Model consciousness is among the “fuzziest” progress channels. And when issues get fuzzy, you want concrete methods to show your time and funding is paying off.
Beneath I’ve laid out 11 workflows you may comply with to measure the success of your model consciousness—together with some little-known Ahrefs use instances.
Model consciousness refers to a collection of selling ways that assist audiences acknowledge and recall a model identify, brand, or product.
It’s a “death-by-a-thousand-cuts”/ ”sales-by-a-thousand-sightings” method to advertising: numerous tiny actions working collectively to create large advantages in your firm.
If you happen to’re considering of promoting, eyeballs, and impressions, you’re in the proper ballpark.
Large manufacturers spend tens of millions constructing consciousness, as a result of with recognition comes a sure stage of legitimacy and belief—which might flip into gross sales additional down the line.
There’s no proper method to manufacture consciousness. Manufacturers use totally different codecs, channels, and ranging ranges of creativity to seize viewers consideration.
Examples of various kinds of model consciousness embody:
Sponsored content material: Content material {that a} model pays to be featured alongside (e.g. their brand, product, or advertising message) to get in entrance of their target market.Podcast adverts: Audio advert area that manufacturers should purchase to get in entrance of their target market. Adverts play earlier than, throughout, or after the podcasts that their viewers take heed to.Billboard/out-of-home (OOH) promoting: Bodily, offline advert area that manufacturers should purchase within the type of billboards, digital screens, or posters on transportation (e.g. busses).PR stunts/Guerilla advertising: Advertising and marketing that makes use of shock worth or attention-grabbing concepts to create buzz and media protection—usually executed in a artistic, scrappy manner.Branded content material: Mass-appeal leisure content material that’s both sponsored, commissioned, or created by an organization to match its viewers’s values.Product placement: The subliminal promoting of a branded product in a bit of leisure content material, made to look pure inside the storyline (e.g. in movie, TV, or video video games).
B2B firms spent 28.9% of their advertising budgets on model consciousness in 2024, based on Gartner—investing greater than at every other stage of the shopper journey.
Corporations can burn by money on model consciousness campaigns, hoping individuals will acknowledge and love their model. However producing a buzz with no gross sales is a state of affairs no marketer needs to search out themselves in.
“The important thing to constructing a profitable model with advertisements is that these advertisements want to really convert individuals into consumers—in any other case you’ll waste a ton of cash and will bankrupt your organization if everybody is aware of your model however doesn’t purchase it.”
That’s why it’s essential to measure the impression of your model consciousness technique as you construct it.
The occasions of the final yr imply it’s more durable than ever to construct model consciousness, what with AI consuming into top-of-the-funnel visitors, near-constant search reshuffling, declining social attain (hey, TikTok ban), and a flood of low-quality AI content material eroding client belief.
However I additionally, counterintuitively, suppose it’s the perfect time to construct and measure your model.
The extra model consciousness, belief, and loyalty you construct now, the much less troubled you’ll be by these challenges in future. That’s as a result of the advantages of brand name consciousness compound. Constructing consciousness will deliver you extra:
AI visitors. AI is a wholly new channel, providing you with first mover benefit. The extra your model identify crops up in topically related conversations on-line, the extra probably it’s to be talked about and cited by LLMs and AI.Natural visitors. In line with Mark Williams-Cook dinner, Google assigns websites a “website high quality” rating, based mostly on model metrics. To know your web site’s high quality, it analyzes your branded key phrases, model mentions that entice clicks (e.g. model wealthy anchor textual content), and website clicks. Proactively constructing your model consciousness will inflate these metrics, boosting your website high quality rating and search rating. Any rating enhancements will reinforce your model visibility, making a suggestions loop of compounding consciousness.Model safety. Model consciousness means much less dependence on anybody channel, and diversified visitors from a number of sources and channels.Model loyalty. As soon as your viewers is conscious of your model, you may nurture that curiosity all through the shopper journey, turning it into constructive model sentiment and loyalty.Prospects. Regardless of being tough to attribute, when consciousness booms, gross sales and conversions are sometimes pulled alongside within the slipstream.
Model consciousness is the fuzziest type of advertising, constructed on emotional resonance reasonably than measurable metrics. Outcomes like model recall, recognition, notion, affinity, and sentiment are notoriously tough to quantify as a result of they depend on subjective, emotional responses.
