Awareness, Share of Search and sales together tell you which part of the funnel broke
PrincipleBrand Strategy
Tracking awareness, Share of Search and sales together turns a stall into a diagnosis. Not enough people know you is a top-of-funnel problem. They know you but are not searching is a consideration gap. They search but do not convert is bottom of funnel. Three different failures with three different fixes.
Source
Return on Awareness: how brand awareness drives share of search and why it pays to invest early - Google and Tracksuit (2026)
Google and Tracksuit; Tracksuit brand health data joined with Google indexed Share of Search
p8, Return on Awareness, Google with Tracksuit, June 2026
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StatAt low awareness, brand growth converts into search demand roughly one for onePrincipleThe cheaper half of the awareness curve is the half you are on before anyone knows youWarningOn this chart the steeper line is the worse outcome, not the better oneStatThe finding rests on 31 brands in two markets over a single yearPrincipleShare of Search moves 6 to 12 months before market share doesPrincipleSearching for a brand by name is a demand signal, not an exposure metricWarningBudget meetings select for measurable metrics, not for meaningful onesPrincipleEarly awareness investment delivers the highest return, so challengers gain mostPrincipleWhen Share of Search stops tracking awareness, that is the signal to move money down the funnelPrincipleA famous brand grows at the fringes - new entrants, lapsed users, light buyersStatGoogle's planning benchmarks are 40% weekly on-target reach and 2.7x weekly frequencyPrincipleTraditional search was chosen because AI discovery has no measurement history yet