Purpose
The purpose was to evaluate whether Meta advertising generated incremental paid search traffic beyond what would have occurred without advertising exposure.
The assignment also aimed to measure the relationship between Meta advertising exposure and non-branded paid search activity on Google.
Deliverables
- Planning and execution of a single-cell conversion lift study
- Setup of test and control groups
- Custom conversion setup in Meta
- Tracking setup for paid search activity
- Analysis of Meta’s contribution to non-branded paid search traffic
- Measurement of incremental lift and lift score
- Evaluation of cross-channel advertising contribution
Evaluation of results / effect
The study measured whether users exposed to Meta advertising were more likely to perform paid searches on Google compared to users not exposed to ads.
Key results included:
- Conversion lift: 6,062
- Cost per conversion lift: $1.47
- Lift score: >99.9%
- Incremental lift in non-branded paid searches: approximately +25%
The analysis concluded that exposure to Meta advertising contributed significantly to non-branded paid search activity.
The study also indicated that the incremental contribution could potentially be higher if branded and organic searches had been included in the analysis, although this was not tested within the scope of the study.
Strategic reasoning from brief to execution
The strategic reasoning focused on measuring incremental impact rather than relying solely on attribution-based reporting models.
The assignment was designed to isolate Meta’s contribution to paid search by comparing exposed and non-exposed user groups.
A custom conversion setup was implemented in Meta using URL parameters from Google Ads in order to track users who clicked sponsored Google search results after exposure to Meta advertising.
The study focused specifically on non-branded paid search traffic because branded search advertising was not active during the test period.
The methodology was built around lift studies, where the difference between exposed and non-exposed groups represented the measured incremental lift.
Innovation and new thinking
The assignment combined lift study methodology with cross-channel tracking between Meta and Google Ads to evaluate advertising impact beyond platform attribution models.
The setup enabled measurement of how Meta advertising influenced downstream search behaviour on Google, specifically non-branded paid search activity.
The approach also allowed future analysis of contribution across different stages of the funnel through custom search event tracking in Meta.
