Brand Awareness Survey Template
A 13-question brand awareness survey in a fixed order: the open recall question first, and no brand name on screen until it is answered. Answer it below, or open it in the editor with your own names in it.
- 13questions
- About 4 minto complete
- Unaided firstno brand names shown
- Non-customersnot your own list
Who you can reach decides whether this is your survey
Brand awareness breaks when you send it to whoever is easiest to reach, so this is the first decision here, not the last.
| Who you can actually reach | What that group can tell you | Which survey |
|---|---|---|
| People in your category who may never have heard of you | A market-level awareness figure. | This one. |
| People who know you and can name your rivals | How you compare on what people think. | A brand perception survey. |
| Your own customers, current and lapsed | Whether they come back, and what would stop them. | A brand loyalty survey. |
| People who have seen none of the names | Which candidate name lands, before a brand exists. | A name testing survey. |
Only the top row is this survey. A customer list reads depth of awareness or loyalty; a target-market sample tells you whether the name is getting out at all.[7]
If the people you can reach already know you and can name your rivals, you want the brand perception survey. If your only list is your own customers, the brand loyalty survey asks what those people do next. If the name is not chosen yet there is nothing to be aware of, so the naming survey comes first.
What this brand awareness survey measures, and why the order cannot move
Two measures and one rule. Unaided recall is what people can name with no help; prompted recognition is what they say they know once you show them a list.[2]
Unaided first, always. Ask a closed question on a topic before an open one and people hand back the ideas they were just shown.[1] A list of brand names is that closed question, and shown early it writes the answer to the open one. Making a brand easier to reach in memory changes whether it is retrieved at all.[3] Prompted awareness is defined by the presence of a stimulus,[2] which is why the stimulus cannot come first. Brand trackers run spontaneous, then branded, then exploratory, and warn that priming contaminates everything after it.[4]
Top of mind is a reading, not a question. It is the first brand named at question 1, and your name anywhere in that answer is total unaided awareness.[5] All 13 questions are already built in the questionnaire maker in this order. Change the wording, delete the slogan question, put your own names in the list, and leave question 1 where it is. If you also need what the market buys and pays, the market research survey is the wider study.
The 13 questions, in the order they have to be asked
Every question, how it is answered, and what a bad answer looks like. Copy one block or the whole instrument; the buttons keep the order.
Block 1. Unaided recall, with nothing in front of it
One question, and nothing precedes it. Anything shown first ends up inside the answer.
- Which brands come to mind when you think of [CATEGORY]? List them in the order they occur to you, or type none.First name typed is top of mind; the whole list is total unaided awareness. Names from another category mean your category phrase is wrong.
Block 2. Who is answering
Three questions that drop people who are not in your category, placed after question 1 so they cannot prime it.
- How would you describe your relationship with [CATEGORY]?Sorts users from non-users. If almost everybody says regularly, you surveyed your own customers.
- When did you last buy or use anything in [CATEGORY]?Recency. More than a year ago is memory, not current behaviour.
- In the last year, which of these have you done about [CATEGORY]?Category engagement. All none of these means the person is in your sample but not your market.
Block 3. Prompted awareness, the first brand names on screen
Three recognition questions, and the point where a brand name is allowed on screen.
- Which of these brands have you heard of before today?Aided recognition. Ticks on the invented name set how much of the rest to discount.
- Have you seen or heard this line before: [YOUR SLOGAN]?Asset recognition. Yes but not whose means the line works for the category, not you. Delete it if you have no line.
- In the last 30 days, which of these brands have you seen or heard advertising for?Claimed exposure. What people believe they saw, not evidence the campaign caused it.
Block 4. Where the awareness came from
Two questions that turn a percentage into something you can act on.
- Where did you first come across [YOUR BRAND]?Source. An even spread across every channel usually means people are guessing.
- How long ago was that?Recency of first contact. Last month campaigns show here before anywhere else.
Block 5. The question that decides whether the number is real
The one question that decides whether the number is real.
- Which of these is true for you about [YOUR BRAND]?The filter, and it names only your brand: somebody who buys a rival and has never heard of you still answers neither. If hardly anyone does, you measured your own list.
Block 6. In your own words
One optional line, placed before the end so people still have a reason to type.
- In your own words, what does [YOUR BRAND] do?Accuracy of recall. Answers describing a rival, or another category, come out of your aided figure.
Block 7. Depth, and the closing rating
Two questions separating a known name from a known company, then the cheapest thing to ask last.
- Which of these best describes what you know about [YOUR BRAND]?The awareness ladder. A tall heard the name only bar beside a high aided figure is recognition with nothing behind it.
- How confident are you that you could pick [YOUR BRAND] out from other brands in [CATEGORY]?Recognition confidence. High confidence from people who could not describe you at question 11 is over-claiming.