What’s extra, a few of your model consciousness is earned and past your direct management, reminiscent of PR, phrase of mouth, user-generated content material, and social media. You may’t management the narrative, and because you didn’t create the content material, you lack full efficiency knowledge, making it even harder to guage.
For instance, you received’t know the visitors or impressions a New York Occasions article mentioning your model has generated with out entry to their analytics.
Equally, your model will inevitably generate consciousness you may’t observe—and should by no means even learn about—by offline channels or darkish social.
And one other factor!
Me at 9.09am scripting this weblog whereas consuming my toast.
Model consciousness sits proper at first of the shopper journey, so following the breadcrumbs by to conversion just isn’t simple and, at instances, inconceivable.
However don’t let all that put you off. Measuring model consciousness can nonetheless be achieved, and when achieved proper, it’s massively invaluable, serving to you to:
Justify funding: Pinning down the model consciousness metrics you may measure will provide help to show progress. With that proof, you may safe funding, entice partnerships, and get sign-off on these harder-to-measure artistic tasks.One-up your competitors: Measuring model consciousness by strategies like share of voice evaluation might help you’re employed out your market positioning, set real looking targets, and repurpose methods which have labored in your rivals. Even when your competitors has extra consciousness, in the event that they’re not measuring and proactively constructing on it, you may shut that hole.Work out what works: Measuring your model consciousness technique helps you to assessment which ways result in the largest surge in curiosity. As soon as what works, you may repeat profitable campaigns, justify useful resource allocation, and extra precisely tie output to ROI.
So, it’s exhausting to justify spend on model as a result of it’s so… fluffy. However you may take away numerous that fluffiness by measuring consciousness in good methods, and being attentive to what works.
Right here’s find out how to do that.
Let’s dive into 11 totally different strategies and metrics you should utilize to determine how nicely your model consciousness technique is working.
There are such a lot of shifting components relating to growing model consciousness. Totally different advertisements, artistic codecs, channels, messages.
You actually need a top-level view of efficiency to know if it’s all working.
Share of Voice (SoV) is that in a nutshell—a top-down metric that helps you quantify your model consciousness within the context of your market and rivals.
The system to calculate share of voice is:
| SoV = Your model visibility / Whole market visibility * 100
Social share of voice reveals you the share of the market you’ve cornered on social media, measured by your share of brand name mentions vs. whole model mentions within the remaining market.
The system to calculate social share of voice is:
| Social SoV = Your model mentions / Whole model mentions in your market * 100
Brandwatch Shopper Analysis helps you measure your social share of voice
Search SoV calculates how a lot natural visitors you personal as a proportion of the whole market.
The system is:
| Search SoV = Your natural visitors / Whole natural visitors in your market * 100
Ahrefs Rank Tracker will present you your model’s search share of voice for as much as 10K key phrases.
Simply record out your branded or campaign-specific key phrases, and see whether or not your model consciousness is falling, rising, or going regular.
You too can benchmark your model consciousness in opposition to rivals in Rank Tracker, when you’ve specified them in your mission setup.
To see that knowledge, head to the “Opponents > Overview 2.0” tab on the left for Share of Voice and Share of Site visitors Worth timelines.
On this instance, we’ve seen a 6.2% improve in our search share of voice over the past six months, bringing us as much as an general share of 23.1% for the key phrases we care about.
These are the sorts of metrics to look again on while you’re proactively constructing your consciousness.
Rank Tracker is nice if you wish to see your SoV trending over time, however for a snapshot view, head to Key phrases Explorer.
Identical as Rank Tracker, this report helps you to observe 10K key phrases, so you may benchmark your model’s top-level search presence in opposition to your closest rivals.
Right here’s a simple workflow you may comply with:
Head to the Natural Key phrases report and choose the ten,000 highest rating key phrases in your domainHit “Copy”Head to Key phrases Explorer and paste them within the searchbarPull up the “Site visitors share by area” reportSee the way you a lot share you personal in your high key phrases, vs. the remainder of the market
Metrics to measure
Every month, report on key metrics reminiscent of Share of Voice uplift, visitors and place enhancements, and visitors share share.
Promoting is a large a part of growing model consciousness. You have to watch how your advertisements are performing earlier than, throughout, and after every marketing campaign—and hold monitoring at scale—to see in case your model consciousness efforts are literally paying off.
