Beyond Sales: How to Measure Brand Lift from Influencer Marketing
Not all value shows up in immediate sales. Learn to measure brand awareness, consideration, and long-term brand equity from influencer campaigns.
The Complete Picture
Your influencer campaign generated 500 sales. Your CFO is happy. But here's what you're missing:
- 2,000 people who saw the post but will buy in 3 months
- 10,000 new people who now know your brand exists
- 5,000 existing customers who now trust you more
- Brand search volume increased 200%
If you only measure direct sales, you're missing 80% of the value.
The Brand Lift Metrics That Matter
1. Brand Awareness
What it measures: How many people know your brand exists
How to Measure:
- • Brand search volume: Google Trends, Google Search Console
- • Direct traffic: Analytics showing people typing your URL
- • Social listening: Brand mentions across platforms
- • Survey your audience: "How did you hear about us?"
- • Follower growth: Spike during/after campaigns
Benchmark: Expect 10-30K new brand-aware people per $10K spent on influencer campaigns (varies by niche)
2. Brand Consideration
What it measures: People actively considering your product (moved beyond awareness)
Signals of Consideration:
- • Visited product pages but didn't buy
- • Saved/favorited your social content
- • Signed up for email list
- • Engaged with multiple pieces of content
- • Added to cart (but not purchased yet)
Why it matters: 70% of purchases happen within 30-90 days of first exposure. Consideration is the middle of that journey.
3. Brand Sentiment
What it measures: How people feel about your brand
- Social listening tools: Monitor positive vs negative mentions
- Comment analysis: Read comments on influencer posts
- Review ratings: Did average rating improve?
- NPS surveys: Ask customers how likely they'd recommend you
4. Share of Voice
What it measures: Your brand's visibility compared to competitors
Track: Your brand mentions / Total category mentions × 100
If you're a skincare brand and skincare got 1M mentions this month, and you got 50K of those, you have 5% share of voice.
How to Run a Brand Lift Study
Step 1: Establish Baselines (Pre-Campaign)
Measure 2 weeks before campaign:
- • Weekly brand search volume
- • Social follower growth rate
- • Direct traffic to website
- • Average engagement on your posts
- • Share of voice in your category
Step 2: Run Campaign & Track
Monitor daily during campaign. Use UTM parameters, unique discount codes, and platform analytics to track direct responses.
Step 3: Measure Post-Campaign (30-90 days)
Brand effects compound over time. Measure at 7, 30, and 90 days post-campaign.
Why 90 Days?
Many influencer campaign conversions happen 30-90 days after exposure. Someone sees a post, bookmarks your site, gets paid, then buys. That's still campaign value.
Attribution Models for Brand Lift
Multi-Touch Attribution
Customer journey: Sees influencer post → Visits website (doesn't buy) → Sees retargeting ad → Buys
Credit distribution: Influencer post gets 40% credit, retargeting gets 60%. Both mattered.
Incrementality Testing
Run campaigns in specific geos or to specific audiences, compare to control group. Did brand searches in Test City increase more than Control City?
Tools for Measuring Brand Lift
Free Tools
- • Google Trends: Track brand search interest over time
- • Google Analytics: Direct traffic, referral sources, engagement
- • Social media native analytics: Follower growth, reach, saves
- • Google Alerts: Track brand mentions
Paid Tools
- • Brandwatch/Mention: Social listening ($99+/month)
- • Sprout Social: Comprehensive analytics ($249+/month)
- • Meta/TikTok Brand Lift Studies: Platform-specific surveys
- • Google Brand Lift: For YouTube campaigns
Calculating Brand Lift ROI
The Formula
Brand Lift Value = (Awareness Lift × Awareness Value) + (Consideration Lift × Consideration Value) + (Direct Sales)
Example:
Campaign Cost: $10,000
Direct Sales: $15,000 (1.5x ROAS)
New Brand Aware: 50,000 people × $0.10 value = $5,000
New Consideration: 5,000 people × $2 value = $10,000
Total Value: $30,000
True ROAS: 3x (not 1.5x)
Valuing Awareness & Consideration
Awareness: $0.05-0.20 per person (cheaper than paid ads reach)
Consideration: $1-5 per person (qualified, mid-funnel lead value)
Adjust based on your customer lifetime value and conversion rates.
Brand Lift by Campaign Type
High Brand Lift / Lower Direct Sales:
- • Lifestyle content (showing product in use)
- • Story-based content (emotional connection)
- • Educational content (problem awareness)
Lower Brand Lift / Higher Direct Sales:
- • Discount code promotions
- • Direct product reviews
- • Limited-time offers
Strategy: Mix both. Use lifestyle content for brand building, discount codes for immediate conversions.
The Bottom Line
If you only track direct sales, you're dramatically undervaluing influencer marketing. Brand lift is real value that compounds over time.
Measure awareness, consideration, and sentiment alongside sales. Your CFO might not understand brand lift initially—show them the math. The data speaks.
Track full campaign value
Vyrex helps you measure both immediate ROI and long-term brand lift, so you can prove the full value of your influencer investments.
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