Why do we prioritize ad recall?
Exposure alone is not enough
Even with advanced tracking methods such as pixels, relying solely on exposure data to assess campaign performance has limitations:
A user might visit a website but never scroll down to see the ad.
An app might run in the background, delivering a campaign without it being actively viewed.
Ad blockers can prevent ads from being displayed, skewing exposure data.
As these examples illustrate, it is difficult to define truly "exposed" and "non-exposed" groups in traditional brand lift studies.
Additionally, if you rely only on exposure data, comparing performance across different media channels becomes impossible. Exposure levels vary by channel, and in some cases—particularly with offline media—exposure data may not be available at all.
Ad recall as the core metric
To overcome the previously mentioned limitations, we’ve made ad recall the cornerstone of our methodology.
All our short questionnaires include an ad recall question: we display the ad and specify the environment in which it appeared. Depending on the media channel, we adapt the wording to maximize the accuracy of performance measurement on the correct channel or platform.
By measuring whether respondents remember seeing your ad, we focus on actual engagement rather than just potential exposure. We assign them to the ad recall or control group depending on their ad recall status. This approach ensures consistency across all media types, making cross-channel comparisons possible.
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