Advanced Brand Metrics Every Marketer Must Track

Measuring brand performance isn’t easy. Basic metrics, like web traffic and sales, don’t always paint the entire picture.

The basis of brand health depends on several factors. Some are more direct than others. Customer retention rates and market share have an obvious impact. But companies may not see the tangible influence of brand advocacy rate.

Advanced brand metrics can give you the nuanced understanding you need to gain an edge.

Why advanced brand metrics are non-negotiable

Previously, marketers lacked comprehensive brand performance data. I remember asking call-ins how they got the business’s phone number so I could credit the lead source. Our tracking methods were primitive, but we didn’t have many alternatives.

That all changed with digital marketing. Now, brand tracking is more complex. The question is, “How do we know what data is critical to our businesses and what isn’t?”

Not all brand health metrics are worth tracking. The ones you use will depend on your business. But going beyond the basic metrics that your competitors use can give you an advantage.

Everyone tracks basic brand visibility metrics like web traffic and social media followers. However, these numbers don’t provide enough depth. It’s difficult to adjust and improve your marketing strategies without deeper insights.

That’s where advanced brand metrics come in. They give you a more complete picture of how your organization performs among its target audience and rivals. These numbers help you answer the bigger questions, like “How do people see our brand?” or “What kind of content gets better results?”

Foundational brand metrics are valuable. But decision-makers need granular insights to make decisions with confidence. When you balance basic and advanced brand metrics, you get the full picture—and a clear path forward.

What are the differences between qualitative and quantitative brand metrics?

Quality, emotions, and brand perception are the focus of qualitative brand metrics. Quantitative metrics are tangible, like sales figures, website traffic, and online mentions, like social media engagement. Both types are essential for understanding a brand’s health.

Core brand tracking metrics

Since this post focuses on advanced tracking methods, we’ll assume you’re already watching basic numbers like brand awareness metrics and lead conversions.

Besides those, we recommend monitoring:

• Brand Equity Score

• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

• Customer Journey Completion Rate

Brand Equity Score

Equity Score is a quantifiable measure of a brand’s value. To calculate it, you’ll use a combination of financial and non-financial analytics. How you calculate the score depends on the goals of the analysis and the data available. 

Research suggests a top brand equity score is 60. Excellent scores are between 40 and 59, and good scores are between 30 and 39. Anything below 30 is poor. 

For example, a coffee shop chain with high scores in brand awareness (80-100%), brand loyalty (70-100%), perceived quality (9-10), and positive brand associations would have a high equity score. This is an oversimplified model I’ve used to illustrate the concept. Actual calculations are more complex and often include factors like market share and financial performance.

There isn’t a universally accepted formula for calculating Brand Equity Scores. Different companies and market research firms use varying methods. Regardless of the method you use, equity is not a fixed score and changes over time.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) refers to how much revenue a customer brings in. This metric helps companies identify which customer segments are the most valuable. Then they can focus on keeping those relationships and growing them.

CLV is especially useful when building loyalty programs and creating personalized campaigns. For example, let’s say your most valuable customers love premium services. To increase their value, you could run upsell campaigns or offer exclusive memberships.

For example, if we wanted to calculate CLV for an online clothing store, we would consider the average purchase value (say, $100). We’d also look at how often they buy (e.g., four times a year) and how long they remain a customer (e.g., three years). Then, we would multiply these factors:

$100 x 4 x 3 = $1,200

This means we expect the average customer to spend $1,200 over their time shopping at the store. We can use this information to build future campaigns.

Customer Journey Completion Rate

Customer Journey Completion Rate measures the percentage of customers who reach a specific goal or complete a set of steps. Monitoring CJCR helps you find friction points so you can optimize the customer experience.

Start by mapping the steps of the customer journey. Include everything from signing up for a newsletter to buying a product. Less obvious tasks, like onboarding or customer service, are also part of the journey.

