Measuring Brand Lift: An Activation’s Impact on Brand Perception
Of the various ways of getting your target audience to pay attention and notice your brand, an activation appears as a clear winner.
What really matters for long-term success is how your audience perceives your brand: do they know you, like you, and consider you when it’s time to buy? An immersive experience has the potential to stick in the visitors' minds, helping turn them into buyers.
This is where activations stand out because they actively shape how people feel about a brand.
Brand lift studies can help you see how campaigns have actually changed brand perception and reputation.
Read on as we explain what brand lift means, why it matters, and how marketers can use these insights to improve brand positioning strategies.
What Is Brand Lift and Why It Matters
It measures the increase in positive brand perception or awareness that comes from your advertising or activation.
It looks at the changes in the audience mindset.
Understanding Brand Perception
Brand perception is how people view your brand, consciously and subconsciously.
It is influenced by every interaction a consumer has with your brand: ads they see, products they buy, reviews read, recommendations from friends, and even conversations about your brand.
This means brand perception is what others believe rather than what you say yourself. That distinction makes it one of the most powerful and least controllable factors of your marketing strategies.
How Activations Directly Impact Brand Perception
Brand activations have a unique advantage over traditional advertising: they allow people to experience a brand rather than simply observe it. When someone steps into a live or immersive activation, they’re forming memories, emotions, and associations that shape long-term brand perception.
Multiple studies consistently show that experiential marketing outperforms passive media when it comes to perception shifts:
- 91% of consumers feel more positive about a brand after attending a live experience
- 85% of consumers are more likely to purchase after participating in an activation
- 70% of consumers become repeat customers after an experiential interaction
Event-based campaigns show higher lifts in brand favourability and consideration compared to display or video alone.
From a behavioural standpoint, activations work because they:
- Create emotional memory, which lasts longer than visual impressions
- Encourage active participation, not passive viewing
- Foster social interaction, increasing word-of-mouth and sharing
- Allow brands to demonstrate values rather than simply claim them
This is especially important in categories where differentiation is difficult.
Why Measuring Brand Lift Is Crucial
Traditional marketing metrics like clicks, impressions, and reach are becoming less effective at painting a complete picture.
Brands now compete for mental real estate. In a market where consumers are bombarded with up to 10,000 brand messages a day, changing and improving upon perceptions has become an absolute necessity.
Brand lift studies tell you:
- Whether your campaign increased awareness
- If consumers remembered your ad
- Whether your message improved consideration or favorability
- Whether unexposed audiences differ in perception from exposed groups
This helps brands understand impact.
Brand Lift Metrics: What You Should Measure
A brand lift study should measure multiple dimensions of perception, not just one. Here are the core metrics marketers use:
Brand Awareness
This measures how many people recognise your brand after campaign exposure. It is the first step in the purchase cycle and is critical for growth.
Ad Recall
Ad recall measures whether people remember seeing your ad. A high recall rate indicates strong creative and placement effectiveness.
Brand Consideration
This goes beyond awareness to ask whether consumers are likely to consider your brand when making a purchase. It’s a far stronger indicator of purchase intent.
Favorability & Perception
This measures whether people feel more positive about your brand after seeing your campaign.
Purchase Intent
The likelihood that someone plans to buy your product or service. This metric is closely linked to long-term revenue potential.
Brand lift is calculated by comparing exposed and unexposed audiences, typically using controlled surveys before and after the campaign.
How Brand Lift Studies Work
These studies use a test vs. a control group.
One group sees your campaign, the other does not.
After survey responses are collected, the difference between responses reveals how much your campaign managed to change perception.
Example Calculation
If a pre-campaign survey showed 30% brand awareness and post-campaign shows 45%, the difference (15%) represents a 50% brand lift in awareness.
Platforms like Amazon now provide built-in brand lift solutions that automate parts of this process, providing detailed insights for the goals you may have for your business.
Here’s a clear, human, and practical 300-word section with subheadings, written in a professional but approachable tone — easy to plug straight into your blog.
How to Do a Brand Lift Study
Here’s how to approach it step by step.
Define What You Want to Measure
Be clear on your goal. Are you trying to increase brand awareness? Improve brand perception? Boost consideration or purchase intent?
A strong brand lift study focuses on a few meaningful metrics rather than trying to measure everything at once.
Set Up Test and Control Groups
This study works by comparing two groups:
- Exposed group: people who saw your campaign or activation
- Control group: people who didn’t
By comparing responses from both groups, you can isolate the real impact of your campaign instead of guessing.
Design a Simple, Clear Survey
Your survey should be short and easy to complete. Typical questions include:
- Have you heard of this brand?
- Do you recall seeing this campaign?
- How likely are you to consider this brand?
- How do you feel about this brand overall?
Clear, unbiased wording is essential to avoid skewed results.
Launch the Campaign and Collect Data
Run your campaign while the survey is active. Many platforms like Meta, YouTube, and Google offer built-in brand lift tools that automatically distribute surveys to both groups.
Analyse the Lift
Once responses are collected, compare results between the exposed and control groups. The percentage difference shows your brand lift, whether that’s increased awareness, stronger perception, or higher intent.
Turn Insights into Action
The real value of this study comes from what you do next. Use the findings to refine messaging, adjust creative, optimise channels, and inform future campaigns.
Using Brand Lift Insights to Change Brand Perception
Once you know how your campaign impacted perception, the next step is action.
- Reframe Messaging Based on Feedback
Brand lift studies reveal whether your creative resonates emotionally. If awareness increases but favorability doesn’t, it might signal messaging needs recalibration.
- Optimise Channels
Differences in lift across platforms show where your brand gains the most traction.
- Benchmark Future Campaigns
With baseline lift data, you can set realistic goals and observe year-on-year improvements.
- Tie Perception to Business Outcomes
Showing how increases in favourability correlate with sales or retention solidifies marketing’s strategic role.
Brand Reputation and Long-Term Strategy
Brand lift helps you determine your long-term plan so you can shape how your brand is experienced and remembered.
Strong brand reputation increases word-of-mouth recommendations and builds resilience against competitive pressures. Measuring reputation means continuously monitoring how audiences talk about you.
In short, brand lift is the bridge between campaigns and perception. They help judge how your campaigns change minds and hearts, not just generate impressions.