonably be attributed to advertising exposure rather than major differences between the audiences.
Ask both groups the same questions about the brand.
The metrics should reflect what the campaign was actually trying to accomplish. A campaign designed to build awareness, for example, may prioritize awareness and recall. A campaign introducing a new brand positioning may focus more heavily on perception and associations.
The basic calculation to determine brand lift is:
Brand lift = Exposed group result − Control group result
For example, taking a look at the infographic above, imagine a campaign designed to increase brand awareness where:
The exposed group has seven more percentage points of awareness than the control group.
It's worth noting that a 7 percentage-point lift is not the same thing as a 7% relative increase. The first describes the difference between two percentages, while the second describes the percentage change relative to the starting point.
The important question is whether that difference is meaningful and can reasonably be attributed to advertising exposure.
The right brand lift metrics depend on the campaign objective.
There's little value in measuring every possible brand metric if only a few are relevant to what the advertising is trying to change.
Here’s a list of the most common:
Brand awareness measures whether advertising increased consumers' awareness or recall of the brand.
It's particularly useful for campaigns designed to introduce a brand, reinforce an existing brand or increase visibility.
Ad awareness and recall look specifically at whether consumers remember seeing the advertising.
This is different from brand awareness.
Someone might remember seeing an ad without remembering which brand it was for. Measuring both can help teams understand whether the advertising is breaking through and whether that attention is connecting back to the brand.
Consideration measures whether exposure makes consumers more likely to consider the brand.
This can be particularly useful for campaigns designed to move consumers further down the purchase journey.
Preference looks at whether consumers favor the brand over competitors.
For campaigns with a competitive positioning, measuring preference can help determine whether the advertising is changing how consumers weigh the brand against alternatives.
Perception measures the attributes and associations consumers connect with the brand.
This is especially useful when a campaign has a specific positioning objective.
If an ad is designed to make a brand feel more innovative, for example, the study can examine whether exposed consumers are more likely to associate the brand with innovation.
Purchase intent measures whether consumers report being more likely to purchase the brand.
It can be useful for campaigns with a clear purchase-related objective, but it shouldn't automatically be treated as a prediction of actual sales. Purchase intent is one signal among several that can help teams understand advertising's potential impact.
A brand lift study can be particularly useful when advertising is designed to change something beyond an immediate click or conversion.
Consider running one for:
A brand lift study may be less useful for campaigns focused entirely on immediate direct-response outcomes, where conversion or sales metrics are the primary measures of success.
The important thing is to match the measurement approach to the job the advertising is supposed to do.
Brand lift studies and brand tracking can both measure brand health, but they answer different questions.
Brand lift studies answer: What impact did this advertising have?
Brand tracking answers: How is the health of our brand changing over time?
A brand lift study is designed to isolate the incremental impact of a specific advertising campaign by comparing exposed and control audiences.
A brand tracking study provides a broader, ongoing view of measures such as awareness, consideration, perception, preference and loyalty.
The two can work together.
Brand tracking might show that consideration has increased during a particular period. A brand lift study can help determine whether a specific campaign contributed to that movement.
A good brand lift study starts with the campaign objective, not a standard list of survey questions.
Start by identifying what the advertising is intended to change.
Is the campaign designed to:
Your objective should determine what you measure.
Select the metrics that best reflect the campaign objective.
For example, a campaign built around a new positioning may need to focus heavily on brand perception, while a launch campaign may prioritize awareness and consideration.
Avoid measuring metrics simply because they've always been included in a brand study.
The study audience should represent the consumers the advertising is intended to reach.
You may also want to consider important audience segments separately. A campaign could generate meaningful lift overall while performing differently among different consumer groups.
Create comparable groups and ensure that the exposed group has actually encountered the advertising being evaluated.
The control group provides the counterpoint needed to estimate incremental lift.
Without a meaningful comparison between the two groups, it's much harder to separate advertising impact from other factors that may have influenced consumer responses.
Ask both groups consistent questions that relate directly to the campaign objectives.
Keep the survey focused. More questions don't necessarily create better insight, particularly when many of those questions aren't connected to the campaign's goals.
Compare the responses from the exposed and control groups.
Look for differences that are statistically meaningful rather than assuming that every numerical difference represents a real change.
It's also worth examining results across relevant audience segments. Aggregate results can sometimes hide important differences in how consumers responded.
The final step is arguably the most important.
Don't stop at "awareness increased."
Ask:
A lift result needs context.
