📄 Whitepaper

The Essential Guide to Geo Lift Tests

Half of companies’ media budgets might be misallocated.
This is the guide helping you reveal which half it is.

Trusted by many of the world’s most impactful disruptors, scale-ups and unicorns

Ever doubted how much sales your Meta or Tiktok campaign is actually generating? Ever had a discussion with a peer around whether you should protect your brand keywords on Google or not? Ever pulled your hair to prove the actual sales impact of your YouTube, OOH or TV campaign? All of the above are uncertainties that can be turned into certainty with a Geo Lift Test.

Geo Lift Tests are the antidote to budget misallocation. With it, you can reallocate your media budgets based on the true incremental value generated by a specific marketing channel or campaign, thereby saving money or generating more value for each dollar.

Companies that leverage Geo Lift Tests in their marketing efforts will be the big winners of 2024. Why you might ask? Because half of media budgets aren’t going where they should, and Geo Lift Tests are here to reveal which half that is.

🔍 Case Study
The Challenge

The Challenge

We wanted to understand the level of revenue and the ROAS that Meta campaigns were truly driving for our client (independent of what was reported in Meta Ads Manager and GA4). We therefore set up a Geo Lift Test, running ads in selected US DMAs (Designated Market Areas) to find out the true value of Meta as a channel.
The Solution

The Solution

The true revenue generated from Meta campaigns was 40% higher than reported by Meta Ads Manager, and 850% higher than reported in GA4. This insight gave us the confidence to increase budgets on Meta, and lower it on less efficient channels, thereby driving more sales for each advertising dollar.

What are Geo Lift Tests?

At their core, Geo Lift Tests involve dividing target audiences into distinct geographical areas; one group that sees ads, and one group that becomes the control, thereby not seeing ads. The test then compares the level of sales, news users or revenue between the two areas. By isolating the impact of specific campaigns or channels, Geo Lift Tests provide invaluable insights into their true, incremental value.

This way, you can allocate your media budgets more efficiently, thereby saving money or generating more value for each dollar. The great perk: Geo Lift Tests are independent of any biased tracking-based attribution framework, that are getting more and more unreliable, with the ‘death of cookies’, Apple’s SKAN and other privacy-first changes.
🔍 Case Study
The Challenge

The Challenge

The client was expanding into Poland, with TikTok as one of our core channels. To gain insights into the actual impact of TikTok, we decided to enter the market with a Geo Lift Test.

The Solution

The Solution

TikTok as a channel drove 3X higher sales than what was reported in the TikTok UI, making it the most efficient performance channel. Results gave the client the confidence to add TikTok to the evergreen channel mix and scale up budgets.

The Magic of Geo Lift Tests

Tracking-based attribution models (used by ad platforms, GA4 and mobile measurement partners) often fall short, attributing success to the wrong factors or sources, or failing to capture the full picture. Geo Lift Tests offer a remedy to this dilemma, allowing marketers to uncover the real drivers of success. Frankly, it’s a necessary complement to the attribution models you’re leveraging for your day-to-day campaign reporting and optimization.

There are endless possibilities to the application of Geo Lift Tests, but the end goals are the same: saving money or generating more value for each dollar. We’ve run more than 50 tests for our clients, and common questions that Geo Lift Tests can spit out an answer to are:

Are you wasting money bidding on your own brand terms?

How effective are your paid social campaigns at driving incremental growth in sales or users? Are you over- or underestimating the true performance?
How effective are your awareness campaigns at driving brand awareness, that in turn lead to an uplift in sales or new users?
How much sales do your retargeting campaigns actually generate?
🔍 Case Study
The Challenge

The Challenge

We wanted to understand how running a Meta reach campaign to promote an upcoming big event for our client would impact awareness and downstream sales. We set up a Geo Lift Test, targeting 70% of cities with Meta awareness + conversion campaigns, and running only conversion campaigns in the other 30%.
The Solution

The Solution

Running awareness campaigns on Meta, on top of conversion campaigns, we managed to drive 60% more search demand and 11% more sales than not running them, with no impact on overall CPAs. The tactic of running awareness + conversion campaigns was rolled out to several more markets.

🔍 Case Study
The Challenge

The Challenge

We wanted to understand if MNTN Connected TV campaigns were leading to incremental sales for Heatonist, and if so, what ROAS level we were achieving. We therefore set up a Geo Lift Test, running ads in 80% of US DMAs (Designated Market Areas).

The Solution

The Solution

MNTN CTV generated $240K in incremental revenue during the test period; 2X more than reported by the platform itself, and at a 590% ROAS. As ROAS was on par with both Paid Search and Meta, MNTN CTV became an important part of Heatonist’s channel mix.

Heatonist sells the world’s best hot sauces in their ecomm, in store and as a subscription, and is the brand behind the famous Hot Ones show on YouTube, where the host Sean Evans asks his celebrity guests questions while they attempt to complete rounds of chicken wings coated in spicy hot sauce. Twigeo manages growth for the company, and is responsible for 1 in every 3 hot sauce bottles sold.
🔍 Case Study
The Challenge

The Challenge

The client wanted to understand the incrementality of iOS Google App Campaigns, and specifically how well Google was modeling conversion data. We set up eight simultaneous Geo Lift Tests in eight markets.

The Solution

The Solution

iOS Google App Campaigns drove incremental installs and beat efficiency targets in all markets, with actual CPIs landing lower than Google’s modeled CPI and SKAN estimates. The result made the client comfortable to continue investing in Google App Campaigns on iOS, leading to significant growth in app installs and new subscribers.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Geo Lift Tests aren’t just another tool in your arsenal – they’re a game-changer. By providing actionable insights into the true impact of your marketing efforts, Geo Lift Tests empower you to make smarter budget allocation decisions.

The outcome? Save money or generate more value for each dollar. So, embrace the power of Geo Lift Tests, chart a course toward marketing excellence, and unlock the full potential of your brand’s growth trajectory.

Get in touch
Get in touch