There is a number sitting in your Search Console that tracks how many people already know your company exists, updates continuously, and costs nothing to collect. Most B2B teams never look at it.
It is branded search: the count of people typing your name, or your name plus words like pricing and reviews, into Google. Nobody searches a company name by accident. Every one of those searches is a person who heard about you somewhere and cared enough to look. This guide covers how to read it and what it can tell you that your channel reports cannot.
The Awareness Meter You Already Own
Awareness work is hard to measure. Podcasts, posts, communities, events and recommendations build familiarity slowly, mostly in places your analytics cannot see. We have written about that invisibility in the B2B dark funnel. But invisible influence has one public exit: sooner or later, people who keep hearing your name search for it.
That makes branded search a rough meter for all of it combined. When the slow channels are working, the meter climbs. When your marketing is only harvesting people who already knew you, the meter stays flat while spend rises. One trend line, checked monthly, tells you which of those worlds you are in.
Read trends over months, not weeks. Branded search is a slow, honest meter, and single-week moves are mostly noise.
Every podcast mention, conference conversation and Slack recommendation ends the same way when it works: someone opens Google and types your name. Branded search is where invisible marketing becomes visible.
Putting It to Work
Set the baseline. In Search Console, filter the performance report to queries containing your brand name and note the monthly impressions and clicks. Include misspellings; buyers are approximate. This month's number matters less than having a line to compare against.
Annotate it with your activity. Mark the months of podcast appearances, launches, event weeks and press. Over two or three quarters you will see which activities move the meter. It is not precise attribution, but it separates the work that echoes from the work that vanishes.
Cross-check with survey answers. Branded search tells you awareness moved; it cannot tell you why. Your "How did you hear about us?" answers name the causes. When a channel grows in the survey data and the branded search line climbs in the same period, you can be reasonably confident the channel is real. That pairing of meters is the heart of the approach in how to measure word of mouth.
One caution: do not let the meter take credit for itself. Branded search converts brilliantly, and it is tempting to report it as a high-performing channel. It is not a channel. It is the receipt from every other channel. Treat it that way and it becomes one of the most useful numbers you own, a point we first made in demand creation versus demand capture.
One Line, Checked Monthly
You do not need a brand tracking study to know whether more people are hearing about you. The meter is already running in Search Console, and it has been running since your first month.
Give it a place in your monthly reporting and let the slow channels finally show their work.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is branded search?
Searches that include your company or product name, such as the name alone or the name plus words like pricing, reviews or login. Unlike generic searches, nobody types your name by accident: every branded search is a person who already knows you exist and wants to find you specifically.
Why is branded search a good measure of brand awareness?
Because it is a costless, unprompted action taken by people you did not interrupt. Ad impressions measure what you pushed out; branded searches measure who comes looking. When podcasts, posts, events and recommendations do their slow work, rising branded search is the earliest public evidence.
Where do I see my branded search volume?
Google Search Console, in the performance report. Filter queries containing your brand name, and remember to include common misspellings. Watch impressions as well as clicks: impressions count everyone who searched your name, including those who did not click through.
Should I run paid ads on my own brand name?
It depends on whether competitors bid on your name and how much organic visibility you already have. Be careful with measurement though: brand-name ads convert impressively precisely because those people were already looking for you. Credit for the conversion mostly belongs to whatever made them search, not to the ad that caught them.
James Kevan is the co-founder of First Signals, which pairs the branded search meter with what buyers say in their own words, so you know not just that awareness moved but what moved it.
Related guides: How to Measure Word of Mouth · Demand Creation vs Demand Capture · The B2B Dark Funnel
© 2026 James Kevan / firstsignals.ai. Share freely with attribution.