Most advert platforms have built-in advert managers (e.g. Google Adverts Supervisor, Google Show Community, Fb Adverts Supervisor) which present you key model consciousness metrics like impressions, visitors, clicks, or CTR.
We run our personal advertisements on Quora, for instance, and have entry to all of these figures.
Listed here are a pair extra methods you may measure the success of your advertisements utilizing Ahrefs.
Measure the success of PPC model consciousness campaigns
Head to Web site Explorer and enter your domain¹, then discover the Paid Pages report². Different reviews in Ahrefs allow you to dive into the trivialities of your search advertisements, however this is among the greatest locations to check overarching advert consciousness.
When you’re there, make an observation of your Whole Traffic³ on the high of the key phrase desk, after which examine your paid visitors progress over time⁴—particularly in relation to advert value. When your paid visitors exceeds paid visitors value, it’s an excellent signal that your model consciousness advertisements are doing the trick!
On this report, you may also filter by key phrases in URLs, titles, and descriptions to raised report on the campaign-specific model consciousness.
Metrics to measure
Report month-to-month on metrics reminiscent of whole paid visitors and campaign-specific paid visitors.
Monitor whole uplift in PPC visitors
For a birdseye view over your model advertisements, pull up the Overview report in Web site Explorer. It’s nice for checking your:
Whole advert visitors vs. natural trafficGross advert visitors progress and declineLocation based mostly and regional consciousness
Metrics to measure
Every month, report metrics reminiscent of paid visitors as a share of natural visitors, paid visitors progress/decline, and location-based paid visitors progress/decline.
If you wish to know whether or not individuals care about your model, watch your visitors throughout a marketing campaign.
It’s not an ideal science, however it could possibly provide help to quantify intangible targets like model recall and recognition.
When individuals acknowledge your model, they’re extra more likely to go to your website. In the event that they go to it instantly, that’s additional proof that they know you exist.
In different phrases, when you run an advert and your direct visitors goes up, there’s an excellent likelihood it’s working.
You may monitor whole and direct visitors with out fuss in Google Analytics 4, through the report:
Acquisition → Site visitors Acquisition: Session default channel group report
And now you may view your internet visitors in Ahrefs, through our Net Analytics instrument within the Dashboard¹ a part of the platform. Whenever you get there, simply head to Projects² to see your whole internet traffic³.
Then, to see your direct visitors, add a “Channel” filter for “Direct”.
Whenever you set the date vary to align together with your marketing campaign, you may see whether or not your promotion is having any impression.
You too can section your whole and direct visitors by marketing campaign URLs or UTMs.
Metrics to measure
Report often in your whole, direct, and campaign-specific visitors—together with progress in every space.
Folks might like your model and go to your website, however your consciousness is basically rising after they care sufficient to speak about it.
This may appear to be a gentle stream of backlinks and referral visitors again to your website from publications, blogs, assessment websites, boards, and social media.
However not all hyperlinks are created equal. Whenever you report on earned consciousness, you should concentrate on the expansion of high quality referrals—not simply the sum whole.
Listed here are some issues to think about while you’re figuring out what constitutes a “good” hyperlink:
High quality hyperlink traitsAsk your self…How one can validateRelevantIs this hyperlink related to my model?• Test anchor textual content• Go to siteAuthoritativeIs this website thought of an authority?• Test the positioning’s DR• Test the web page’s URVisibleWill individuals truly see my model from this referral?• Referring web page natural visitors• Referral visitors again to your website• Mentions of your model identify in/surrounding anchor textEquitableWill it move on hyperlink fairness?• Dofollow vs. nofollow hyperlinks
And also you’ll additionally need to take into consideration what “good” appears to be like wish to your model.
As an example, some firms might even see a hyperlink from a nationwide publication as being the zenith of consciousness—no matter whether or not it drives referral visitors.
Listed here are some sensible methods you should utilize Ahrefs to measure progress in your backlinks and referrals.
Monitor what number of high-quality backlinks you decide up
When you resolve what high quality referrals appear to be, you may configure a “Finest hyperlinks” filter to hurry up your month-to-month reporting.
This filter lets you set particular standards in your hyperlinks.
For instance, you may select to solely see “dofollow” hyperlinks in an try to select up extra hyperlink fairness, or “in content material” backlinks, to sidestep spurious hyperlinks in footers or remark sections.
