Brand Measurement And Roi

Brand Measurement and ROI

Overview

This skill covers how B2B marketers should measure brand awareness, justify brand investment to leadership, select appropriate measurement frameworks for different marketing initiatives, and connect brand-building activities to business outcomes. All practices are sourced exclusively from Exit Five podcast guests across 37 episodes. Where guests disagree, those disagreements are surfaced explicitly rather than resolved.

Aligning Measurement to Marketing Strategy

Do not force all marketing activities into a single measurement model. Design measurement frameworks that fit the nature of each initiative.

• For brand and creative initiatives, use measurement approaches appropriate to the channel and objective—surveys for brand awareness, event studies for stunts, incrementality tests for paid channels. Do not measure brand campaigns with direct-response metrics. The fastest way to kill creative marketing is to apply direct-response measurement to it. (Source: Drew Pinta, Episode #346)

• For large awareness campaigns, identify a specific market problem or perception gap, build the campaign around a broad, relatable insight, and measure impact through brand tracking (perception shifts), media mix modeling, geographic experiments, and conversion lift. Thread the campaign through to targeted B2B motions (ABM, field marketing, lifecycle email) to drive enterprise outcomes. (Source: Emma Robinson, Episode #277)

• Before attempting to measure or justify brand, content, and community initiatives, align your CEO, CFO, and sales leadership on how customers actually buy your product. Map the full journey and get agreement that purchase decisions are influenced by multiple touchpoints over time, not just the final click. This foundational alignment prevents stakeholders from demanding direct-response metrics for brand-building activities. (Source: Dave Gerhardt, Episode #307)

• Brand investments should have a clear line of sight to the company's revenue goal and product value. Before investing in brand activities, ask: Does this connect to what our product does? Will it help customers understand who we are? Does it serve a specific business objective? Avoid brand investments disconnected from product or revenue outcomes. (Source: Jaleh Rezaei, Episode #248)

Measuring Brand Awareness

Surveys and Recall

• Conduct surveys twice per year asking two questions: (1) unaided awareness—show a list of competitors and ask which companies respondents know; (2) aided awareness—ask if respondents have heard of your company by name. Survey external audiences (not your own database) such as industry communities, influencer networks, or third-party databases to avoid bias. (Source: Aditya Vempaty, Episode #235)

• Distinguish between aided and unaided recall when measuring brand campaign success. Unaided recall measures whether customers spontaneously mention your brand when asked about leading companies in your category. Aided recall measures whether they recognize your brand when prompted. The goal is to get your brand on the consideration shortlist so that when customers see a performance ad or do a search, they recognize and choose you over unknown competitors. (Source: Amrita Gurney, Episode #287)

• Conduct weekly brand awareness surveys that include a geographic component to measure lift in brand awareness by region. Use historical data to establish the relationship between brand awareness lift and downstream funnel metrics. This enables measurement of upper-funnel initiatives (like billboards or regional campaigns) that don't drive immediate conversions. (Source: Drew Pinta, Episode #346)

• Measure brand campaign impact through brand tracking surveys that assess perception shifts, then connect those perception changes to actual behavioral outcomes (signups, revenue, etc.). Use a combination of brand health measures and behavioral metrics to prove that awareness campaigns drive both perception and business results. (Source: Kristine Segrist, Episode #277)

(Note: Surveys as the primary brand metric is contested — see Where Experts Disagree)

Branded Search Volume

• Monitor the global search volume for your brand name (including common misspellings) over 12-month periods using keyword research tools. Use the growth forecast metric to determine if branded search volume is increasing or decreasing. A declining trend signals potential problems with brand awareness campaigns or market position. This metric also predicts visibility in AI-generated results. (Source: Andrei Țiț, Episode #269)

• Track branded keyword clicks (searches for your company name, with or without modifiers) as a leading indicator of brand awareness. Hold the brand team accountable to growing branded keyword clicks quarter over quarter. Supplement with aided/unaided brand awareness surveys (conducted 2x per year) and third-party validation metrics (social follows, customer testimonials, analyst mentions). (Source: Ruth Zive, Episode #175)

