What do people really think when they hear your brand’s name? Is your business the first thing that comes to mind in your industry? Or are you getting lost in the buzz? Do they think about you at all?
It’s time to find out—measure your brand awareness and see where you really stand.
In this guide, we’ll show you exactly how to track and understand your brand’s presence and visibility. We will also list some powerful tools and strategies to help you with the task.
Why it's crucial to track brand awareness
Tracking brand awareness is crucial. Yes, and so is drinking water—both are basic survival skills for brands and humans alike.
So why are we talking about it yet again? Because actually measuring it isn’t as obvious as it seems.
Brand awareness helps businesses understand how well they are connecting with their audience. As well as granting them knowledge of their market position.
A recognizable brand builds trust, and that's a fact. Trust is the foundation of lasting customer relationships. When people believe in and rely on your brand, they’re more likely to stick around and make repeat purchases. And even recommend you to others.
A strong reputation can be a game-changer. Unfortunately, staying on top of it isn’t always easy.
There are so many brands on the market and customer preferences are shifting constantly. So you need to keep a close eye on how your brand is perceived.
By consistently tracking awareness, you can spot changes in customer sentiment. Hence, you can adapt your marketing strategy and ensure your brand stays relevant and top of the mind.
Simple and smart ways to measure brand awareness
Track manually
If you want to start tracking manually before trying dedicated tools, here’s how:
- You can begin with following brand mentions on social media platforms.
- You can start checking online reviews there, on your website, as well as on platforms like g2 or Capterra.
- You can also provide feedback sessions with your target audience during interviews or start gathering post-service survey data.
Go-To free tools
- Use social listening tools, check Google Trends data as well as native social media platform analytics.
- Gather insights regarding brand perception by going through Google Analytics data and website traffic.
- You can also create a brand awareness survey via free tools and send it to your existing customers or use it as a point of contact with potential new consumers.
Use advanced tools
All of the above works, of course. But professional social listening tools deliver more valuable insights and help you analyze your brand awareness and marketing efforts with greater care. With such a platform, you can track branded keywords, follow social media mentions, analyze your media coverage, and react to brand recall in real time.
Tools like Prowly also help you create a brand marketing strategy based on social media and web traffic indicators. They can give you a deep insight into brand awareness metrics and helps you better understand your potential customers.
What are the metrics to measure brand awareness?
#1 Brand impressions
Brand impressions tell you how many times your content has been shown to people across different channels. You can think of it as the number of times your brand has popped up before someone’s eyes.
The more impressions you have, the greater the chance that people are becoming familiar with your brand. You can keep track of these impressions using analytics tools or analytic features provided. You can also check all-in-one platforms, like Prowly, to measure brand awareness swiftly.
#2 Share of Voice (SoV)
Calculate your brand's share of voice by comparing your mentions across various social media channels against your competitors. This metric provides insight into how visible your brand is in the market compared to others.
#3 Social listening metrics
Using social listening tools allows you to track various metrics like total mentions, unique reach, follower growth, and hashtag performance. These may be a significant part of your brand awareness measurement.
Social listening is a part of media monitoring. Here's how it looks like in Prowly. ↴
Additionally, you can keep an eye on other brands, what they publish, and what people are saying about their brand and products.
#4 Content engagement
Take a peek at your content marketing strategy. Brand awareness tools offer not only social listening features, but content-related ones as well.
Monitor how people engage with what you are publishing.
This aspect is very important, brand awareness at a high level means that you know how to connect with people and keep their eyes on you.
#5 Branded search volume
- Track what is on the rise across search engines.
- Follow the number of searches specifically for your brand name.
You can use Google Analytics or social media listening tools for this. An increase in branded search volume often means both a rising brand awareness and a growing interest.
But don't overlook traditional media when conducting your regular research! Be sure to check mentions in print magazines, radio programs, and television.
You can do this manually if you work for a small client, but to ensure you capture mentions nationally and internationally, consider using a tool that automates the process. That way, you'll never miss a mention—whether it's online or offline.
Combine online media monitoring with print and broadcast monitoring in Prowly to have mentions from both digital and traditional news sources at your fingertips—all in one place.
Tools for building a recognizable brand you must know
Boosting your brand awareness and marketing efforts should involve a set of helpful tools.
Social media listening tools
Brand perception is all about social media platforms. Building your brand awareness campaigns should start there. Where is your target audience, what type of content do they prefer, and how to stand out from all the brands across the internet?
Use social listening tools and follow mentions, comments, likes - everything that is connected to your brand... or your competitors'.
These tools help you raise brand awareness and manage it with real data. Use a social media management tool to plan content that will catch your target audience's attention and react to their actions. By keeping your finger on the pulse you can also mitigate crises before they really start to burn.