Right here’s find out how to measure your greatest model backlinks:
Head to the Overview report in Web site ExplorerDrop in your websites’ area OR a marketing campaign hyperlink—relying on what you’re measuringClick on the “Backlink profile” tabSet the filter to “Finest hyperlinks solely”
This configuration will provide you with a macro-level view of your highest-quality hyperlinks. Then you may report hyperlink numbers every month…
…and roughly correlate spikes in backlink acquisition with the dates of your model campaigns.
Metrics to measure
Every month, be aware down your whole backlinks and referring domains, plus any progress.
Measure how a lot your model identify will get talked about in anchor textual content
If somebody hyperlinks to you, however doesn’t point out your model, is that even model consciousness?
To essentially perceive the energy of your model presence, monitoring your model identify in hyperlink anchor textual content is a should.
Head to Ahrefs’ Anchors report, set an “Anchor with surrounding textual content” filter in your model identify (and any frequent misspellings).
This may present you each event the place a website has both hyperlinked your model identify, or talked about your model identify within the content material instantly surrounding a hyperlink to your website.
That is necessary to quantify as a result of the extra your model identify will get repeated, the extra probably audiences can be to recollect it.
Bear in mind, you may restrict your evaluation to “Finest hyperlinks”, as above, so that you’re specializing in the mentions that basically depend.
Monitoring how your model anchors develop over time will provide you with a greater thought of how your model consciousness is rising.
You might also need to work out your model anchors as a share of your whole anchors, and observe how that adjustments.
As an example, proper now at Ahrefs we now have 22,072 “model identify” anchors, and 96,640 anchors general, which means that 23% of our hyperlinks are driving overt model consciousness.
We are able to verify again on this determine each month, and even section the evaluation to concentrate on the uptake of particular model campaigns, just like the Ahrefs Podcast.
Metrics to measure
Report month-to-month in your whole model anchors, new model anchors, and model anchors as a p.c of the whole.
Measure model consciousness when it comes to referral visitors
If you wish to see which one among your model consciousness ways have pushed customers by the funnel, then it’s a good suggestion to report on referral visitors—it will present you the variety of customers that truly made it again to your website.
You may observe this in GA4, through the report I discussed earlier on:
Acquisition → Site visitors Acquisition: Session default channel group report.
Or you may dig into your visitors in Ahrefs Net Analytics.
Simply add a “Channel” filter for referral visitors.
Metrics to measure
Every month, report your whole referral visitors, campaign-specific referral visitors, plus any progress.
Whether or not you’re paying a princely sum for a 30 second election advert like Calm…
…or doing a lo-fi model spoof like smartphone producer Nothing…
…the very least you may hope for is a spike in social media engagement following your model consciousness campaigns.
Listed here are some metrics to take a look at while you’re assessing your model consciousness on social.
Social media mentions and sentiment progress (earned)
You should utilize social listening instruments to scour for earned mentions of your model, and arrange queries for your:
CampaignsProducts/servicesPeopleAny different model associations
When you’ve tapped into brand-relevant conversations, you can also make be aware of your whole attain, and measure how a lot consciousness your model has sparked available in the market.
Brandwatch’s social media administration instrument, highlighting the whole attain of social content material
For years, social instruments have been in a position to analyze the language of your model mentions, and decree whether or not they’re constructive, destructive, or impartial in sentiment. I think about this type of evaluation is simply going to get higher with developments in AI and LLMs.
If you wish to quantify the qualitative (learn: “fluffier”) components of your model, then sentiment scores are one other nice metric to incorporate in your reporting.
Sentiment developments and scores in Sprout Social
Sentiment scores in SproutSocial
Metrics to measure
Every month, report on: your most necessary engagement metrics (e.g. subscribers), your whole attain for brand-relevant key phrases, and your model sentiment scores.
Corporations are shedding as much as ~40% of their natural visitors as AI Overviews take over well-liked model consciousness searches, like FAQs and definitions.
However on the similar time, AI overviews are sending extra consciousness and visitors to sure (cited) manufacturers.
It’s the same story with AI chatbots: They’re encroaching on natural visitors, however what they take with one hand, they provide with one other—mentioning, recommending, and linking to manufacturers in buyer conversations.