• For brand awareness campaigns with long sales cycles (9–12 months), establish agreement with leadership on leading indicators before launching. Track branded impressions (organic search volume for your brand name) as a proxy for campaign impact. Build a brand tracker combining organic and paid branded impressions and monitor month-over-month or quarter-over-quarter trends. This provides quantifiable proof of campaign influence before bottom-line business results appear. (Source: Tagg Bozied, Episode #243)

• Monitor organic search traffic for your brand name in Google Analytics as a measurable indicator of brand awareness campaign impact. Set up a branded search segment and track month-over-month or quarter-over-quarter trends. (Source: Tagg Bozied, Episode #243)

• Monitor the volume of branded keyword clicks in Google Search Console over time. If branded clicks are flat or declining, your brand marketing efforts are not working. Use this as a quick barometer of whether brand initiatives are having any effect, but do not present it to the CFO as a primary metric. (Source: Pranav Piyush, Episode #191)

• Measure the success of brand-building events (webinars, product launches, live events) by tracking changes in branded search volume for your company name in Google Search Console. A spike in brand searches following an event indicates the event successfully elevated brand awareness. Track the timing of events against search volume spikes to establish correlation. (Source: Madhav Bhandari, Episode #183)

(Note: Branded search volume as the primary brand metric is contested — see Where Experts Disagree)

Direct Traffic

• Use direct traffic to your website (people typing your domain directly or arriving without a tracked source) as a primary indicator of brand awareness and reputation. Track the percentage of traffic arriving directly versus through paid or organic channels. Rising direct traffic signals that more people know your company exists and are seeking you out unprompted. (Source: Dave Gerhardt, Episode #307)

(Note: Direct traffic as the primary brand metric is contested — see Where Experts Disagree)

Market Penetration

• Stop measuring brand through awareness surveys or impression counts. Instead, measure brand penetration: the actual share of your addressable market that uses your product versus competitors. Ask your target audience which solutions they use (your brand vs. competitors) and track this over time. This connects brand to actual market share and business outcomes. (Source: Pranav Piyush, Episode #191)

(Note: Market penetration as the primary brand metric is contested — see Where Experts Disagree)

Organic and Referral Traffic

• Measure brand and mindshare investment impact by tracking organic search and referral traffic growth over time, rather than trying to attribute every brand activity to immediate revenue. This bridges the gap between long-term brand building and short-term revenue metrics by showing that increased brand awareness drives more people to discover you unprompted. (Source: Kelly Cheng, Episode #297)

• Monitor overall organic web traffic (branded and unbranded combined) as a simple, company-wide metric that shows how effectively marketing is driving natural discovery. Do not segment into branded vs. unbranded for executive reporting—keep it simple for clarity. Reserve detailed breakdowns for internal marketing team measurement. (Source: Aditya Vempaty, Episode #235)

Social and Community Signals

• Monitor not just vanity metrics (likes, shares) but the qualitative signals in social engagement: who is commenting (job titles, company size), what they're asking for, whether they're requesting to share your content, and the tone of discussion. Rising engagement from target personas on specific topics signals that your messaging is resonating with the right audience. (Source: Dave Gerhardt, Episode #307)

• Track LinkedIn impressions on your company page before and after implementing employee advocacy. Calculate the number of employee distribution points (employees posting). Compare company page impressions to total impressions across all employee posts to show the multiplier effect of employee advocacy on brand reach. (Source: Dan Cmejla, Episode #134)

• Survey customers on how they first heard about your company, grouping responses into awareness channels (events, social media, community, etc.). Use this directional attribution to validate community efforts when direct attribution is difficult to track. Complement with impression metrics and share-of-voice measurements across competitors to demonstrate brand lift. (Source: Dan Cmejla, Episode #134)

Measuring Specific Brand Channels

Social Media

• Since direct attribution from social to pipeline is difficult, use a proxy metric: ask your sales team to ask closed customers how they first discovered your company. Track how many mention social media, and which specific videos or accounts they reference. Additionally, monitor spikes in inbound applications from HR/recruiting after viral videos. (Source: Chris Cunningham, Episode #347)

• Allocate 6+ months before expecting attribution or results from social strategy. Budget conservatively (e.g., $7–8K/month initially) so leadership can tolerate the ramp-up period. Communicate that the buying cycle is 200+ days, so social's role is building awareness and preference over time, not driving immediate conversions. (Source: Chris Cunningham, Episode #347)

