How To Measure B2B Brand Awareness: 8 Metrics & KPIs
“Brand awareness” is a term thrown around a lot in the world of professional branding and marketing—but what does it really mean? How do we measure it in a tangible way to see exactly how it impacts our brand? The key is in the measurement metrics you opt for.
From social media engagement and reach to tracking brand mentions and calculating brand ROI, here’s how to measure B2B brand awareness using key metrics and KPIs.
How To Measure B2B Brand Awareness
You may think B2B brand awareness is merely a qualitative or subjective aspect of your brand, making it hard to define. But really, there are a number of ways to solidly measure brand awareness in your B2B brand. You can do this by identifying and assessing key metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs.)
By combining different metrics to get the full picture, businesses can build a comprehensive understanding of their current levels of B2B brand awareness. Each metric can offer unique insights, helping you fine-tune your strategies and ultimately achieve long-term, widespread brand awareness for your business.
8 Metrics & KPIs To Measure B2B Brand Awareness
Measuring brand awareness in a B2B context often requires a thoughtful approach to which channels matter. KPIs allow businesses to gauge the effectiveness of branding strategies across different touchpoints and ensure their efforts align with overall goals to grow brand recognition.
Below, we explore some of the most effective metrics to measure B2B brand awareness.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is a crucial metric for understanding the long-term impact of your B2B branding efforts. CLV estimates the total revenue a business can expect from a single customer throughout their entire "lifetime" or relationship with the brand.
A high CLV often indicates strong brand awareness, brand loyalty and customer satisfaction, which are critical outcomes of effective brand marketing campaigns.
How to measure CLV:
- Calculate the average purchase value and multiply it by the average purchase frequency rate to determine customer value.
- Multiply customer value by the average customer lifespan.
Tracking CLV over time helps identify how branding initiatives like improved brand messaging or brand identity enhancements positively influence long-term profitability. By analysing CLV, businesses can also uncover opportunities to optimise their branding strategies and marketing efforts to attract more high-value potential customers.
Return on Investment (ROI)
Measuring the ROI of B2B branding can be challenging but is essential for determining whether your efforts are really paying off. Branding ROI assesses how much revenue your branding initiatives generate compared to the costs involved to power them.
How to measure branding ROI:
- Define specific objectives for your branding efforts, such as lead generation, sales growth, or improved customer retention.
- Track the costs associated with branding campaigns.
- Use revenue attribution models to link branding efforts to measurable outcomes like lead conversions or increased sales.
Given the longer sales cycles in B2B markets, measuring ROI may require a multi-touch attribution model that accounts for multiple interactions across the buyer journey. This ensures that branding’s role in influencing purchasing decisions is accurately reflected and not minimised.
Social Reach
Reach is a great metric to use to measure brand awareness, as the more people that regularly see your brand, the greater your brand recognition will be.
In tools like Instagram analytics and insights, you can check out what percentage of your reach is current followers and which posts get pushed out to non-followers, helping you tailor ongoing content on your social media platforms.
Tools to measure social reach:
- Use analytics platforms like LinkedIn Campaign Manager, Instagram Analytics, or Meta Business Suite to track your reach over time.
- Examine the percentage of your audience that consists of new versus existing followers.
- Identify which posts are being pushed the most with non-followers to optimise your awareness content strategy according to this data. More boosting from algorithms = better brand awareness.
Monitoring social reach helps you understand the effectiveness of your social media campaigns and tailor them to maximise engagement with your target audience, ultimately increasing brand awareness.
Ad Clicks
Ad clicks and cost-per-click (CPC) metrics are valuable for measuring the effectiveness of paid media campaigns aimed at building brand awareness. Paid ad platforms like LinkedIn and Google Ads usually provide detailed click and impression data points that you can use to measure B2B brand awareness on these paid channels.
Why ad clicks matter for measuring brand awareness:
- A high number of ad clicks indicates that your messaging resonates with your target audience.
- Tracking CPC allows you to assess the efficiency of your campaigns and adjust budgets accordingly.
By analysing ad performance data, businesses can refine their targeting strategies, ensuring their ads reach the most relevant audience and drive meaningful engagement.
Brand Lift Campaigns
Brand Lift studies are an advanced way to measure the impact of your B2B branding efforts. These studies use surveys to gauge changes in brand perception, awareness, and favorability among specific audiences, helping you gain insights into the effectiveness of video campaigns using surveys shown to groups of people at different times.
How brand lift studies work:
- Divide your target audience into two groups: one that views your branding campaigns and a control group that does not.
- Use surveys to measure key brand metrics such as awareness, recall, and purchase intent before and after the campaign.
- Analyse the differences between the two groups to assess the effectiveness of your branding initiatives and highlight successful campaigns.
Website Traffic
Measuring website traffic is a great metric for assessing B2B brand awareness, as it reflects how often potential customers are visiting your website directly. Organic traffic in particular is a strong indicator of brand visibility in search engines (and from referral sources) and the overall effectiveness of your SEO efforts.
How to measure website traffic:
- Use tools like Google Analytics or SEMrush to monitor overall site visits, unique visitors, and session duration.
- Segment traffic sources (e.g., organic, direct, referral, social, and paid) to identify which channels are driving awareness.
- Track key landing pages to understand which web content resonates most with visitors.
High website traffic, particularly from organic sources, often signals strong customer perception and interest in/awareness of your brand.
Brand Mentions
Brand mentions and backlinks to your brand provide a direct measure of how often your B2B brand is discussed across digital platforms, including social media mentions, forums, blogs, and news outlets. Positive mentions can boost credibility and provide opportunities to connect with brand advocates, while the consistent visibility reinforces your brand recognition.
The more mentions the better, as long as your brand image is on point.
Tools to track brand mentions:
- Leverage tools like Google Alerts, Brand24, or Mention to monitor when and where your brand is being referenced. You can also track backlinks with tools like Ahrefs, which can be really handy for SEO efforts, too.
- Track the sentiment of these mentions (positive, neutral, or negative) to gauge public perception.
- Identify industry-specific platforms where your brand is being discussed and assess the context of these conversations.
Regularly monitoring brand mentions helps you understand how your B2B brand is perceived and provides insights for engaging with your audience effectively.
Branded Search Volume
Branded search volume measures how often your business name, products, or services are searched for directly in search engines. This metric reflects brand awareness and customer intent, as it indicates that potential customers are familiar enough with your brand to seek it out specifically.
How to measure branded search volume:
- Use tools like Google Trends, Ahrefs, or SEMrush to track the number of searches for branded keywords over time.
- Compare branded search volume against competitors to understand your market position.
- Monitor seasonal trends and spikes that correlate with branding initiatives, marketing campaigns or product launches.
An increase in branded search volume over time signals growing awareness and interest in your B2B brand.
💡 Related reading: What Makes B2B Branding So Unique?
Closing Thoughts
At Huddle, our branding services are designed to help you build brand awareness and power in your sector. We’re a London based end-to-end branding agency that transforms businesses into brands. We reboot, reshape and redefine businesses, so they achieve their true potential.
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