Worth-knowing social listening tools:
- Prowly
- Brand24
- Brandwatch
- Hootsuite
- HubSpot
- Buffer
Check out our top 15+ social listening tools list to check find more platforms and pricing options.
Prowly offers you the ability to set notifications about the newest mentions. You can set custom alarms and a list of keywords that are crucial for building your brand awareness.
Email and content marketing tools
Creating your brand awareness strategy should involve content that matters to your target. Publish posts, infographics and videos that will help build your brand awareness and create a space for people to connect and engage.
If you are all about email marketing and as a support to your content marketing efforts, use tools that will help automate the process. Create message templates, find the right recipients, and analyze the numbers.
For example, Prowly gives you an extensive database where you can find journalists and influencers that will be valuable to you. You can also create a pitch and use AI support to make it even more successful.
Tools you should know:
- Prowly
- MailChimp
- HubSpot
- GetResponse
Analytics tools
Your brand awareness tools kit should also cover analytical aspects. Follow external links and relevant keywords (which will help your SEO strategy), and see if your advertising efforts resonate with your target customers.
Best tools worth knowing:
- Google Analytics
- Google Search Console
- Semrush
- Prowly
Prowly provides its media database with audience analytics. This allows users to analyze the visitor profiles of media outlets. Moreover, the platform includes a detailed analytics dashboard that tracks the performance of published content, including visits and traffic sources.
It is always easier (and better) to invest in a tool that has it all.
Prowly is an all-in-one platform that supports your brand awareness efforts, helps you follow traffic across social media platforms, and assists in measuring brand awareness and improving it.
Tips for getting the most from brand awareness tools
#1 Stay active on social media platforms
Social media is one of the best ways to build brand awareness. You can use a social media management tool to schedule posts, track engagement, and keep your messaging consistent. Pay attention to metrics like likes, shares, and mentions. They are key indicators of your brand recognition and perception.
Stay in the loop with custom notifications and alerts. Set up alerts based on specific keywords related to your brand. These can be your brand name, product names, competitor brands, or relevant industry terms. So whenever anyone mentions your brand you can react and build brand awareness across channels.
#2 Hear what people are saying
Any publicity is good publicity - is it though? Stay in the loop and follow social media engagement. When it comes to creating brand awareness and keeping it high, social listening tools should be your best friends. Follow what people are saying and be quick to answer questions or any doubts.
Moreover, you can use sentiment analysis features to quickly understand the tone of the mentions. Building brand awareness demands responding to any kind of discussion. Positive, negative, or neutral – just stay involved.
But brand awareness is not always about your customer. It may also include your employees. Use But brand awareness is not always about your customer. It may also include your employees. Use employee advocacy to strengthen brand advocacy and boost engagement on content they publish. Make them feel appreciated.
And focusing on social media management and following hot topics may bring you ideas on new content pieces and social media campaigns that can create a buzz.
#3 Keep an eye on the numbers
Creating a brand awareness strategy should answer a the demand to stay at the top of your target minds. This means you have to be present in search engine results (ranked top 3 preferably), target your marketing campaigns with care and backed by real user data, and deliver content that matters and catches the eye.
Thanks to modern analytics tools you can recognize trends and focus on the most relevant content. This can help you with budget management and measures the effectiveness of brand awareness activities.
For example, Google Analytics will help you analyze website traffic so you can set your marketing campaigns accordingly and keep your budget in line.
What is more, you can also track brand awareness metrics like SoV, sentiment, and engagement to adapt brand awareness campaigns and your other content as well.
#4 Provide brand awareness surveys
If you offer something to people, you should be open to the feedback they can share with you. Or even ask them to do so. Put forth questions not only about the quality of your services or products, but about your brand as well.
Conduct surveys to measure how well your target audience recognizes and understands your brand. It should establish the angle of your effort. Should you focus on increasing brand awareness or focus on the first step, which is brand recognition?
Such data may become a valuable asset while measuring brand awareness and creating campaigns to keep it on track.
#5 Stay SEO optimized
One brand awareness metric includes keywords and SEO. Your content needs to be optimized to keep your brand's online presence on top. Follow Google Trends and use content marketing tools to adapt topics to your strategy.
Do not forget about the technical aspects, like errors on your website, broken links, or page loading time. A good marketing strategy covers all topics, both behind the scenes and on the main stage.
To sum up
Brand awareness isn’t just about numbers—it’s about making your brand unforgettable. By tapping into surveys, social buzz, and analytics, you don’t just track visibility; you uncover the pulse of your audience.
The real magic? Turning those insights into bold strategies that amplify recognition and fuel growth. Stay ahead of the curve, adapt relentlessly, and watch your brand carve out its space in the spotlight.
Ready to level up? Give Prowly a spin and see the difference for yourself.