(Note: The appropriate time horizon for brand campaign measurement is contested — see Where Experts Disagree)

Podcasts

• Measure podcast ROI by: (1) download growth and audience size, (2) qualitative feedback from listeners (DMs, event conversations), (3) brand awareness lift (people recognizing you at events), and (4) depth of connection with audience (time spent listening builds stronger relationships than email). Accept that podcast ROI is long-term and relationship-based, not transactional. This works best if leadership is comfortable with non-traditional attribution. (Source: Erin May, Episode #337)

(Note: Whether to accept long-term-only results for brand channels is contested — see Where Experts Disagree)

Events

• For events where the primary goal is brand awareness (not direct revenue), measure secondary metrics like website traffic post-event, social media mentions, press coverage, app usage, and NPS score changes. These metrics demonstrate brand impact even if direct pipeline attribution is unclear. (Source: Stephanie Christensen, Episode #227)

• Measure the impact of brand activations (e.g., experiential stunts) by forecasting baseline marketing performance for the week following the event, executing the stunt, then comparing actual results to the forecast. This isolates the causal impact of the creative initiative without requiring direct response attribution. (Source: Drew Pinta, Episode #346)

LinkedIn Advertising

• If you're spending $20K+ per month on LinkedIn, unlock built-in brand lift studies through LinkedIn's test tab. These Nielsen-backed studies measure brand lift, product consideration, and other metrics through surveys. They require an additional fee but provide official, third-party validation of campaign impact on brand perception. (Source: Anthony Blatner, Episode #243)

• When running brand-building campaigns (e.g., LinkedIn display ads) in an ABM context, split your named account universe into two cohorts: one that receives brand impressions and one that does not. Measure the difference in opportunity creation rate and sales cycle velocity between the two groups. This allows you to quantify the impact of brand-building activities without relying on direct-response attribution. (Source: Kyle Coleman, Episode #123)

Founder and Employee Brand

• Understand that founder brand and LinkedIn visibility generate ROI across multiple channels simultaneously: recruiting, partnerships, customer acquisition, speaking opportunities, and investor interest. Rather than trying to measure a single conversion path, track anecdotal signals (team members mentioning they were hired because they saw the founder on LinkedIn, partners reaching out, customers citing the founder's content) as evidence of ROI, even if direct attribution is difficult. (Source: Dave Gerhardt, Episode #275)

• Strong brand doesn't just drive customer acquisition—it impacts recruiting, retention, customer education, and talent quality. Track metrics like number of job applications, quality of applicants, employee referrals, customer retention rates, and inbound lead volume. A strong brand creates a flywheel where all these metrics improve together. (Source: Dan Cmejla, Episode #134)

Advanced Measurement Techniques

Mixed Media Modeling and Incrementality Testing

• Implement a mixed media model (using tools like Pareto) to measure incremental impact of brand and awareness campaigns on pipeline and revenue. Flex budget up and down on specific channels and measure the incremental effect on website traffic, opportunities, and pipeline. Complement with incremental testing: pulse media in specific markets and measure the incremental impact on revenue. This allows brand marketing to be measured against business outcomes rather than vanity metrics. (Source: Ryan Narod, Episode #330)

• For non-direct response initiatives (podcasts, LinkedIn posts, brand awareness campaigns, events), measure their impact by tracking reach and impressions as inputs into your marketing mix model, not by waiting for direct clicks or conversions. Feed these reach/impression numbers into your correlation analysis alongside your outcome metrics (demos, trials). This allows you to quantify the impact of brand and awareness work without requiring a direct response mechanism. (Source: Pranav Piyush, Episode #130)

• For campaigns at scale ($2M+ spend), employ marketing mix modeling tools to measure statistical impact on traffic and conversion. Combine qualitative signals (LinkedIn screenshots of customer praise) with these metrics to demonstrate value to leadership. (Source: Udi Ledergor, Episode #237)

Attribution Without Cookies or Pixels

• When tracking pixels and cookies are unavailable (due to GDPR, privacy regulations, or browser restrictions), measure marketing impact through alternative methods: analyze branded search volume changes, track direct traffic, gather sales team feedback on how customers heard about you, use lift testing with sufficient budget, and monitor view-through conversions. (Source: John Short, Episode #148)