A positive number doesn't automatically mean an advertising campaign was successful, just as a result showing no measurable lift doesn't automatically mean the campaign failed.
Positive lift means the exposed group showed a higher result than the control group on the metric being measured.
The size and statistical significance of that difference matter.
A small numerical difference may not represent a meaningful change, particularly when sample size and normal variation are taken into account.
Sometimes a study finds no statistically meaningful difference between exposed and control groups.
That doesn't necessarily mean the campaign had no value.
Consider factors such as:
A campaign may simply not have generated enough exposure or sample to detect a meaningful difference. Or it may have influenced a different outcome from the one measured.
The result is a reason to investigate, not a score to file away.
Advertising can also move consumer perceptions in an unintended direction.
If the exposed group performs worse than the control group on an important brand metric, that movement deserves closer examination.
Was the message misunderstood? Did the creative create an unintended association? Was there another event happening at the same time?
A negative result can be uncomfortable, but it can also provide useful information about what to change.
A few common mistakes can make brand lift studies less useful than they could be.
Trying to measure everything can make it harder to understand what actually matters.
Focus on the outcomes most closely connected to the campaign objective.
If the campaign is designed to change perceptions of innovation, measuring innovation-related perceptions should be more useful than relying solely on a generic brand health score.
If the two groups are meaningfully different, differences in their responses may reflect audience composition rather than advertising exposure.
A brand metric increasing after a campaign doesn't necessarily mean the campaign caused the increase.
That's why the exposed-vs.-control comparison is so important.
A numerical difference isn't automatically a meaningful lift.
Consider statistical significance, sample size and the broader context before drawing conclusions.
Overall results can hide important audience differences.
Look at the groups that matter to the campaign and identify where the strongest — or weakest — movement occurred.
A brand lift study isn't simply a pass/fail test.
The most useful result is one that tells you something about your audience, message or creative that you can apply to future advertising.
The real value of brand lift measurement comes from what happens after the results are in.
Capture learnings about:
Then compare those learnings across campaigns.
Over time, this can help brands identify patterns in what works for their audiences and what doesn't. Instead of treating every campaign as a one-off measurement exercise, teams can build a growing body of evidence to inform future advertising.
That's where brand lift becomes more than campaign reporting. It becomes part of an advertising learning system.
Zappi helps brands measure how consumers respond to advertising and understand how creative influences important brand outcomes.
With brand lift measurement, teams can evaluate whether advertising is changing metrics such as awareness, consideration, preference or perception and explore how those results differ across relevant audiences.
The bigger opportunity is to carry those learnings forward.
When campaign-level findings can be compared and connected over time, teams can build a clearer picture of which audiences, messages and creative approaches are driving brand outcomes.
That turns each study into more than a report on what happened and becomes another input into what the brand should do next.
A brand lift study measures whether exposure to advertising changes consumer perceptions or intentions toward a brand. It typically compares responses from consumers exposed to advertising with those from a comparable control group.
Brand lift is generally calculated by subtracting the control group's result from the exposed group's result.
Brand lift = Exposed group result − Control group result
For example, if 47% of exposed consumers are aware of a brand compared with 40% of the control group, the campaign generated a 7 percentage-point difference in awareness.
Incremental lift is the difference in an outcome that can be attributed to advertising exposure after comparing an exposed audience with a comparable control audience.
The purpose is to distinguish the potential effect of the advertising from changes that may have happened anyway.
Common brand lift metrics include awareness, ad recall, consideration, preference, brand perception and purchase intent. The most useful metrics depend on what the campaign is designed to accomplish.
A brand lift study is designed to measure the incremental impact of a specific advertising campaign. Brand tracking monitors how overall brand health changes over time.
The two approaches can complement each other: brand tracking can identify broader movement while brand lift can help determine whether a particular campaign contributed to that movement.
There isn't one universal lift threshold that applies to every study. The importance of a result depends on factors such as the size of the difference, statistical significance, sample size, campaign objective and the metric being measured.
A brand lift study can provide evidence about whether advertising influenced specific brand outcomes. It should be considered alongside other measures of campaign performance rather than treated as a standalone score for overall campaign effectiveness.
Advertising measurement shouldn't end with knowing how many people saw an ad or clicked on it.
For campaigns designed to influence what consumers think and feel about a brand, brand lift studies can provide another important piece of the picture.
By comparing exposed and control audiences, measuring outcomes that align with the campaign objective and looking closely at the results, marketers can learn not only whether something changed but what changed, for whom and what to do with that learning next.