Google has lowered the barrier of entry for advertisers to run brand and search lift studies since dropping the minimum spend amounts to $10,000.
Minimum Impressions and Minimum Spend Don’t Always Align
Just because it only takes $10k to be eligible to run a test, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll hit enough impressions needed.
On top of the minimum spend levels, there’s also a minimum of 1.5 million impressions needed on the test due to privacy.
The minimum spend gives you access to Search Lift measurement, but we recommend that the sum of impressions of your campaigns in the measurement to be at least 1.5 million. By having more budget you will get more impressions which will increase your chance of detecting a Search lift.
That’s really it.
It might seem like a small detail but I wanted to save you from the experience of promising a result from the test to a client without realizing that that amount of spend might not be enough.
It could take more.
How Much More Might Be Needed?
That’s impossible to say.
It’ll come down to what you’re trying to test.
You can look at your historical data to get an idea on what your normal CPCs/CPMs are to get an idea on if $10,000 should get you there.
What Happens If I Run a Test And Don’t Hit The Impression Minimums?
Nothing.
Yep.
You’ll basically get a ‘sorry, we couldn’t provide any results for you’ sort of message.
And you wasted ten grand.
So I recommend to set expectations and ask for a buffer on budget.
Two Final Points
To be clear I’m not saying that just because you hit spend and impression minimums that you’re going to get actionable data.
It’s certainly still possible that the test really doesn’t provide much value.
I’d make sure you talk with your Google rep about the chances of success before launching anything.
And speaking of Google reps.
As of this writing, you still have to have a rep enable these test features in Google ads.
NOTE: We were able to get general support to help us enable these on a few accounts that didn’t have a dedicated rep.
Your results may vary.