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The Brand Lift method in plain words

Brand Lift compares two groups of channels, before and after your campaign. The difference between how much each group changed is the lift.

Available on Elite and above

Brand Lift studies start at Elite.

Two groups of channels​

  • Your campaign's channels are the channels in the Paid Promotions campaign. Their readers see your ads.
  • Matched channels are similar opted-in channels that do not run your campaign: same category and language, a similar size, and a similar Onflow Verified score where there is one.

Matched channels never include channels of the owners in your campaign, channels that ran your ads recently or run them during the study, or recent Cross-Promotion partners of your campaign's channels. More matched channels are invited than needed, because some decline.

Two waves of polls​

The same questions run as a pre-wave before your campaign starts and a post-wave after it, in both groups. See Timing of the two waves.

Diagram Two waves, two groups: the campaign runs between the waves in its own channels only.

The change in each channel​

Each channel counts as one unit, because readers of one channel are alike in ways readers of different channels are not. For each channel the study takes the share choosing your target answer after, minus the share before.

The lift​

The lift is the average change in your campaign's channels minus the average change in the matched channels. Channels with more voters count for more, up to a limit, so no single big channel decides the result.

Subtracting the matched channels' change removes what would have happened anyway: news, a season, or a trend that touched every channel alike.

The range and the checks​

The range around the lift comes from how much the change varies from channel to channel, and is wider when there are few channels. A second check shuffles which channels count as "campaign" and "matched" many times and sees how often a lift this large appears by chance. The report shows both.

The primary question is read as it is; the other questions are adjusted for being tested together.

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