Before you send. [CATEGORY], [YOUR BRAND], [YOUR SLOGAN] and the rival slots are placeholders. Leave the invented name in: ticks on a brand that does not exist tell you how much of the rest is guessing. A name at the top of a list also gains ticks from its position.[1] Turn on Randomize option order, on the Settings tab of questions 5 and 7; the template ships with it off. Leave the survey-wide Randomize Order setting off, though: that one shuffles the questions and would move question 1 out of first place.
How to measure brand awareness when your sample is not representative
Three readings, ordered by how much abuse each survives. Work down the list and stop when your sample runs out.
| Reading | How to work it out | What it survives |
|---|---|---|
| The aided minus unaided gap | Ticks on your name at question 5, minus the share who typed it at question 1. | A sample that is not representative: both halves come from the same people. |
| The same instrument, quarter on quarter | Re-run it with identical wording and the same recruitment route, and read the movement. | Anything except a change of wording or route. |
| The level on its own | The share who typed your name unprompted, and the share who ticked it when shown. | Only an audience you can describe. |
A high aided figure beside a low unaided one is a salience problem, not an awareness problem. People know the name when they see it, and it does not arrive when they need it.[6] Run every figure twice: once on everybody, once on only the people who answered neither at question 10. Report the second where the two are far apart. The level itself needs a named audience printed beside it, and a response count worked out from the cuts you intend to make. The sample size calculator does that arithmetic.
What this survey cannot produce, and the limit that will bite
Two numbers get asked for on the back of an awareness study and neither is something a respondent can tell you. The third limit is who answered.
Share of voice. It is your media spending as a percentage of all media spending in the category, on that channel and in that market.[10] It comes out of competitive spend data. No question you can put to a person produces it.
Whether the advertising worked. An honest ad-recall lift needs a group shown the campaign and a randomly withheld group who were not, and only the platform serving the ads can withhold anybody.[11] Question 7 is claimed exposure: report it beside the dates the campaign ran and let the reader draw their own line.
And who answered, which is the one that bites. Brand-tracking guidance is blunt about it: studying only your core audience gives a flatteringly positive read.[4] Awareness has to be asked of consumers in the category.[8] If you cannot reach anybody outside your own list, do not run this survey yet.
Fielding it without priming anybody
Three decisions particular to an awareness study. Sending, reminding and closing work the same on any survey and are in the survey research guide.
Say the category the way an outsider would say it
Question 1 dies if your category phrase is industry language. Try it on somebody who does not work in your field.
Recruit somewhere you have no relationship
A community that existed before you did, a publication in the category, or a panel you pay for.
Write down the wording and the route before wave two
File both with the results and repeat them exactly, or next quarter measures your method instead of your brand.
Brand awareness survey FAQ
How many responses does a brand awareness survey need?
It depends on how many groups you want to split the answers into, not on a round number somebody published. Decide the cuts first and work backwards. Who answers matters more than how many: a small sample of people who could plausibly have never heard of you beats a big one drawn from your contacts.
How often should I repeat it?
Quarterly is a sensible rhythm. Every wave has to use identical wording and the same recruitment route, because changing either measures your method rather than your brand. Avoid going back to the same people.[9]
Methods and sources
What this template is based on
The fixed order follows the finding that a closed question asked first changes the open answer after it, and the tracker sequence of spontaneous, then branded, then everything else.[1][4] The vocabulary follows the definitions used by the firms that run trackers.[2]
Question licensing
Unaided recall, prompted recognition, top of mind and source of awareness are generic market research constructs with no rights holder, so all 13 questions are original and free to edit, translate and redistribute. Brand Lift is a Google product name, used only to refer to that product.[11]
Limits and disclosure
This records what people say they know, not what they saw. It produces no share of voice, no advertising lift and no causal claim, and its levels mean nothing without a named audience beside them. It is not a perception, loyalty or name test, and it states no minimum sample size.
SuperSurvey builds the editor this template opens in and sells no respondent panel, so the recruitment advice above has no product behind it.
References
- Pew Research Center. Writing Survey Questions. Methods reference. pewresearch.org
- Ipsos. Ipsos Encyclopedia: Awareness. ipsos.com
- Nedungadi, P. "Recall and Consumer Consideration Sets." Journal of Consumer Research 17, no. 3 (1990): 263-276. academic.oup.com
- Insight Platforms. What is Brand Tracking? Explainer, Insight Platforms. insightplatforms.com
- Qualtrics. Brand Awareness: The Ultimate Guide. Qualtrics Experience Management. qualtrics.com
- Formbricks. 50+ Brand Survey Questions. Formbricks blog. formbricks.com
- NewtonX. 20 Brand Awareness Survey Questions. NewtonX. newtonx.com
- Attest. How to measure brand awareness. Attest blog. askattest.com
- Appinio. Brand Awareness Survey. Appinio market research blog. appinio.com
- Nielsen. Need to know: What is share of voice? Nielsen, 2025. nielsen.com
- Google Ads Help. About Brand Lift. Google. support.google.com
Run the brand awareness survey on people who may not know you
Thirteen questions, about four minutes, unaided recall first. Open it in the editor, put your own names in the list, and share one link.
Use this template