By Felipe Morales, CEO of ESBUENISIMO LINKS
Brand awareness: what it is, how to measure it and how to grow it (with data from Chile)
Brand awareness explained: what it is, its three levels, how to measure it with brand searches (Chile data) and how to grow it on Google and in AI.
Brand awareness is the degree to which people recognize or remember a brand. It is the first stage of any purchase: nobody chooses what they do not know. That is why companies pay a lot for it. In the United States, the suggested Google Ads click for the search “brand awareness” costs US$29.18; in Mexico, US$15.11.
For a marketing manager, the underlying question is how to tell whether brand investment is working without waiting for the annual survey. In this guide we explain what brand awareness is, its levels, how to measure it with data any marketing manager can check every month and how to build it in 2026, when brand recall is also decided in ChatGPT and Gemini's answers.
| Country | “brand awareness” | Suggested CPC (US$) | “reconocimiento de marca” (Spanish term) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mexico | 390 | 15.11 | 140 |
| Peru | 210 | n/a | not measured |
| Colombia | 170 | 1.07 | 40 |
| Argentina | 110 | n/a | not measured |
| Chile | 90 | n/a | 10 |
| United States | 1,900 | 29.18 | not measured |
View the data as a table
| Mexico | 390 |
| Peru | 210 |
| Colombia | 170 |
| Argentina | 110 |
| Chile | 90 |
What brand awareness is and why it matters
Brand awareness measures whether the brand is on the customer's mind when the need arises. It is usually described in three levels:
- Recognition: the person identifies the brand when they see it (on a shelf, in a list, in an ad).
- Recall: they name it unaided when thinking about the category.
- Top of mind: it is the first one they name.
Awareness matters because it lowers the cost of everything else. A known brand gets more clicks on the same ad, converts more of the same visits and needs fewer touchpoints to close a sale.
The difference from brand positioning is that awareness measures how well people know you and positioning measures what they think of you. A brand can be very well known and poorly positioned, as brands with many complaint searches show.
How to measure brand awareness with data
The classic method is a survey: asking a sample which brands they know in a category, first unaided (spontaneous recall) and then showing a list (aided recall). It is accurate but expensive and slow, and in practice it is mostly large brands that commission it from market research firms. The alternative any team can use every month is brand searches on Google: if more people know you, more people search for your name.
| Method | What it measures | Cost | Suggested frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unaided recall survey | Which brands people name without help | High | Yearly or twice a year |
| Aided recall survey | Whether they recognize it from a list | High | Yearly or twice a year |
| Brand searches on Google | How many people search for the name | Low | Monthly |
| Share of search | Your share of category searches | Low | Monthly |
| Direct site traffic | Visits typing the URL | Low | Monthly |
| Media share of voice | Your share of industry stories | Medium | Monthly |
| AI mentions | Whether ChatGPT and Gemini name you | Medium | Quarterly |
An example with real data from Chile, taken from Google Ads via DataForSEO. Between November 2025 and October 2026, “latam” and “jetsmart” averaged 823,000 monthly searches each on Google Chile, and “sky airline” 165,000. Measured as share of search, JetSMART now ties LATAM with 45.4% of the three airlines' brand searches.
| Airline | Brand searches per month | Share of search | Highest month |
|---|---|---|---|
| LATAM | 823,000 | 45.4% | Nov 25 (1,000,000) |
| JetSMART | 823,000 | 45.4% | Nov 25 (1,000,000) |
| SKY Airline | 165,000 | 9.1% | Jan 26 (368,000) |
View the data as a table
| LATAM | JetSMART | SKY Airline | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 25 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 165 |
| Dec 25 | 823 | 823 | 201 |
| Jan 26 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 368 |
| Feb 26 | 823 | 823 | 301 |
| Mar 26 | 1,000 | 823 | 165 |
| Apr 26 | 823 | 673 | 110 |
| May 26 | 823 | 673 | 135 |
| Jun 26 | 823 | 823 | 135 |
| Jul 26 | 673 | 823 | 135 |
| Aug 26 | 823 | 823 | 135 |
| Sep 26 | 673 | 673 | 110 |
| Oct 26 | 823 | 1,000 | 135 |
These figures need careful reading: Google Ads reports volumes rounded into brackets, and “latam” is also a common word. Even so, the trend is useful. The same applies to banking: BancoEstado averages 6.12 million searches a month, and among digital wallets Tenpo is ahead of MACH. It is the logic we applied in our share of search study for Chile.
