The short answer
Brand lift is the change in what people think about a brand that is caused by advertising. It is measured by surveying people who saw a campaign and a comparable control group who didn’t, then comparing their answers on metrics such as awareness, ad recall, consideration and purchase intent. The gap between the two groups, in percentage points, is the lift.
Key takeaways
- Brand lift compares an exposed group with a matched control; the gap is the effect of the advertising.
- Report absolute lift in points with a 95% range first. Relative lift flatters low baselines.
- Persons lifted and cost per person lifted turn a percentage into something a finance director can use.
- A credible result has a KPI fixed in advance, a sample sized to the lift that matters and proof of exposure.
How brand lift is measured.
A brand lift study asks the same short survey of two groups. The exposed group saw the campaign. The control group is made up of comparable people from the same audience and time window who didn’t. Because the only intended difference between them is exposure, the difference in their answers can be read as the effect of the advertising.
The design varies with the question. A creative test randomly shows the ad, or a different one, inside the survey before any media is bought. A campaign study compares people who saw the real campaign in market with people who didn’t. A brand tracker runs monthly waves to see whether the brand is building between campaigns.
The metrics.
| Metric | The question it answers |
|---|---|
| Awareness | Have people heard of the brand? |
| Ad recall | Do people remember seeing the advertising? |
| Message take-out | Did the point of the ad land? |
| Favourability | Do people feel more positive about the brand? |
| Consideration | Would people consider the brand next time they buy? |
| Purchase intent | Do people say they intend to buy? |
One metric should be chosen as the primary KPI before fieldwork, usually the one closest to the campaign’s job. Recall shows the ad was noticed; consideration shows it changed a decision.
Absolute, relative and headroom lift.
Absolute lift is the gap in percentage points. If 48% of the exposed group recall the ad and 36% of the control do, the absolute lift is +12 points. Relative lift divides that gap by the control’s baseline, so the same result is +33%. Headroom lift divides it by the room left above the baseline, which is a fairer reading for brands most people already know.
Absolute lift = exposed rate − control rate
Relative lift = absolute lift ÷ control rate
Relative lift makes small moves on low baselines look large, which is why a headline such as ‘+29% purchase intent’ needs to be checked against the absolute figure and its range. See how to read a brand lift report.
From lift to money.
A percentage on its own doesn’t tell you what the campaign bought. Persons lifted is the absolute lift multiplied by the campaign’s reach, and cost per person lifted is the media spend divided by that. Google’s Display & Video 360 documentation recommends cost per lifted user as a primary success metric because it factors in both reach and cost. Our guide shows how to calculate cost per person lifted.
What makes a brand lift result credible.
- A KPI fixed before fieldwork, so the headline can’t be chosen after the data comes in.
- A sample sized to the lift that matters, with the smallest detectable lift stated up front.
- Proof of exposure, from recognition of the real creative, a decoy ad and media data.
- A full-sample headline with a 95% range, before any sub-group.
- Evidence you can check: raw data, exclusions with reasons, and a trace from each number to its source.
Questions
What is a good brand lift?
It depends on the metric, the baseline and the channel, so there is no universal benchmark. A useful test is whether the lift is larger than the smallest lift the study could detect and whether its 95% range stays above zero. Cost per person lifted is the better way to compare campaigns.
What is the difference between brand lift and conversion lift?
Brand lift measures changes in what people think, such as awareness or consideration, through surveys. Conversion lift measures changes in what people do, such as purchases or sign-ups, through behavioural data. Both compare exposed and control groups.