Case Study
Brand Lift Test Supports Facebook Ads Positive Impact on National Urgent Care Chain's Brand Awareness Efforts
The Story
Workshop Digital analysts craft customized PPC strategies to serve our clients’ unique business needs and goals. As part of our commitment to client success, we find innovative ways to test paid campaign effectiveness.
During an on-going paid media engagement with an urgent care chain employing 1,500+ team members across 76 US locations, our client wanted to understand the impact of Facebook Ads on brand recognition.
We sat down with Senior Paid Media Manager Patrick Cusumano to explore how he led a Brand Lift Test to gauge Facebook Ad effectiveness on our client’s brand efforts.
What is a Brand Lift Test?
A Brand Lift Test is an experiment that allows us to see the incremental value that Facebook Ads are providing to our client in terms of brand recognition and favorability. We created two equally sized groups:
Test group - a targeted audience who sees the Facebook Ads as normal
Control group - people who are also part of the targeted audience, but are not shown the ads at all
Both groups were served poll questions about the client, and their responses were recorded separately for comparison. We ran the test over eight weeks across all regions to gather statistically significant data.
We asked three poll questions focused on Ad Recall, Brand Use, and Favorability:
Ad Recall: Do you recall seeing an ad for (national urgent care chain) online or on a mobile device in the last 2 days?
Brand Use: Have you used (national urgent care chain)?
Favorability: How would you describe your overall opinion of (national urgent care chain)?
The ads tested were a mix of video, single-image, and carousel ads. Some ads highlighted specific offerings like flu shots or sports physicals, while others were more generic about the urgent care centers’ overall services for illnesses and injuries.
The Results
The results for each poll question were broken down by all responses, responses by age, and responses by gender.
Ad Recall: Do you recall seeing an ad for (national urgent care chain) online or on a mobile device in the last 2 days?
All Responses
The analysis of all responses considers the percentage of respondents who answered “yes”, “no”, or were “not sure” if they had seen an ad for our client.
These responses are about as expected, with generally more people saying they’ve seen ads if they have in fact been served ads. Since the question does not specify Facebook Ads, people could arguably be responding “yes” because they saw a Google search or Display ad, even if they were in the control group here.
Age
These are the numbers for those who responded “yes” by age. The largest lift occurred in more desirable respondents aged 45+.
Gender
This is the data for those who answered “yes” by gender. Female members of the target audiences reported a higher lift in ad recall.
Brand Use: Have you used (national urgent care chain)?
All Responses
The analysis of all responses considers the percentage of respondents who answered “yes”, “no”, or were “not sure” if they had used our client’s services.
Before looking at the differences between the control and test groups, it’s important to acknowledge that more people have used the client’s services than haven’t in our audience. This is good considering our targeting criteria is fairly broad, other than being within 5 miles of a center. Additionally, it is encouraging to see that our ads (with 98% statistical significance here) have caused more people to visit the client, compared to those who were not served our ads.
Age
This is the data for those who answered “yes” by age. People between the ages of 25 and 64 have used our client more than those aged 18-24 or 65+. But in the oldest and youngest age groups, Facebook ads have impacted them more than the other groups in a positive way toward visiting our client, with 8 and 5 point lifts respectively.
Gender
This is the data for those who answered “yes” by gender. Slightly more females than males responded that they’ve used our client’s services. Females were positively influenced slightly more by Facebook ads.
Favorability: How would you describe your overall opinion of (national urgent care chain)?
All Responses
The analysis of all responses considers the percentage of respondents who considered their opinion of our client “very favorable”, “somewhat favorable”, “neutral”, “somewhat unfavorable”, or “very unfavorable.”
“Very favorable” was firmly the most popular response by a large margin which is encouraging. That was also the response with the largest lift caused by our ads. The effect on the other groups was small, but it is nice to see that those who saw ads were slightly less likely to respond with an unfavorable opinion.
Age
This is the data for those who answered either “very favorable” or “somewhat favorable”. In general, positive opinions of our client increase with age, with the exception of 45-54 year-olds. They are also the group most favorably impacted by our ads, followed by 65+. But, all groups were decently impacted.
Gender
This is the data for those who answered either “very favorable” or “somewhat favorable”. In general, females have a more positive opinion of our client than males. And, while both groups were impacted by advertising, females were slightly more so.
Final Conclusions and Comparisons
The goal of our Brand Lift Test was to understand the impact of Facebook Ads on our client’s brand recognition.
While most people did not specifically recall seeing our client’s Facebook Ads, the ads undeniably have a positive effect on people’s opinions of the brand and decision to use their services. The majority of people polled both used the services and have a favorable opinion of the brand, whether or not they have seen an ad.
The best-performing ads were videos, followed by carousels, then single-image ads. Videos are the most engaging and can convey a lot about a brand. Looking at messaging, generic urgent care ads outperformed specific service line ads by focusing on what makes our client stand out from local competitors. For example, compared to a specific service like sports physicals, general illness and injury is more relatable to a wider audience.
Compared to the average of all businesses (in North America and internationally) who used this poll model, our client’s ads outperform in terms of ad recall, brand use, and favorability - the one exception being brand use compared to the North America average.
Our ongoing partnership with the client demonstrates the value of crafting customized PPC strategies, and then testing ad effectiveness. In this case, a Brand Lift Test proved that our client’s investment in paid advertising is creating positive brand recognition among consumers.
