diff --git a/bazel/envoy_test.bzl b/bazel/envoy_test.bzl
index ace2fe600cb4e..3a914d5bc2225 100644
--- a/bazel/envoy_test.bzl
+++ b/bazel/envoy_test.bzl
@@ -241,7 +241,8 @@ def envoy_cc_test_binary(
         **kargs
     )
 
-# Envoy benchmark binaries should be specified with this function.
+# Envoy benchmark binaries should be specified with this function. bazel run
+# these targets to measure performance.
 def envoy_cc_benchmark_binary(
         name,
         deps = [],
@@ -252,7 +253,9 @@ def envoy_cc_benchmark_binary(
         **kargs
     )
 
-# Tests to validate that Envoy benchmarks run successfully should be specified with this function.
+# Tests to validate that Envoy benchmarks run successfully should be specified
+# with this function. Not for actual performance measurements: iteratons and
+# expensive benchmarks will be skipped in the interest of execution time.
 def envoy_benchmark_test(
         name,
         benchmark_binary,
diff --git a/test/README.md b/test/README.md
index 3617c73719c1d..2746efe98c8db 100644
--- a/test/README.md
+++ b/test/README.md
@@ -119,3 +119,20 @@ test infrastructure that wants to be agnostic to which `TimeSystem` is used in a
 test. When no `TimeSystem` is instantiated in a test, the `Event::GlobalTimeSystem`
 will lazy-initialize itself into a concrete `TimeSystem`. Currently this is
 `TestRealTimeSystem` but will be changed in the future to `SimulatedTimeSystem`.
+
+
+## Benchmark tests
+
+Envoy uses [Google Benchmark](https://github.com/google/benchmark/) for
+microbenchmarks. There are custom bazel rules, `envoy_cc_benchmark_binary` and
+`envoy_benchmark_test`, to execute them locally and in CI environments
+respectively. `envoy_benchmark_test` rules call the benchmark binary from a
+[script](https://github.com/envoyproxy/envoy/blob/master/bazel/test_for_benchmark_wrapper.sh)
+which runs the benchmark with a minimal number of iterations and skipping
+expensive benchmarks to quickly verify that the binary is able to run to
+completion. In order to collect meaningful bechmarks, `bazel run -c opt` the
+benchmark binary target on a quiescent machine.
+
+If you would like to detect when your benchmark test is running under the
+wrapper, call
+[`Envoy::benchmark::skipExpensiveBechmarks()`](https://github.com/envoyproxy/envoy/blob/master/test/benchmark/main.h).
diff --git a/test/benchmark/BUILD b/test/benchmark/BUILD
index fa01e3b1ce638..afcb2602898de 100644
--- a/test/benchmark/BUILD
+++ b/test/benchmark/BUILD
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ envoy_cc_test_library(
         "tclap",
     ],
     deps = [
+        "//source/common/common:minimal_logger_lib",
         "//test/test_common:environment_lib",
     ],
 )
diff --git a/test/benchmark/main.cc b/test/benchmark/main.cc
index 6c23c1031a6c4..3c79ff36b2e0f 100644
--- a/test/benchmark/main.cc
+++ b/test/benchmark/main.cc
@@ -2,11 +2,15 @@
 // This is an Envoy driver for benchmarks.
 #include "test/benchmark/main.h"
 
+#include "common/common/logger.h"
+
 #include "test/test_common/environment.h"
 
 #include "benchmark/benchmark.h"
 #include "tclap/CmdLine.h"
 
+using namespace Envoy;
+
 static bool skip_expensive_benchmarks = false;
 
 // Boilerplate main(), which discovers benchmarks and runs them. This uses two
@@ -15,7 +19,7 @@ static bool skip_expensive_benchmarks = false;
 // separated by --.
 // TODO(pgenera): convert this to abseil/flags/ when benchmark also adopts abseil.
 int main(int argc, char** argv) {
-  Envoy::TestEnvironment::initializeTestMain(argv[0]);
+  TestEnvironment::initializeTestMain(argv[0]);
 
   // NOLINTNEXTLINE(clang-analyzer-optin.cplusplus.VirtualCall)
   TCLAP::CmdLine cmd("envoy-benchmark-test", ' ', "0.1");
@@ -33,8 +37,14 @@ int main(int argc, char** argv) {
 
   skip_expensive_benchmarks = skip_switch.getValue();
 
-  benchmark::Initialize(&argc, argv);
-  benchmark::RunSpecifiedBenchmarks();
+  ::benchmark::Initialize(&argc, argv);
+
+  if (skip_expensive_benchmarks) {
+    ENVOY_LOG_MISC(
+        critical,
+        "Expensive benchmarks are being skipped; see test/README.md for more information");
+  }
+  ::benchmark::RunSpecifiedBenchmarks();
 }
 
 bool Envoy::benchmark::skipExpensiveBenchmarks() { return skip_expensive_benchmarks; }