In the fast-paced world of marketing, every campaign must prove its worth. Savvy brands are quantifying the impact of their audio advertising. But brand lift isn’t just about showing your ads made an impression – it’s about demonstrating how they moved the needle on what really matters to your business.

At Consumable, we’ve been advancing audio addressability and the measurement capabilities that brands have access to for brand lift studies to prove impact. Let’s dive deeper into the science behind modern audio brand lift measurement and how it can work for you.

Defining Brand Lift: More Than Just Awareness

When we talk about brand lift in the context of audio advertising, we’re looking at movement across a variety of key metrics:

  • Awareness: Do people remember your brand after hearing your message?
  • Recognition: Can they pick your ad out of a crowded audio environment?
  • Consideration: Are they more likely to consider your product or service?
  • Intent: Has listening to your ad made them more likely to make a purchase?
  • Favorability: Do they feel more positively about your brand overall?

Getting these brand metrics right can be the difference between an audio campaign that simply makes noise and one that truly moves the needle. 

The Sophisticated Science of Audio Brand Lift Measurement

Marketers are evolving how they conduct brand lift research, moving beyond general brand awareness surveys. Today’s audio brand lift measurement is all about control groups, clean data, and real-time feedback. Here’s how it works:

  1. Establish a baseline: Work with an unexposed audience to understand brand metrics before the campaign.
  2. Track exposed listeners: Leverage the targeting capabilities of addressable audio platforms to identify and follow those who’ve heard your ads.
  3. Deploy real-time surveys: Use post-exposure surveys triggered within 24 hours to capture the true impact, not just short-term recall.
  4. Measure the delta: Analyze the differences between your exposed and unexposed groups to quantify your brand lift.
  5. Account for variables: Factor in frequency, creative versions, and other factors to optimize your approach.

Following a structured methodology, helps ensure you’re measuring true, long-lasting brand impact. 

The Multiplier Effect: Audio’s Role in Cross-Channel Success

As you integrate this research into your toolkit, keep in mind: Audio campaigns are not often deployed in isolation and the force multiplier effect is real. Cross-channel measurement isn’t just nice to have, it’s essential. A unified measurement approach that track the interplay between audio and other channels, provides a more complete picture of campaign effectiveness.

Driving the Numbers That Matter

So what does good audio brand lift look like in the real world? Recent industry data provides some helpful benchmarks:

The biggest lifts often come in the consideration phase of the consumer journey, as audio helps nudge them towards purchase. The key is understanding that these numbers aren’t just statistics – they’re signals that help optimize future campaigns and justify larger audio investments.

The Future of Audio Measurement: Beyond Brand Lift

As audio experiences continue to evolve, brands are also working to measure lift and impact in emerging media.  

  • Voice-Activated Feedback: Integrating real-time listener reactions and sentiment analysis
  • Cross-Device Attribution in New Spaces: Tracking exposure across connected cars, smart speakers, and beyond
  • Real-Time Optimization: Using brand lift data to dynamically adapt creative and targeting

The bottom line: Audio measurement isn’t just about proving value anymore – it’s about maximizing it in real-time. For brands looking to stay ahead in the rapidly evolving audio landscape, modern brand lift measurement isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s table stakes for driving true cross-channel impact.