• Don't treat brand and pipeline as separate metrics. A single conversion may have 25+ touchpoints before it closes. Use multi-touch attribution models over long time periods to recognize cumulative contribution, especially in up-market deals. This justifies brand and event investments that don't show immediate ROI but create the conditions for pipeline conversion. (Source: Kelly Hopping, Episode #255)

Sales Team as Attribution Signal

• Rather than relying solely on analytics, directly ask your sales reps, customer success team, and other customer-facing staff to report how prospects and customers first heard about your company during conversations. Record calls (with consent) and track mentions of your content, podcast, events, or brand in those recordings. (Source: Dave Gerhardt, Episode #307)

AI Search and LLM Monitoring

• Track how your brand is mentioned in AI search results and LLM responses. Identify prompts where your brand is mentioned and analyze whether it's mentioned in ways aligned with your positioning. Use this data to inform content strategy and identify opportunities to influence how LLMs discuss your brand. (Source: Adina Timar, Episode #336)

• After a rebrand launch, test whether your new narrative is being picked up by the market by querying your company name and key positioning terms in AI search tools like ChatGPT. If the AI is still returning old language or positioning, it indicates the market hasn't fully absorbed your rebrand narrative. (Source: Clare Schmitt, Episode #333)

• Periodically test your brand and key product terms directly in ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and other LLMs to verify that the responses are accurate and aligned with your positioning. This qualitative check catches cases where LLMs are providing incorrect information or misrepresenting your offering, which tools alone may miss. (Source: Clare Schmitt, Episode #324)

Justifying Brand Investment to Leadership

Framing and Narrative

• Position brand and awareness campaigns as investments in long-term growth rather than costs to be minimized. Use this framing when presenting to CFO and finance teams to justify brand spending. Show that brand campaigns can drive both perception shifts and immediate business outcomes (signups, revenue) through integrated measurement. (Source: Kristine Segrist, Episode #277)

• Explain brand work to finance and leadership using the fishing analogy: performance marketing is fishing within an existing pond, but the pond eventually depletes as prospects learn to avoid your tactics. Brand work refills the pond with new prospects so performance strategies remain effective. Frame brand as essential infrastructure rather than awareness vanity, and measure impact by tracking which channels bring new prospects into the pipeline. (Source: Dmitry Shamis, Episode #238)

• Reference published research on B2B buying journeys (e.g., studies showing buying journeys require ~1,000 interactions and buyers select vendors before contacting sales) to justify brand investment to sales leadership. Use these studies to reframe the sales role: sales is validating buyer research, not driving discovery. (Source: Lisa Cole, Episode #315)

• Stop over-indexing on marketing attribution as the primary success metric. Attribution captures only the 2–3% of buyers actively in-market; brand building influences the 97–98% not yet in-market. Focus on whether your brand and category are perceived as leaders and priorities by your target buyers. (Source: Melton Littlepage, Episode #223)

• When you establish undeniable market leadership perception (through brand visibility, analyst positioning, etc.), you force competing buyers to acknowledge they're choosing #2 or #3. This increases your win rate on deals you're already in and shifts deals you would lose to "no decision." The business case for brand leadership is measurable through win-rate improvement, not just lead generation. (Source: Melton Littlepage, Episode #223)

Budget Allocation

• Compare the percentage of revenue driven by each channel against the percentage of budget allocated to that channel. If a channel drives significantly more revenue than its budget allocation (e.g., brand drives 40% of revenue but receives only 10% of budget), this signals an opportunity to reallocate resources toward that channel. (Source: Sylvia Lepoidevin, Episodes #283 and #199)

• Split marketing budget between pipeline generation activities and brand/reputation building, with the mix varying by company stage and competitive landscape. Early-stage companies (Series A) should weight more heavily toward pipeline and revenue growth. Established companies in highly competitive markets should invest more in brand and reputation to differentiate. (Source: Ruth Zive, Episode #175)

• When planning for growth, allocate roughly 70% of resources to current-year ROI initiatives and 30% to longer-term brand and awareness bets (podcasts, content, SEO, etc.). This ensures you're building the foundation for next year's growth now. (Source: Dave Gerhardt, Episode #214)