Monitor customer progress throughout their journey. For example, review website traffic to uncover what users do while they’re on your site. Check web analytics, such as average session duration, user flow, and other engagement statistics to discover what content garners the most interest.

Calculate completion rate by dividing the number of customers who complete the journey by the total number of customers who started it.

Here’s the formula:

Customer Journey Completion Rate = (Number of Customers Who Complete the Journey / Total Number of Customers Who Started the Journey) x 100

Best brand metrics for advanced reputation management

To protect and preserve your reputation, you’ll need to track a few important brand sentiment metrics.

Brand Advocacy Rate

Brand Advocacy Rate shows how many customers are recommending your brand to others. BAR gauges customer loyalty, satisfaction, and how well your brand connects with the target market.

Companies with a high advocacy rate:

• Get more referrals: Develop referral programs and offer loyal customers perks, like discounts or early access to new products.

• Have lower acquisition costs: Advocates spread the word to potential customers. Their conversations result in authentic word-of-mouth marketing. A consistent flow of new customers from advocacy may enable your company to lower expenses on marketing efforts.

Competitive Sentiment Analysis

Competitive Sentiment Analysis reveals the emotional tone and public perception associated with a competitor’s brand, products, or services. Sources of this information are textual data such as reviews, posts on social media channels, news articles, and forums. As a result, you’ll learn how customers, stakeholders, and the public view competitors.

Examining competitors reveals what marketing strategies work, and which fail. This means you can leverage their successes and avoid their mistakes.

Brand Crisis Recovery Rate

No organization is completely safe from a crisis. But how you respond can define your future.

Brand Crisis Recovery Rate measures how well a company bounces back after a damaging event, like a PR disaster or a major product failure. It also tracks the company’s ability to regain consumer trust, restore its image, and recover market share.

A crisis throws your organization into a tailspin. The recovery rate tells you how well you’re managing it.

To score BCRR, define key recovery metrics (e.g., sentiment recovery, sales recovery). Then, weight them based on importance, and use a scoring scale (e.g., 1-5) for each. Multiply each metric score by its weight and sum them for a total recovery rate.

I’ll give you an example. Let’s say a company experienced a data breach. To calculate its crisis recovery rate, they would use relevant metrics with assigned weights.

The metrics might include:

• Sentiment recovery (30%)

• Sales recovery (25%)

• Market share recovery (20%)

• Operational recovery (15%)

• Communication effectiveness (10%)

Score each metric on a 1-5 scale, based on performance.

In this example, the sentiment recovery score is three, showing some improvement. Sales recovery scored two points, revealing a slow recovery. Market share recovery scores a one, which reveals significant losses. Operational recovery scored a four, and communication effectiveness scored a five, thanks to proactive efforts.

To calculate the overall score, multiply each score by its weight. The final score in this example is 2.7 out of five, which suggests a moderate recovery. However, areas like sales and market share need more attention to for brand strength to increase.

Several factors affect the recovery rate, such as response speed, transparency, prior customer trust, and crisis severity. A high recovery rate is a sign of a resilient brand that can learn, adapt, and grow from its mistakes.

Advanced brand metrics for strategic positioning

Competitive and market share metrics can give you some real insights for setting business goals. These help you understand current market positioning and how to gain a competitive edge.

Share of Voice (SOV) vs. Share of Market (SOM)

Share of Voice (SOV) relates to your brand’s visibility. Share of Market (SOM) shows how much of that market you own through sales or revenue. Comparing the two can provide valuable insights. For example, if your business’s SOV is high, but SOM is low, it could mean that people know your company, but it has weak market penetration. Now, let’s say you discover a competitor has a similar SOV but a higher SOM. This confirms that your share of voice is solid, but it’s also a sign that you should focus on turning visibility into customers. In this example, you may consider investing more in sales conversion strategies.

Information like this enables you to make significant changes to improve market positioning.

