If you run a home-services company, for example, your report may credit ads with appointment requests. The bigger budget question is how many of those requests your advertising actually added. That is the question a lift study is designed to investigate.
What Conversion Lift tells a business owner
An ordinary advertising report assigns credit for results. A lift study asks what changed because of the ads. That additional effect is called incrementality.
Google's user-based study compares a group eligible to see the campaigns being tested with a group held back from those campaigns. The difference helps estimate additional conversions. Google's Conversion Lift overview explains the approach.
Imagine a retailer whose customers already know its name. Some shoppers may buy after clicking an ad; some might have bought anyway. A lift study helps investigate that difference. It does not tell you which individual customer would have purchased without advertising.
For a business owner reviewing an agency proposal, this creates a useful question: "Which decision will this test help us make?" An answer such as "whether to keep funding this campaign at its current level" gives the work a purpose beyond another dashboard.
Can your Search or Performance Max account use it?
As checked on October 14, 2026, Google's user-based Conversion Lift requirements list Search and Performance Max as supported campaign types. The page specifies these minimums:
- At least 1,000 observed conversions; supplementary-data conversions do not count toward that threshold.
- A minimum campaign budget of $5,000 USD for the study.
- At least one compatible conversion action tracked in the account.
The $5,000 figure is not described as a monthly spending minimum. The listed conversion threshold does not specify a lookback period. Ask your provider to confirm how these requirements apply to the account before committing funds.
Access still needs checking
Meeting the minimums does not guarantee access. Google says the tool is not available to every account and directs advertisers to their account representative. Have your campaign manager verify availability before quoting a study as a deliverable.
For example, a growing repair business might have enough spending but too few observed conversions. Increasing spending solely to clear a tool's threshold would put the tool ahead of the business decision.
Decide whether a study is worth doing
Start with a specific question and an action you could take after getting an answer. "Should we continue this campaign investment?" is more useful than "Can we get a lift report?"
Ask your provider to write down the campaigns, the outcome being measured, the test cost, and what would count as useful evidence. Include the business cost of withholding the tested ads from part of the audience. For an appointment-based business, that tradeoff deserves discussion before a test starts.
This is a planning path, not a guarantee of eligibility or a conclusive result.
Choose an outcome that matters
A form submission is useful only if it represents something your business values. If spam and genuine sales enquiries share the same label, settle that measurement problem first. Our guide to Google Ads conversion tracking for leads covers that groundwork.
Suppose a company wants more booked consultations. Ask whether the proposed study can measure an eligible action close enough to that goal to guide spending. Do not assume every action in your customer database can be used in the study.
An agency providing PPC marketing support should be able to explain why the chosen outcome is useful in plain English.
Turn the results into a spending decision
Google describes incremental cost per action as spending divided by additional conversions. In everyday terms, it asks what you paid for each extra result the study estimates your ads produced. That can be more useful for a budget review than counting every result credited to an ad.
Here is a simplified illustration, not a forecast or a Google study result: if $10,000 of spending produced an estimated 50 additional qualified enquiries, the incremental cost would be $200 per enquiry. Whether that is attractive depends on how many enquiries become customers and what those customers are worth.
Ask your provider to explain the uncertainty around the estimate before making a change. An inconclusive result leaves the question unresolved; it does not establish that advertising has no value. Avoid a large budget cut based on a result the team cannot interpret confidently.
Then connect the finding to the original decision. A retailer and a consultancy may reasonably make different choices at the same cost per additional enquiry because their margins and sales processes differ. Lead generation planning should keep those business differences visible.
What to do if your account is not ready
You can still improve your spending decisions while you build the foundations for a future test. Choose one business outcome, confirm it is recorded reliably, and compare campaign reporting with what your sales team actually sees.
For example, a cleaning company could review how many paid-search enquiries became recurring customers. That review will not prove the ads caused every sale, but it can reveal an expensive campaign that mainly brings one-time enquiries when the business needs regular contracts.
Bring these questions to your next marketing review:
- Which reported results are genuine opportunities for our business?
- Can we follow those opportunities through to a sale or another meaningful outcome?
- What decision would better evidence change?
Use the answers to agree on the next measurement step. A smaller account may get more immediate value from fixing lead records than from preparing an experiment it cannot yet run.
Get a clear recommendation for your advertising budget
If your reports show plenty of activity but leave you unsure what to fund next, start with a campaign and measurement review. Bring your current results, your sales goals, and the spending decision you need to make.
Motivated Digital Marketing's Google Ads management service is a natural place to discuss that work. Contact MDM to review what your account can measure and whether Conversion Lift belongs in the next step.
Sources and review date
Requirements and availability checked October 14, 2026. Google's setup guidance is the authority for eligibility; its overview explains the measurement. Search Engine Land's October 7 report provides context on the Search and Performance Max expansion. Account access must still be confirmed individually.