Brand awareness survey template and questions
Do people know your brand?
A brand awareness survey measures how many people in your market know your brand, and whether they think of it without a prompt. The Great Question template asks seven questions, starting with unprompted recall and then showing a list of brands. Run the same questions at regular intervals and you can see whether awareness is moving.
Questions it can answer
- Is our brand resonating with our target audience?
- What other brands are our prospects seeing?
- Are our marketing channels working?
What is a brand awareness survey?
Brand awareness surveys measure how familiar people are with the brand and how it is perceived. These surveys should be used frequently to enable monitoring of brand awareness over time to identify potential trends of shifts in the market.
Related guide: For sampling and question design across survey types, see our survey research guide.
Do it faster with a Claude skill: Survey designer. Builds a first draft of this study in Claude that you can edit before you send it.
The questions in this template
These are the questions in the Great Question brand awareness survey template. Replace the text in angle brackets with your own.
Thinking about brands that provide <insert product or service category>, which one comes to mind first?
Short Text
Which of the following brands have you heard of?
Multi Select
- Brand A
- Brand B
- Brand C
When did you first hear about <insert brand name>?
Single Select
- In the last month
- In the last 6 months
- In the last year
- More than 1 year ago
- I've never heard of it
In the last month, where have you seen or heard about <insert brand name>?
Multi Select
- Friends, family or colleagues
- Social media
- Online search results
- Online news or magazine articles
- Printed news or magazine articles
- TV advertisement
- Billboards
- Public transport
- Other
- I haven't heard or seen anything about <insert brand name> in the last month
Which of the below words or phrases do you think best represents <insert brand name>?
Multi Select
- Brand value 1
- Brand value 2
- Brand value 3
- None
If you were to describe <insert brand name> to your friends, family or colleagues what would you say?
Long Text
How likely are you to recommend <insert brand name> to friends, family or colleagues?
Linear Scale
Not at all likelyExtremely likely
Questions you might add
These are our suggestions, not part of the Great Question template. Add them only if you will use the answers.
Which of these have you bought or used in the past 12 months? Multi-select list of product categories, including yours. Put it first and use it to screen out people who are not in your market.
Which of these brands would you consider next time you need [category]? Multi-select, same list as Q2.
How familiar are you with [Brand]? Single choice: Never heard of it, Heard the name only, Know a little about it, Know a fair amount, Know it very well.
How to run it
Who to ask. Survey your target market, not your customer list. Customers already know you, so they will inflate every number. Use a participant panel or audience that matches the market you want to reach.
Set up the template. Replace Brand A, B and C in Q2 with your brand and your main competitors, and the brand values in Q5 with the words you want to be known for plus one or two you don't. If your survey tool can shuffle answer order, randomise the brand list so position does not sway the answers.
Question order. The template already asks unaided recall (Q1) before it shows any brand names (Q2). Keep it that way, and keep your name and logo out of the survey invite and intro text, or Q1 stops being unprompted.
When to send. Run it as a tracker at a fixed interval, such as every quarter or every six months, with identical wording and a similar audience each time. A one-off reading has nothing to compare against. Run an extra wave before and after a major campaign if you want to see its effect.
Sample size. For a single wave, about 400 responses gives roughly ±5 percentage points at 95% confidence. To tell whether awareness changed between two waves of 400, the change needs to be around 7 points or more before you can be fairly confident it is real. Smaller samples work for directional reads, but say so when you report.
How to analyse. Report top-of-mind awareness (the share naming your brand in Q1) and aided awareness (the share ticking it in Q2), and track both wave over wave. Use Q3 to see how recently people first heard of you, and Q4 to see which channels they credit. Q5 and Q6 show whether the associations match what you intend. People who have never heard of you still see Q4 to Q7, so read those questions for the people who chose your brand in Q2.
Advantages
- Easy to measure changes over time
- Fast survey
- Great to keep a pulse on new potential competitors
Limitations
- Finding people in your target audience might be costly
- Survey fatigue
- Sample size requirements might be difficult to meet
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between aided and unaided brand awareness?
Unaided awareness counts people who name your brand without a prompt, as in Q1 of this template. Aided awareness counts people who recognise your brand in a list, as in Q2. Unaided is the stronger signal, and it has to be asked first.
How often should I run a brand awareness survey?
Every quarter or every six months is common. Keep the questions, order and audience the same each time so changes reflect awareness, not a change in method.
Who should take a brand awareness survey?
People in your target market who do not already have a relationship with you. Surveying your own customers overstates awareness.
How many responses do I need?
Around 400 per wave gives about ±5 percentage points at 95% confidence. Fewer responses still show direction, but small changes between waves will be within the noise.