• Allocate marketing budget to build brand awareness among accounts that show high propensity to convert (based on lookalike modeling and predictive scoring) even if they show no current intent signals. This creates predictable pipeline growth 2+ quarters out. Requires leadership alignment on different metrics and measurement than demand-capture campaigns. (Source: Morgan Cole, Episode #315)

Soft ROI and Qualitative Evidence

• When brand campaigns don't produce direct, measurable conversions, quantify impact through "soft ROI" metrics: employee retention and engagement, recruitment signals (candidates mention campaigns in interviews), and product usage data (search for campaign mentions in customer conversations). Combine qualitative signals (LinkedIn screenshots of customer praise) with these metrics to demonstrate value to leadership. (Source: Udi Ledergor, Episode #237)

• Define brand goals by identifying what business outcome requires increased brand awareness or perception. For example, if the business needs to expand into a new demographic, set a brand goal around increasing engagement with that demographic on the channel they use most. Measure brand impact through proxy metrics like direct website traffic, organic search volume, or inbound inquiry volume. Connect brand goals back to revenue even if attribution is indirect. (Source: Hannak Rankin, Dave Gerhardt, Episode #210)

Where Experts Disagree

Disagreement 1: Should brand campaigns be required to show short-term measurable lift, or is long-term patience acceptable?

Why it matters: This disagreement determines how marketers set expectations with leadership and whether brand campaigns get killed prematurely. If the short-term-lift position is correct, teams that accept "long-term only" results are wasting budget. If the long-term patience position is correct, teams that demand short-term proof are systematically underinvesting in brand.

Support summary: 6 vs 2 (in favor of accepting long-term horizons)

Position A: All effective marketing must show measurable short-term impact

Pranav Piyush (Episodes #259 and #130) argues that brand campaigns—including billboards, podcasts, content, and events—must prove incrementality quickly or they are not working. If a campaign does not show short-term lift in conversion metrics, it is highly unlikely to show long-term lift either. Marketers who accept "long-term only" results are simply failing to measure correctly. Every piece of effective marketing drives some measurable impact in the short term; if you think a campaign only works long-term, it usually means you don't know how to measure its short-term effect.

Position B: Brand and awareness campaigns inherently operate on long time horizons and should not be held to short-term conversion metrics

Six guests support this position:

• Chris Cunningham (Episode #347) cited ClickUp's experience: 3 months before significant views, 4–5 months before clear pipeline attribution. Argued buying cycles are 200+ days, so social builds awareness over time, not immediate conversions.
• Drew Pinta (Episode #346) argued that brand and creative initiatives should not be measured like direct response campaigns. The fastest way to kill creative marketing is to measure it with direct response metrics.
• Erin May (Episode #337) stated podcast ROI is long-term and relationship-based, not transactional, and that fuzzy attribution is expected and acceptable for podcasts.
• Tagg Bozied (Episode #243) recommended establishing leading indicators (branded impressions) before launching brand campaigns with 9–12 month sales cycles, and accepting that bottom-line results appear later.
• Priscilla Barolo (Episodes #302 and #193) stated brand awareness is expensive and harder to measure ROI on, but the difficulty in measurement shouldn't prevent investment.
• Dave Gerhardt (Episode #214) recommended allocating 30% of budget to longer-term brand and awareness bets, explicitly noting these are harder-to-measure initiatives that build future-year growth.

Context dependency: Pranav Piyush's position may apply more to performance-oriented or well-instrumented teams with sufficient budget for incrementality testing, while the long-term patience position may reflect the practical reality for smaller teams without sophisticated measurement infrastructure. However, both sides are explicitly addressing the same question of whether brand campaigns must show short-term lift, making this a genuine disagreement regardless of context.

Trend note: Pranav Piyush's short-term-lift position appears in episodes from April 2024 and June 2025. The long-term patience position is represented by more recent guests in episodes from 2026. If anything, the more recent cluster leans toward accepting long-term measurement horizons for brand work.

Disagreement 2: What is the best primary metric for measuring brand health and awareness?

Why it matters: The metric a team chooses as its primary brand health indicator shapes what gets optimized and what gets reported to leadership. Choosing the wrong proxy metric could lead to misallocating brand budget or failing to demonstrate brand ROI convincingly.