No matter you make of them, these new consciousness channels are nonetheless largely untapped, and supply enormous potential for manufacturers that get in early.
Right here’s find out how to improve model consciousness in AI.
Monitor your possession of AI overview key phrases
Conserving a deal with in your consciousness in the present day means monitoring your model possession of AI overviews. There’s a simple manner to do that in Ahrefs:
Head to the Natural Key phrases reportSet a SERP characteristic filterClick “The place goal ranks”Choose AI overviewSet your month-to-month date vary
This may present you which ones AI overview key phrases you’ve gotten picked up since final month, together with any natural visitors uplift.
Make an observation of the whole key phrases every month (proven within the place historical past chart) to measure your AIO consciousness over time.
Metrics to measure
Report month-to-month in your whole AI overview key phrases, and your common natural visitors uplift.
Monitor your AI /LLM referral visitors
To learn how usually your model is cropping up in AI conversations, you may configure a report in Ahrefs Net Analytics.
Simply choose the “Channel” filter and select ”LLM” to evaluate your visitors from well-liked AI chatbots.
Pay shut consideration to the sorts of pages and content material getting cited. This will provide you with a greater thought of the content material codecs to double down on.
As an example, we’re getting most of our AI model visibility from stats, instruments, programs, and trend-based blogs, so we should always in all probability create extra of that content material to proceed turning up in related AI conversations.
Metrics to measure
Report month-to-month in your referral views and visits from AI, making a be aware of progress and content-type success.
Measure your model possession of related subjects
Giant language fashions generate content material by calculating the statistical proximity between subjects and entities.
The extra generally subjects seem collectively in coaching knowledge, the extra statistically important their connection, and the extra probably an LLM is to say these subjects collectively in a response.
That means, when you make a acutely aware effort to align your model with related subjects, it’s extra more likely to crop up alongside these subjects in AI.
You may observe your model alignment efforts in Ahrefs by measuring co-mentions of your model alongside key subjects.
Simply head to the Content material Explorer and:
Do a seek for your model nameCheck your whole model mentionsDo a boolean seek for your model identify AND “matter”Test the variety of matter mentions
On this instance, 3.2% of Patagonia’s model mentions additionally point out the key phrase “sustainability”.
Monitoring these figures can provide you a strong sense of your general topical authority.
Metrics to measure
Document your month-to-month matter mentions, matter mentions as a p.c of whole mentions, and variety of matter mentions vs. rivals.
Your branded key phrase search quantity is a vital indicator of your model consciousness.
In line with our personal analysis, 45.7% of all searches made on Google are branded. That’s practically half of all searches made on Google.
If that isn’t the perfect justification for monitoring your branded key phrases, I don’t know what is.
Google Traits might help you visualize model search quantity progress and decline…
…but it surely doesn’t provide you with actual search volumes or progress figures to report on. And it could possibly’t predict whether or not your model consciousness can be sustained.
Right here’s how one can measure these metrics in Ahrefs.
Monitor your model demand
Head to the Matching Phrases report in Key phrases Explorer and search your model identify, plus any misspellings.
On the head of the report, you’ll see some top-line model metrics together with your general…
Variety of branded keywordsBrand search quantity (based mostly on the placement you searched in)World model search volumeGrowth charge (3/6/12 month)World progress charge (3/6/12 month [not pictured below])
And if you wish to anticipate demand, there’s knowledge for that too. Within the column part, simply hit “Development forecast” to see a 12-month search quantity development for each model time period in your record.
Or alternatively, search your model identify in Key phrases Explorer, and verify the overview web page for a bigger visible forecast of your natural model demand…
This knowledge will present you the trajectory of your model demand. Rising? Present it off and repeat what works. Declining? Examine it and contemplate altering tack.
Everytime you need to show the success of previous model campaigns, or get buy-in for future model consciousness tasks, this type of knowledge is invaluable.
You too can use it for backcasting: defining your model search quantity targets and dealing backwards from there. One apparent manner to do that can be to repeat the evaluation in your rivals, then mannequin your consciousness on the one with the strongest model progress and progress forecasts.
Metrics to measure
Each month, be aware down your whole variety of branded key phrases, international branded key phrase quantity, international progress charge (3 /mo), and any progress forecasts (12 /mo)
So, now you can show your consciousness campaigns are paying off by model search quantity progress—however what number of of these searches truly end in visitors to your website?
