Super Bowl ad KPIs every marketer should track

How do brands determine whether or not a $7 million 30-second advertisement delivers a return? People watch the Super Bowl almost as much for the ads as for the game, and with such a high entry point to join the lineup of ads, brands are looking for a boost in both recognition and sales based on their investment. 

Marketing and advertising teams depend on metrics to understand what’s working and what’s not, but measuring key performance indicators (KPIs) for large-scale brand plays like these can be tricky. Having a clear framework for KPIs is one of the best ways to measure impact. For Super Bowl ads, brands must consider: 

• KPIs related directly to brand-building, such as awareness, recall and emotional resonance 

• Short-term sales-related KPIs like downloads, purchase uplift or social mentions

• A balance between the two main elements (brand and sales) at play

• Common pitfalls for Super Bowl campaigns

Building a balanced framework of KPIs for a campaign requiring a massive investment isn’t entirely different compared to any other campaign, but the risk-reward profile can be. Let’s dive into what teams should be thinking about and paying closer attention to as they measure how well their Super Bowl ad works.

“The Super Bowl transcends the realm of sports, evolving into a celebrated cultural event that attracts millions beyond the dedicated football fans.”

- Nina Sheridan

Some Super Bowl ads have become embedded in American culture. Publications as varied as Forbes to Good Housekeeping publish lists of the most memorable, iconic or influential Super Bowl commercials of all time. Some of the ads on such lists stand the test of time. For instance, nearly all of those lists include this 1984 ad from Apple, directed by Ridley Scott:

Another classic that appears in most “best of” lists is the Coca-Cola ad from 1979, “Hey Kid, Catch”:

Around a third of people who watch the Super Bowl tune in for the ads as much as the game. This means brands have an unusual opportunity to speak directly to people they might not otherwise normally reach, making a strong case for brand building (as Apple and Coca-Cola did with their memorable ads in 1984 and 1979). 

Yet, at the same time, marketing teams are under pressure to clearly demonstrate how a big investment leads to increased sales. Those short-term results are important, but an over-reliance on either —just brand or just sales—misses the true impact of a Super Bowl commercial. This is a major opportunity (and investment) for brands to make a big splash and create something that can be as culturally relevant as the ads mentioned above — which makes it all the more critical to make sure it's a collaborative effort across teams with clear KPIs.  

But first, when does it all begin? Let’s take a look into when these ad slots start to fill up.

Choosing to run a Super Bowl ad campaign isn’t an impulse decision. In September 2025 (before football season had even begun) Variety reported that NBC Universal had confirmed that all that air time for commercials during the 2026 Super Bowl had been sold, with the minimum ad at $7 million. For comparison, CBS aired the game in 2024, and didn’t announce that ads were sold out until November of 2023, and Fox didn’t declare a sell out until days before the 2023 game. 

Early buying changes how teams approach setting KPIs. A longer ramp up period means more opportunities for brands, and in the fractured world of media consumption, that can also affect what metrics tell the whole story of the campaign. 

“The Super Bowl is no longer just about the ad—it’s about the entire ecosystem of engagement before, during, and after the game. The brands that win not only show up on TV; they dominate social feeds, leverage real-time content, and activate influencers to turn a single moment into a sustained movement,” shares Madison Gaudry-Routledge, Vice President of Strategy & Community at Viral Nation

Take Nike’s “So Win” campaign for instance, which expanded beyond the 60-second commercial to include real-time engagement through texts and emails, connecting the campaign to movement using activity data tracking, special offers for Nike loyalty program members and encouraging people to share their own experiences — essentially turning the storytelling over to consumers. 

Today, brands need to consider these long-term plays for this short-term event. Any pre-promotion such as teasers, merch, real-time engagement and more that can be done after the ad slot is secured and before the big game itself will only extend the reach and life of the investment. 

So what should brands be looking at once these promotions start?

The true super power of a Super Bowl ad is the capacity for brand-building. The audience is so expansive and the moment can be so memorable that some brands become inextricably linked to a cultural moment in time. Consider the Budweiser “Wassup” ad. 

First, it captured the moment. The actors are “watching the game, drinking a Bud,” which is pretty relatable for the Super Bowl audience. Second, it’s funny. Ads that make people laugh traditionally play very well in the Super Bowl because people watching are often in a good mood, possibly at a party and having a fun time. Third, for potentially years after the ad aired, every time someone said “Wassup?” people thought of Budweiser. Some of the most important KPIs for measuring brand-building resulting from a Super Bowl ad include: 

• Awareness: Are viewers familiar with your brand or services? 

• Brand recall and recognition: Are viewers able to remember who the ad was for?

• Emotional resonance: Did the ad make them feel something? 

• Category entry point association: Did the ad help them associate your brand with the specific needs or occasions associated with your product or category? 

• Message clarity and brand linkage: Was the intended message clear? Did it link back to the brand easily?

Measuring the immediate impact of a Super Bowl ad is, in some ways, simpler than measuring long-term brand health. 

An uptick in website traffic, sales number spikes throughout the weekend, offer redemption and similar metrics are already being tracked, so these spikes are easy to see. But, when the stakes are so high and millions of dollars have been invested, clearly demonstrating the short-term impact is essential. 

