October 11, 2026

Search Engine Land listed Google’s expansion of Conversion Lift to Search and Performance Max among its October 7 updates. Conversion Lift testing is designed to help advertisers estimate whether advertising generated additional conversions rather than merely receiving credit for conversions that might have happened anyway.

Read the industry coverage: Search Engine Land latest updates.

Why incrementality matters

Standard attribution reports assign credit according to a model and the signals available. Those reports are useful for optimisation, but they do not always answer the causal question: how many conversions occurred because the campaign ran? Lift studies aim to address that question through a comparison design, subject to eligibility, sample size and test setup.

Before running a lift test

  • Define the business outcome and the minimum effect worth detecting.
  • Check eligibility, spend requirements and available test controls in the account.
  • Avoid making major campaign changes during the measurement window unless necessary.
  • Compare incremental results with cost, margin and customer quality—not conversion volume alone.
  • Record limitations and do not generalise one test to every campaign or audience.

How PPC teams can use the result

Use lift evidence alongside search-term quality, conversion tracking, CRM outcomes and budget constraints. A campaign can show strong attributed conversions while producing limited incremental value, or it may support other campaigns in ways that last-click reporting misses.

Availability and methodology can vary by account and campaign type. Check Google’s current product documentation and the features enabled in your account before planning a test.