Guide to Google’s Lift Studies: Brand Lift, Search Lift, Conversion Lift

Many in the market engage with Brand Lift, a popular but not the only type of lift study. In this article, we will also explore Search Lift and Conversion Lift, unravel their methodologies, and describe how to use them for a better assessment of advertising effectiveness. Understanding these aspects will help you optimise your marketing strategies and achieve maximum impact on your target audience.

What are Lift Studies and How Do They Work

Lift studies are a way to measure the impact of advertising by comparing the behaviour of segments of the target audience that saw the ad versus those that did not. This research is initiated in advance, before the ad displays, so that an automated system can identify a control group—those who will not see the ad campaign.

Launching a Lift Study after the campaign has started will yield distorted results, as the control group will include those who have seen at least part of the campaign. Later, we will discuss how to launch lifts with multiple concurrent flights, but for now, it's important to note that lift planning and launch should precede pressing the "start" button in the campaign.

One might question the coverage of the ad campaign since a portion of the audience that should have seen it does not view the ads. However, this reduction provides insights into the effectiveness of the ad campaign, valuable for future promotion. Therefore, it's advisable to launch Lift Studies, at the very least, when testing new approaches and strategies.

Types of Google Lift Studies

Brand Lift

Brand Lift reveals how an advertising campaign has altered the audience's perception of the brand. It investigates the audience's awareness of the brand after the campaign, their perception of the brand, and consumer intentions.

Brand Lift studies are conducted through surveys. The target audience can be asked about the brands they are familiar with or those they have a favourable opinion of. The difference in responses between the control and experimental groups indicates the effect caused by the advertising.

​For a more detailed understanding, refer to our previous article, “What is BrandLift and how do we do it”.

Search Lift

Search Lift shows how advertising has influenced the dynamics of search queries, both in Google search and YouTube search. It is launched using YouTube. Similar to other Lift studies, a portion of the audience that will not see the ad is reserved for comparison with the control group in search results. Unlike Brand Lift, effectiveness is measured not by surveys but by the number of searches for specific keywords. The advertiser defines which keywords to track during the campaign setup.

When launching Search Lift, it's advisable to have two groups of keywords—brand and product. It's recommended to use high-frequency queries that may resonate with a broad audience. For example, the query "dress" may emerge in the search among ad viewers, while the query "red dress for New Year delivery in Kozjatyn" appears so rarely that tracking it won't be indicative for the campaign.

Search Lift results provide unexpected insights, more accurate than comparing periods in the Search Console. In our client's case, the study showed no increase in brand-related queries but revealed a +31% increase in key words within their niche.

In general, Think with Google's blog states that Search Lift results vary across different niches.

Conversion Lift

Conversion Lift is a study that can show how the audience converts within an account. To launch it, conversion video ad formats—Video Action or Discovery—need to be activated. When the ad campaign starts, Google divides the target audience into two groups: those who will see your ad and those who would have seen your ad but, instead, were shown the next ad in the auction.

At the end of the study, Google compares conversions for both groups to determine the percentage directly attributed to the ad compared to conversions that would have occurred under normal conditions. The advertiser receives a report on conversions categorised by conversion type.

Instructions for launching Conversion Lift are available in the official Google Ads support, providing a step-by-step algorithm.

How and When to Launch Lift Studies

Our approach involves launching Search Lift and Conversion Lift in conjunction with Brand Lift. This way, we understand how the same ad has influenced brand awareness, the desire to return to it, and conversions. It's crucial to launch lift studies together or at least in connection with Brand Lift at the Ad recall level. Without this, it will be challenging to qualitatively evaluate the indicators of Search Lift and Conversion Lift.

How to Launch Lift Studies for Parallel Campaigns

When launching multiple campaigns simultaneously, special attention should be paid to the launch of lifts to ensure the studies are accurate. Users reserved as the control group for one campaign may become the test group in another, affecting the research. Options include conducting one overall Brand Lift for the entire account or separate Brand Lifts for each campaign.

Google recommends launching one comprehensive study for the entire account in such cases. While nuances may exist, in the case of a specific client with whom we tested Search Lift, it was suggested to launch separate lifts.

Conclusions

Lift studies, such as Brand Lift, Search Lift, and Conversion Lift, provide additional insights for understanding the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. They measure the impact of advertising by comparing the behaviour of segments of the target audience that saw and did not see the ad.

Lift studies should be set up before the start of the advertising campaign and launched simultaneously. This ensures that the system can identify a control group that will not see the ad for the purity of the experiment.

Currently, Google offers three types of Lift Studies: Brand Lift, Search Lift, and Conversion Lift, measuring the impact of advertising on brand metrics, search, and advertiser conversions, respectively.

Reserving a control group that will not see the ad reduces potential reach, but it allows for valuable insights into effectiveness, which become useful for future promotion and strategy refinement.

Our approach involves launching Search Lift and Conversion Lift in conjunction with Brand Lift, providing a comprehensive understanding of how the same ad influences brand awareness, the desire to return, and conversions.