What Is a Brand Lift Survey? Steps to Design, Aggregate, and Use It

You want to measure the effect of advertising not only by "sales" and "clicks," but also by "how much brand awareness and favorability rose"—a brand lift survey answers that need. This article clearly explains what a brand lift survey is, the metrics it reveals, why it matters, and the steps for designing, aggregating, and using the survey, in a way that is easy for beginners to understand.

What is a brand lift survey?

A brand lift survey is a survey that compares people who were exposed to an ad (the exposed group) with people who were not (the control group), and measures how much brand awareness, favorability, purchase intent, and the like changed (lifted) due to the ad. It lets you visualize, in numbers, the ad's effect on the brand—something hard to capture with direct results such as sales or clicks.

Metrics a brand lift survey reveals

Awareness rate: Whether people know the brand or product. Measures how far awareness spread through ad exposure.
Ad recall rate: Whether people remember the ad itself. Measures how memorable the creative is.
Brand favorability: Measures whether people have a favorable impression of the brand.
Purchase intent: Whether people want to purchase or use it going forward. Measures the degree of attitude change.

Survey type and search lift type

Survey type: A method that divides respondents by whether they were exposed to the ad and compares them by asking about awareness and favorability in a questionnaire. This is the most common brand lift survey.
Search lift type: A method that measures how much branded (named) searches, such as for the brand name, increased after ad exposure. It captures rising interest in the brand from actual behavioral data.

Why brand lift surveys are gaining attention

The reasons brand lift surveys have gained widespread attention include the following factors.

The need to measure branding ad effectiveness: Ads aimed at expanding awareness or improving image are hard to judge by sales or clicks alone, so a means of measuring attitude change is required.
The spread of video and social media ads: Video ads and the like, which are hard to link directly to conversions, are increasing, raising the need to visualize the indirect effect on the brand.
Accountability for ad investment: As explanation of return on investment is demanded, it draws attention as a metric that quantitatively shows the contribution to the brand.

Steps for designing a brand lift survey

To conduct a high-accuracy brand lift survey, design it with the following steps.

Decide the goal and the metric to verify: Awareness, favorability, or purchase intent? Match the metric to measure to the ad's goal, and define it first.
Decide the target and comparison design: Design how to split the exposed group and the control group. Splitting them randomly at the time of ad delivery leads to a high-accuracy comparison.
Design the question items: Prepare questions asking about awareness, favorability, purchase intent, and so on, in a form that is resistant to bias.
Set the sample size and delivery conditions: Secure a sufficient sample size and delivery period so you can detect a statistically meaningful difference.
Carry out delivery and the survey: Run ad delivery and questionnaire collection in parallel, and gather data from both groups.

How to aggregate and analyze a brand lift survey

The collected data is aggregated and analyzed with the following approach.

Compare the exposed group and the control group

The basis of aggregation is comparing the responses of the exposed group, which was exposed to the ad, and the control group, which was not. The more the two groups match in conditions other than whether they were exposed to the ad, the easier it is to capture the ad's pure effect.

Calculate the lift value (lift rate)

From the difference in scores between the exposed group and the control group, calculate the "lift value" that shows the change due to the ad. For example, if the awareness rate is 30% in the control group and 40% in the exposed group, the absolute lift is 10 points and the relative lift is about 33%. Also check whether the difference is statistically significant.

How to use the survey results

The results of a brand lift survey can be used in the following ways.

Improving the creative: Analyze which ad expression raised awareness or favorability, and apply it to the next production.
Optimizing delivery: Identify the most effective target segments and media, and review budget allocation.
Explaining ad effectiveness: Quantitatively show the contribution to the brand, and use it as the basis for internal and external explanations and the next budget.

Points to watch in a brand lift survey

Secure a sufficient sample size: If the sample is small, the difference gets buried within the range of chance, and you cannot make a correct judgment.
Match the conditions of both groups: If the attributes of the exposed group and the control group are skewed, factors other than the ad get mixed in.
Check for statistical significance: Always check whether the apparent lift is a statistically meaningful difference.

Summary

A brand lift survey is a survey that compares a group exposed to an ad with a group that was not, and measures how much awareness, favorability, purchase intent, and the like rose. It lets you visualize the effect on the brand that is hard to see through sales or clicks, and helps with improving the creative, optimizing delivery, and explaining ad effectiveness. Defining a metric that fits the goal, designing the exposed and control groups appropriately, and confirming a significant difference with a sufficient sample are the keys to a high-accuracy survey. Start by clarifying "what you want to raise" with your own ads.