What are the best tools and metrics to track your brand awareness online?

1 Why brand awareness matters

Brand awareness is not just about getting your name out there. It is also about creating a positive and memorable impression of your brand in the minds of your target audience. Brand awareness can influence their purchase decisions, referrals, and retention. According to a Nielsen study, 59% of consumers prefer to buy from brands they know and trust. Moreover, brand awareness can help you stand out from your competitors, increase your market share, and reduce your customer acquisition costs.

2 How to set brand awareness goals

Before you start measuring your brand awareness, you need to define your goals and objectives. What is the desired outcome of your promotional marketing efforts? Who should be the focus of your strategy and why? How would you like them to perceive and interact with your brand? It's also important to determine how you will measure success and progress. For example, some common brand awareness goals are increasing recall and recognition among target markets, improving reputation and image, boosting loyalty and advocacy, growing website traffic and social media following, as well as generating leads and conversions.

3 How to choose brand awareness metrics

When measuring your brand awareness online, it’s important to select metrics that reflect your objectives and provide actionable insights for your promotional marketing strategy. Direct traffic, search volume, social media metrics, brand sentiment, and net promoter score (NPS) are some of the most common and effective brand awareness metrics. Direct traffic shows how well customers remember your brand and website. Search volume indicates how popular and visible your brand is online. Social media metrics show how engaged and interested your audience is in your brand and content. Brand sentiment reveals how satisfied and loyal customers are and how they perceive your brand image and reputation. NPS indicates how loyal and satisfied customers are and how they influence your word-of-mouth marketing.

4 How to use brand awareness tools

To measure your brand awareness metrics, you need to use some tools that can collect, analyze, and visualize the data for you. Google Analytics is a free web analytics tool that can help you track direct traffic, search volume, website performance, and user behavior. With Google Trends, you can compare the popularity and interest of different keywords and topics related to your brand over time and across regions. Social media analytics provide built-in features to monitor followers, likes, comments, shares, mentions, and hashtags. Brandwatch is a paid tool that can help you track and measure brand sentiment, NPS, and online reputation across various online sources. Lastly, SurveyMonkey is a free or paid tool that can help create and distribute online surveys to collect feedback from customers and measure NPS and customer satisfaction.

5 How to improve your brand awareness online

Measuring your brand awareness online is not enough. To improve your brand awareness and achieve your goals, you should create and share content that showcases your brand personality, values, and benefits. Optimize your website and social media profiles for search engines and user experience, using clear branding elements. Leverage social media platforms to interact with your audience and generate buzz. Collaborate with influencers, bloggers, media outlets, or other brands to create co-branded content. Finally, use paid advertising methods to reach a wider and more targeted audience.