Many brands tease their Super Bowl ad before it airs during the game, increasing anticipation. As we mentioned above, pre-game engagement, particularly through partnerships and collaborations is a growing tactic. A unique tactic, fan-based collaboration, is also growing. For example, Doritos’ famous “Crash the Super Bowl” contest where fans were able to submit their own ad creations to the brand ran from 2006 to 2016, and was brought back in 2025. The brand reached out to groups like independent filmmakers, film schools, influence networks and creator hubs to kick off the campaign, well ahead of the game. Doritos provided a brand tool kit with assets and music, but otherwise the creation and production of the ads was entirely up to the contestants. 

What’s more, fans also got to vote on which ad won and made it into the Super Bowl. Doritos received thousands of entries, and a panel of experts narrowed it down to the top three. For last year’s game, fans ultimately voted for the winner: Doritos Abduction. 

The entire campaign increased engagement well before the ad even aired, both through soliciting entries and asking the audience to vote on the winner. 

Brands that invest in Super Bowl advertising likely track any and all available metrics, but choosing which to make their true KPIs makes a difference in the overall campaign. 

Other brands run game-day discounts, launch new products or offer deals associated with their Super Bowl ads. Determining the right short-term KPIs largely depends on the overall marketing strategy.

Doordash’s “All the Ads” campaign in 2024 and Volkswagen’s “The Force” commercial in 2011 were radically different advertisements, with one promoting a contest and one telling a story. So the KPIs for each campaign are likely radically different. 

Doordash’s “All the Ads” was a promotion for their app, showing all the brands and products they were able to bring to your door, making short-term KPIs such as downloads the likely focus. There was a brand-building component as well, of course, but the number of people who engaged with their product after the ad aired at the big game were the clearest indicators of success.

“The Force” took an entirely different approach, instead of aiming to drive immediate downloads or purchases, they wanted to create a longer-term connection with consumers. The spot tells a story blended with humor and nostalgia, appealing to Star Wars fans or most anyone who has a kid or has been a kid — that is, to everyone. 

But Volkswagen was also introducing their 2012 Passat in the United States with this spot, and set an aggressive goal of increasing sales from 10,000 Passats per year to 10,000 per month, making the stakes related to the Super Bowl spot even higher. “The overarching goal was to make the Passat part of the cultural narrative, so that when the car hit showrooms, consumers would already feel a connection to it,” according to a case study analysis about the ad published by The Brand Hopper. 

Since the car wasn’t even on car lots yet, short-term KPIs weren’t an appropriate measure of success. In this instance, brand-building was the goal, and given that the ad was the most shared ad ever by 2013, won numerous awards and brought about a lift in brand awareness and favorability it’s safe to say that the ad reached its targeted KPIs. By the end of the year, Passat sales in the US had doubled compared to the year before, even though it was only available for part of the year. 

In short, building the right mix of KPIs requires:

• Alignment of the KPIs to the creative type

• Matching the goals to the media plan and timing

• Balancing top-funnel and bottom-funnel metrics to reflect both reach and revenue 

Depending on the creative direction of the campaign, whether it’s a broad-reach, brand-awareness campaign or more short-term promotion-driven campaign, an appropriate KPI mix will look different. 

Here’s a list of what broad-reach metrics may include:

• Search/website traffic over the next three-, six-, and one-year periods

• Number of times ad is shared on social media

• Ad distinctiveness

• Brand recognition and recall 

• Overall emotional response

• Purchase intent immediately and over time

• Online engagement 

For a promotion-driven campaign, the metrics may include:

• Number of people who register for a contest or giveaway

• Website traffic

• Social media mentions

• Number of shares

• Hashtag use

• QR code scans

• App downloads

• Sales spike

Even if the main goal is long-term brand-building, brands should still track some short-term metrics, and promotion-driven ads can still improve branding. It’s more about determining ahead of time which metrics will indicate the ad is successful based on the goal of the campaign.

Everyone has experienced the pain of hindsight, but with a Super Bowl ad, millions of dollars are on the line while millions of people watch. Avoiding pitfalls that might be obvious after the fact is optimal. Some of the most common missteps include inadequate preparation, misinterpreting social media signals, an over-reliance on short-term metrics, and perhaps most critically, not researching with consumers. 

Neglecting creative diagnostics and failing to test and iterate all the different parts of the campaign with your intended audience can lead to suboptimal results (or worse, a total flop). 

You’re creating these ads to capture the attention or drive viewers to take action, so if it doesn’t resonate with them, the millions you invested won’t matter. 

Social buzz during the game is great! But, it’s not the same as long-term brand impact. Tracking brand lift over time is the best way to determine whether or not the ad achieved pre-determined brand-building goals. Social media engagement may be an important KPI, but it shouldn’t be confused with longer-term brand goals. 

A related pitfall is over-prioritizing short-term metrics. A slate of excellent results on KPIs related to social media mentions, web traffic and even sales the week of the game is fantastic, but the Super Bowl offers the opportunity for amazing brand lift that lasts. Some of the most iconic commercials mentioned in this post improved consumers’ feelings about brands for years. Over-emphasis on short-term metrics risks missing the chance to become an embedded part of American culture. 

The 2026 Super Bowl spots are sold out, but it’s never too late to think about tracking your brand health or how to make your ads resonate better with consumers.