Support summary: 5 vs 4 vs 1 vs 1

Position A: Branded search volume (5 supporters)

Ruth Zive (Episode #175), Madhav Bhandari (Episode #183), Tagg Bozied (Episode #243), Andrei Țiț (Episode #269), and Pranav Piyush (Episode #191, with caveats) all recommend branded keyword search volume or impressions as the best primary metric. The argument: it directly measures whether people are actively seeking out your brand, is simple to track, and can be held as an accountability metric for the brand team. Note that Pranav Piyush qualifies this as a "sanity check" rather than a CFO-facing primary metric.

Position B: Aided and unaided recall surveys (4 supporters)

Amrita Gurney (Episode #287), Aditya Vempaty (Episode #235), Drew Pinta (Episode #346), and Kristine Segrist (Episode #277) recommend brand recall surveys with external audiences as the most meaningful primary metric. The argument: surveys directly measure whether your brand is on the consideration shortlist in buyers' minds, which is the actual goal of brand building. Surveys require budget and external panel access, which may limit accessibility for smaller teams.

Position C: Direct website traffic (1 supporter)

Dave Gerhardt (Episode #307) recommends direct traffic as the primary signal of brand awareness and reputation, arguing it shows people are actively seeking you out unprompted and is simpler and more reliable than branded search attribution.

Position D: Market penetration (1 supporter)

Pranav Piyush (Episode #191) argues that market penetration—the actual share of your addressable market using your product versus competitors—is the only meaningful, revenue-connected measure of brand strength. He explicitly argues that awareness surveys and impression counts are vanity metrics that don't connect to business outcomes. Note that this position is in direct tension with Position B (surveys) and partially with Position A (branded search).

Context dependency: Branded search volume is more accessible for most teams and requires no additional budget. Surveys require budget and external panel access. Market penetration measurement requires competitive intelligence infrastructure. Teams with limited resources may default to branded search volume or direct traffic as practical proxies, while teams with more sophisticated measurement capabilities may layer in surveys or penetration tracking.

What NOT To Do

• Do not abandon social or brand strategies before 6+ months. Most companies abandon social strategies too early because they expect immediate ROI. (Source: Chris Cunningham, Episode #347)

• Do not measure brand campaigns with direct-response metrics. This is the fastest way to kill creative marketing. (Source: Drew Pinta, Episode #346)

• Do not rely solely on click-based attribution models. Attribution models often underestimate the impact of brand and awareness campaigns because they only track clicks and direct conversions. Customers are smarter than your attribution model gives them credit for. (Source: Pranav Piyush, Episode #259)

• Do not treat brand and pipeline as entirely separate metrics. A single conversion may have 25+ touchpoints before it closes. (Source: Kelly Hopping, Episode #255)

• Do not allocate 100% of resources to current-year ROI initiatives. Failing to invest in longer-term brand bets means you will have no foundation for future-year growth. (Source: Dave Gerhardt, Episode #214)

• Do not survey your own database to measure brand awareness. This introduces significant bias. Survey external audiences such as industry communities, influencer networks, or third-party databases. (Source: Aditya Vempaty, Episode #235)

• Do not present branded search click volume to the CFO as a primary brand metric. It is a sanity check, not a board-level metric. (Source: Pranav Piyush, Episode #191)

• Do not invest in brand activities that are disconnected from your product or revenue outcomes. Brand investments that don't connect to what your product does or serve a specific business objective don't translate to customer understanding or business results. (Source: Jaleh Rezaei, Episode #248)

• Do not rely solely on tools to track AI/LLM performance. Periodically test your brand and key product terms directly in ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and other LLMs to verify accuracy and alignment with your positioning. (Source: Clare Schmitt, Episode #324)

• Do not over-index on marketing attribution as the primary success metric. Attribution captures only the 2–3% of buyers actively in-market; it cannot make a company "hot" in the market. (Source: Melton Littlepage, Episode #223)

• Do not assume brand campaigns only work in the long term without attempting to measure short-term lift. (Note: this is contested — see Where Experts Disagree) (Source: Pranav Piyush, Episodes #259 and #130)

Sources