What Is Brand Lift Study?
A brand lift study is a controlled experiment that measures the incremental impact of ads on awareness, ad recall, consideration, favourability, or purchase intent. The platform randomly splits an eligible audience into an exposed group (sees your ads) and a holdout group (does not), then surveys both and reports the percentage-point lift. It is the only in-platform tool that isolates brand impact from other marketing activity.
Worked example
An FMCG brand in Bangladesh runs a $40,000 YouTube reach campaign over four weeks. Google Brand Lift surveys 3,200 exposed users and 3,000 in the holdout. Unaided ad recall lands at 34 percent for exposed vs 12 percent for holdout, a 22 percentage-point absolute lift. Purchase intent lifts 5 points, statistically significant at 95 percent confidence. The team now has a defensible number to justify the reach budget next quarter, something last-click reporting cannot produce.
Benchmarks
- Meta Brand Lift minimum: usually $30,000+ per study in most markets; higher in low-CPM regions.
- Google/YouTube Brand Lift minimum: typically $5,000 per study for ad recall; higher for consideration or purchase intent.
- Typical absolute ad-recall lift on well-branded video: 15 to 30 percentage points.
- Typical purchase-intent lift on lower-funnel creative: 2 to 6 percentage points.
Google's own benchmarks report that YouTube campaigns using Brand Lift studies deliver a median ad-recall lift of 20 percent, with 9 in 10 campaigns showing a statistically significant lift.
Why it matters
Last-click attribution systematically underweights upper-funnel work. Brand lift studies give reach, video, and awareness spend a real number to defend budget with, and to trend over time. Without them, upper-funnel budgets get cut every planning cycle because nobody can prove they moved anything.
Common mistakes
- 1.Running a study on a budget below the platform threshold; results come back non-significant and waste the spend.
- 2.Comparing exposed lift to a pre-campaign baseline instead of a holdout; that is a trend, not a lift.
- 3.Judging a top-of-funnel creative by consideration or purchase intent when the media plan only funded awareness.
- 4.Treating a single study as a trend; run at least 3 studies a year on comparable creative to see real movement.
Put Brand Lift Study to work
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FAQs about Brand Lift Study
How much does a brand lift study cost?
The study itself is free from Meta and Google. The cost is the media spend needed to hit the platform's minimum sample threshold, usually $5,000 to $50,000 depending on platform and market for meaningful confidence.
How long does a brand lift study take?
Typically 7 to 14 days of media plus 3 to 5 days for results after the campaign ends. Longer flights improve confidence but do not always change directional findings.
What lift number is 'good'?
Any statistically significant lift is a win, most reach campaigns fail to prove even that. Median ad-recall lift on YouTube is around 20 points; on Meta it is often 5 to 15 points depending on creative quality.
Can I run brand lift on lower-funnel campaigns?
Yes, but expect smaller lifts. Lower-funnel campaigns already reach warm audiences whose baseline recall is high, so headroom is limited. Save brand lift for genuine top-of-funnel work.
Brand lift vs incrementality test, which do I run?
Brand lift measures survey outcomes (recall, awareness, intent). Incrementality tests measure behavioural outcomes (conversions, revenue). Run brand lift for reach and video, incrementality for conversion-focused channels.
Related terms
Measures the lift ads caused vs what would have happened anyway.
Randomised users kept ad-free so you can measure true lift.
Incrementality test that turns spend on/off by region to isolate impact.
Non-skippable 6-second YouTube ad optimised for reach and recall.
Cost to serve 1,000 impressions, the auction's price signal.
% of impressions that resulted in a qualified video view.
% of impressions your brand owns vs total category impressions.