Brand searches have an added advantage: Google reads them as a signal that the brand exists and matters. A company that many people search for by name usually finds it easier to rank its pages, and AI tends to name brands that already appear across many sites. That is why the figure should be read alongside competitors': going from 10,000 to 12,000 searches a month is a good result if the category grew 5%, and a poor one if it grew 40%.
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- Press and digital PR: a story in an outlet the public respects adds reach and credibility at the same time. If it also carries a link, it adds authority on Google too.
- SEO and content: showing up when people search for category questions, even before they search for your name.
- Paid advertising: fast, but its effect lasts as long as the campaign.
- Partnerships and sponsorships: they lend you another brand's trust and reach audiences that do not know you yet.
- Spokespeople and personal brand: executives who share data-backed opinions in the media and on LinkedIn.
Common mistakes when working on brand recognition
- Measuring only social media followers. A follower is not the same as someone who remembers the brand when it is time to buy.
- Confusing reach with recall. A campaign can reach a million people and leave no trace if the message is not tied to the brand.
- No baseline. Without measuring before the campaign, there is no way to know whether it worked, or which channel deserves the credit.
- Forgetting reputation. More awareness with a poor reputation only amplifies the problem: more people search for the brand to complain.
- Ignoring AI. A brand that scores well in surveys may not appear when someone asks ChatGPT for a recommendation, and that gap grows every month as more people search with AI.
Brand awareness in AI: the new top of mind
When someone asks ChatGPT “which low-cost airline do you recommend” or “which bank is best for a small business”, the answer names only a few brands. In our study of how many brands AI recommends, Gemini named 5.24 brands per answer on average and Claude 3.51. If your brand is not on that short list, it does not exist for that customer.
This AI top of mind can be measured just like people's: with a list of 20 to 50 real category questions, asked every month to ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews, counting how many answers include the brand and in what position. It is an unaided recall survey, except the respondent is a machine that millions of people consult before they buy.
View the data as a table
| brands Gemini names on average per answer | 5.24 |
| brands Claude names on average per answer | 3.51 |
| of AI citations come from earned media | 84% |
AI builds those lists from what it finds published: rankings, comparisons, press stories and reviews. A brand that is absent from those sources is absent from the answer, however well known it is offline. According to Muck Rack's Generative Pulse, 84% of its citations come from earned media. That is why brand awareness in 2026 is built with media presence: every story is exposure to readers and a source AI can use.
At ESBUENISIMO LINKS we measure what AI says about your brand and get it into real media: through our link building service, ESBUENISIMO LINKS publishes linked stories in more than 1,400 Latin American outlets, and our GEO agency works to get ChatGPT and Gemini to name you.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does brand awareness mean?+
It is how well people recognize or remember a brand when they think about a category of products or services.
What is the difference between branding and brand awareness?+
Branding is the work of building the brand's identity (name, proposition, tone, design). Awareness is one of its results: how many people know and remember it.
How do you measure brand awareness?+
With unaided and aided recall surveys, brand searches on Google, share of search, direct traffic, media share of voice and mentions in ChatGPT and Gemini.
What are some brand awareness examples?+
In Chile, JetSMART reached the same average brand search volume on Google as LATAM between November 2025 and October 2026, about 823,000 searches a month each, a sign of how far the low-cost airline's awareness has grown.
How can a company increase brand awareness?+
With press and digital PR, SEO and content, paid advertising, partnerships and spokespeople. In 2026 it also pays to measure and work on AI mentions, which are built mostly from earned media.
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