Lesson 24 of 30 · 10 min
Measuring brand campaigns
Evidence for work that does not convert this week.
Do not measure memory with a click
Brand work aims to be remembered later, so its evidence has to be about memory and behaviour over time. Clicks and last-click sales measure something the campaign was never trying to do, and judging it that way reliably kills the work.
Brand lift studies
Survey exposed and unexposed groups on awareness, consideration or message association. Because it is a controlled comparison, a lift study is the closest brand equivalent of an incrementality test — and most large platforms will run one at meaningful spend levels.
Search and direct traffic as free signals
Branded search volume and direct traffic are cheap, continuous proxies for salience. A campaign that is working usually shows a rise in people looking for you by name, which needs no vendor and no survey.
Share of search as a leading indicator
Your share of category search volume tends to move ahead of your share of market. Tracking it over quarters gives brand work a number that leadership can follow without waiting for annual tracking studies.
Takeaway
Judge brand work on recall, incremental reach and share of search — never on last-click sales.
Check yourself
No score, no signup — pick an answer to see why it's right.
Question 1
Which is the strongest evidence that a brand campaign worked?
Question 2
Why is branded search volume a useful brand signal?