To reply this, begin monitoring your branded key phrase visitors and positions on an ongoing foundation—any uplift ought to correlate properly with efficient model consciousness.
There’s a number of methods you may go about this in Ahrefs.
Monitor branded search visitors vs. non-branded
In Web site Explorer, hit the Overview report, set your date vary, and scroll right down to the “Avg. branded vs. non-branded natural visitors” and “Natural key phrases by intent” reviews.
Right here, you’ll be capable to observe and report the natural visitors you’re receiving for branded key phrases, and the way that’s modified over time. Keep in mind that, for now, this report tracks your visitors for any key phrase in our database that’s recognized as a model, in order that could possibly be your model identify—but it surely may be your rivals’. That is one thing we’re engaged on altering within the close to future.
Measure your natural visitors for particular model key phrases
If you wish to slender your search visitors reporting to particular model consciousness key phrases, right here’s find out how to do that:
Head to the Prime Pages report in AhrefsSet a “Key phrase” filter in your choose subjects (I’ve tracked the Ahrefs model identify and any misspellings on this instance)Set your MoM date rangeTrack the development of your branded search trafficMake be aware of the variety of pages, whole visitors, and whole visitors progress/decline every month
Metrics to measure
Report month-to-month on the variety of pages rating in your branded key phrases, your whole model visitors, and whole visitors progress or decline month-over-month.
Not everybody hyperlinks! Journalists are infamous for withholding backlinks, and discussions can be had about your model that you simply’re not aware about when you’re solely checking your hyperlinks.
Accounting for unlinked model mentions in your reporting is an absolute should—not solely can it equate to a critical quantity of brand name consciousness, you’ll discover out much more about your viewers within the course of—together with their opinions, preferences, and demographics.
Plus, unlinked model mentions are nearly as good as hyperlinks within the eyes of LLMs and AI.
In line with analysis from Seer Interactive, hyperlinks truly show the weakest correlation of all frequent web optimization elements relating to LLM visibility.
Disregard model mentions at your peril!
Monitor your model mentions
In Content material Explorer¹ do an “In all places”² seek for your model name³, and be aware down the variety of pages⁴ that return. Hold maintain of that determine, till you replace it the next month—then be aware the variety of new pages⁵.
Metrics to measure
Each month, be aware down the variety of pages mentioning your model, making an allowance for any progress.
You may not count on direct gross sales to outcome from model consciousness campaigns, but it surely does occur—and it’s price monitoring.
You may monitor this utilizing analytics/attribution instruments like Google Tag Supervisor and GA4.
Instance of a conversion report in GA4 for particular conversion occasions. Picture courtesy of Mauro Romanella
Utilizing Google Tag Supervisor, for instance, you may observe when a consumer involves your website through a model marketing campaign hyperlink, clicks on a changing CTA, masses a selected URL fragment, or takes every other motion that infers/equates to a conversion. Then, you may measure all these occasions in GA4.
Upon getting that knowledge handy, you may calculate conversion charges—simply divide conversions by the variety of whole guests.
For instance, think about the UK meal supply model Cook dinner working a “CookTok” marketing campaign of recipe challenges on TikTok. If 1,000 customers go to the marketing campaign touchdown web page after watching the movies, and 50 join a subscription, the conversion charge can be 5% (50/1,000).
If you happen to can’t make occasion monitoring work, then one other various is monitoring conversions and gross sales improve during times of excessive model consciousness, so you may loosely join the dots between consciousness and income.
Whereas it’s true that model consciousness campaigns don’t at all times neatly observe again to conversions, in case your conversion charge is nonexistent over an prolonged time period, you may want to start out troubleshooting—it may sign that there’s one thing improper together with your model messaging, UX, or monitoring.
Remaining ideas
Measuring model consciousness in 2025 isn’t simply potential—it’s a prerequisite.
These are 11 concrete methods I feel you may efficiently show your model’s impression.
The following step can be to mix these metrics to construct a whole image of your model consciousness.
When you’ve introduced every little thing collectively, you’ll have a a lot better understanding of find out how to improve your model consciousness.
I’m trying to create a Looker Studio dashboard of Ahrefs’ model knowledge for this very motive. You probably have any good methods I’ve missed off, ping me on LinkedIn. I’m all ears!