We show that every $\mathbb{R}^d$-valued Sobolev path with regularity $α$ and integrability $p$ can be lifted to a Sobolev rough path in the sense of T. Lyons provided $α>1/p>0$. Moreover, we prove the existence of unique rough path lifts which are optimal w.r.t. strictly convex functionals among all possible rough path lifts given a Sobolev path. As examples, we consider the rough path lift with minimal Sobolev norm and characterize the Stratonovich rough path lift of a Brownian motion as optimal lift w.r.t. to a suitable convex functional. Generalizations of the results to Besov spaces are briefly discussed.