Brand Elasticity

Brand Elasticity refers to how well your organization can adapt to changes or instability in the market. Examples are price shifts, emerging competitors, or evolving consumer trends. Elasticity measures your brand’s ability to change directions without losing customers’ trust.

Take economic downturns, for example. A brand with strong elasticity might offer cheaper products while keeping its premium options. This goal of the strategy is to appeal to budget-savvy shoppers without sacrificing the premium brand identity. Elasticity helps the company remain unique and maintains customer trust in the face of more competition.

Staying flexible keeps your brand relevant—and profitable—no matter what comes your way.

Purchase Intent Lift

Do you ever wonder how much your marketing campaigns influence buying decisions? Purchase intent lift reveals how well they coax customers to buy.

To gauge PIL:

• Measure the “before”. Gauge your audience’s initial buying intent (e.g., through surveys or website behavior).

• Launch your campaign.

• Measure the “after”. See how buying intent changes after your campaign.

• Calculate the lift. The difference between the “after” and “before” is your purchase intent lift.

Example: Let’s say 2% of your audience shows interest in your new sneakers. After a new social media campaign, that number jumps to 6%. That’s a 200% lift. Your campaign tripled the likelihood of people wanting those sneakers.

Advanced brand metrics to measure engagement

Advanced engagement metrics can help you identify your strongest connection points. Scores like Emotional Connection and Content Engagement Efficiency help build trust.

Emotional Connection Score

The Emotional Connection Score is a measurement of customer trust. ECS isn’t the same as customer satisfaction—it gets to the heart of how emotionally connected people are to your brand. Strong emotional connections promote loyalty and advocacy.

Calculating an Emotional Connection Score isn’t an exact science. Emotions can be subjective and complex. But there are ways to quantify the emotional bond with customers.

Here’s a combined approach using quantitative and qualitative data:

Define Key Metrics:

• Sentiment Analysis: Analyze customer feedback to gauge the emotional tone (positive, negative, neutral).

Weight: 30% (Reflects overall emotional lean)

• Customer Loyalty: Measure repeat purchase rate, customer lifetime value, and Net Promoter Score (NPS). Use these to assess the strength of the customer relationship.

Weight: 25% (Shows commitment and ongoing connection)

• Engagement Metrics: Track website visits, social media interactions, email open rates, and content shares. These gauge active involvement with your brand.

Weight: 20% (shows interest and willingness to interact)

• Brand Advocacy: Measure how often customers recommend your business to others.

Weight: 15% (Reflects a deeper emotional connection leading to positive promotion)

• Qualitative Feedback: Analyze customer stories, testimonials, and open-ended survey responses. These help you understand the emotional reasons behind their connection.

Weight: 10% (Provides rich insights into the “why” behind the connection)

Develop a Scoring System:

For each metric, create a scoring scale (e.g., 1-5, 1-10).

Example of Sentiment Analysis (1-5 scale):

• 1: Overwhelmingly negative sentiment

• 2: Mostly negative sentiment

• 3: Neutral sentiment

• 4: Mostly positive sentiment

• 5: Overwhelmingly positive sentiment

Calculate Weighted Scores:

• Multiply each metric score by its assigned weight.

Sum Weighted Scores for Total Emotional Connection Score:

• Add up the weighted scores for all metrics.

Example:

Let’s say you accumulate the following scores:

• Sentiment Analysis: 4 (Mostly positive sentiment)

• Customer Loyalty: 3 (Moderate loyalty)

• Engagement Metrics: 5 (High engagement)

• Brand Advocacy: 2 (Some advocacy, but room for improvement)

• Qualitative Feedback: Analysis reveals strong emotional themes of trust and community.

Calculation:

• Sentiment Analysis: 4 x 30% = 1.2

• Customer Loyalty: 3 x 25% = 0.75

• Engagement Metrics: 5 x 20% = 1.0

• Brand Advocacy: 2 x 15% = 0.3

Qualitative Feedback: (Assign a score based on the strength of emotional themes – let’s say 4 in this case) 4 x 10% = 0.4

Total Emotional Connection Score: 1.2 + 0.75 + 1.0 + 0.3 + 0.4 = 3.65

You’d then interpret this score within your defined range. For example, on a 1-5 scale, 3.65 suggests a solid level of emotional connection.

This is a flexible framework. You’ll have to adjust the metrics and weights to align with your specific goals.

Content Engagement Efficiency

After publishing content, it’s important to make sure it’s working to engage your audience. Content Engagement Efficiency helps optimize engagement with minimal effort.

Follow these steps:

1. Track the metrics: Monitor reach, engagement (likes, shares, comments), and time spent on each piece of content.

2. Calculate your efficiency:

• Divide engagements by reach to see how many interactions you get per viewer.

• Divide engagements by time spent to see how engaging your content is per unit of time.

• For paid campaigns, divide ad spend by engagements to see your cost per engagement.

3. Analyze and optimize:

• Compare different content formats (video vs. blog posts).

• Identify your top performers and figure out why they rock.

• Experiment with headlines, visuals, and calls to boost those numbers.

Content engagement efficiency transforms content creation by helping you focus on the type of content that will get your audience’s attention. This is the key to optimizing your marketing budget and reducing the amount of ineffective content.

Tools to simplify brand performance measurement

Modern marketing platforms make it easier to turn data into clear, actionable insights. You can also customize these tools to your business goals and budget.

Here are three key to consider:

Google Analytics 360

Google Analytics 360 gives you a clear picture of how people interact with your brand across different touchpoints. As a result, you can see the full customer journey play out.

Advanced segmentation and custom attribution models are examples. These let you see which marketing channels or campaigns convert. This insight lets you fine-tune your strategy, invest wisely, and improve customer acquisition efforts.

Tableau

Tableau lets you visualize complex data, such as Customer Lifetime Value or Brand Equity Scores. This is a flexible tool that lets you create interactive dashboards, customized to help you spot trends, connections, or outliers within data.

Sprout Social

Sprout Social helps marketers monitor reputation-focused metrics like sentiment analysis. This tool tracks public conversations about your brand so you can identify risks and opportunities as they occur.

Sprout Social highlights your loyal customers. These are the ones who are out there talking about your brand online (i.e., advocacy rate). You can use the insights to build engagement or referral programs that turn advocates into real assets.

Implementation framework: Turning advanced brand metrics into action

Metrics don’t matter without action. To get the most out of advanced brand metrics, you need a coherent plan. This framework maximizes your metrics tracking.

Set goals. You need specific, measurable goals that support your business strategy. For example, if you want to increase customer retention, track Emotional Connection Score. Clear goals keep your team on track and ensure you’re measuring what really matters.

Rank metrics. Focus on three to five key metrics that are the best ones for your goals. Keeping it simple helps you avoid data overload. For example, if you want to improve conversion rates, focus on metrics like Purchase Intent Lift and avoid getting bogged down by less important data.

Align teams. Progress requires team unity. Marketing, sales, and leadership must work together and focus on the most important numbers. For example, marketing might use Share of Voice to fine-tune targeting, while sales may adjust its approach to make the most of increased engagement. Regular meetings and shared dashboards can keep everyone moving in the same direction.

Iterate often. Metrics are just a snapshot, not the full story. Revisit and adjust your strategies based on new information. Iteration can help you stay relevant as the markets shifts and customer preferences change.

Empower your organization with advanced brand metrics

Advanced brand metrics can completely transform the way your organization operates. But, it’s important to focus on the right metrics, like reputation, market share, engagement, and efficiency. This data can help you develop smarter strategies and a stronger competitive edge.

Ready to level up your digital strategy? Let The Brand Auditors help you tap into the full power of advanced metrics. Book a consultation today and take your growth and market leadership to the next level.