Overview

LiftLab measures the incremental impact of CTV campaigns through geo-based lift testing. It uses your business data to group similar markets, run controlled experiments, and quantify how much lift your MNTN campaigns are actually generating.

In addition to simple exposed vs. unexposed measurement, LiftLab also uses budget pacing changes during the test flight to measure diminishing returns.

Who it's for

This partnership is for advertisers who:

Want to measure incremental lift from their MNTN campaigns
Want to optimize campaign strategy to drive more incremental impact

Why it matters

A LiftLab test is designed to show how changes in your MNTN CTV investment affect business outcomes like revenue, return on ad spend, and marginal return. Through a LiftLab test, you can:

Understand true incrementality.
See whether CTV is driving lift beyond what would have happened without it.
Build confidence in performance.
Validate or challenge what other measurement approaches may be showing.
Identify diminishing returns.
Learn not just whether CTV works, but how much to invest for stronger profitability or growth.
Optimize budget allocation.
Determine whether spend should stay steady, scale up, or shift across channels.
Strengthen full-funnel strategy.
Understand how CTV fits into broader media planning beyond lower-funnel tactics.

How it works

LiftLab starts by grouping similar markets into treatment and control geos using your business data. Campaigns run in treatment geos while control geos are held back from exposure. At the end of the test, LiftLab compares performance across both groups to quantify lift.

To go beyond a simple lift read, LiftLab also varies budget pacing during the flight. This measures diminishing returns and helps you understand how changes in your MNTN investment level affect business outcomes, not just whether CTV lifted performance at all.

Before You Begin

Consistency is key to getting reliable results. Make sure your marketing environment is stable before launching a test.

💡 Pro Tip: The more stable your baseline, the clearer your MNTN results will be. If you're unsure whether your timing is right, check with your LiftLab team before launching.

Keep your media mix steady.
Avoid overlapping tests and maintain your usual spend levels across other channels. Significant increases elsewhere can make results inconclusive.
Avoid high seasonality periods.
Peak seasonal swings or major promotions can mask or distort incremental lift. LiftLab tests perform best during normal business cycles.

Set It Up

Setting up a GeoLift test requires configuration in both the LiftLab platform and MNTN. Complete the LiftLab steps first, then configure your MNTN campaign to match. Check out LiftLab for more information.

📝 Note: Lift tests are designed to do more than validate performance. They can also uncover optimization insights that strengthen campaign strategy over time. Work with the LiftLab team during setup helps ensure your test is structured for reliable, actionable results.

In LiftLab

Choose the outcome you want to measure.
Select the sales or revenue outcome you want LiftLab to evaluate. This should align with the conversion you're tracking in MNTN and your campaign objective.

If your product or service has a longer consideration period, consider measuring a higher-funnel event such as audience engagement. This will capture lift within the test window.
Review the Power Calculator.
LiftLab calculates whether your test is likely to generate a reliable result. Target a Power Score above 90%. A higher score increases confidence that your test can detect true incremental lift.

Your Power Score is influenced by:
- Geo holdout size
- Total spend against the exposed audience
- Test duration — the recommended flight for a MNTN campaign is 6–8 weeks
- Variation in spend during the flight
If your Power Score is too low, your budget may not be strong enough to detect a statistically significant result for your test region.

Consider increasing:
- Your budget
- Your holdout group
- Spend variation during the flight
💡 Pro Tip: Tests take time to deliver statistically reliable results, especially for a non-clickable, top-funnel channel like CTV. Factor in both your sales cycle and the longer consideration funnel when setting your test duration.

In MNTN

Install the MNTN Pixel.
If your brand has a website, install the MNTN Pixel before launching. It lets you exclude existing customers and focus on incremental audiences, and it enables optimization insights like new user acquisition and conversion lift.
Build your prospecting audience.
Target net-new users and apply your geo targets or exclusions per your LiftLab experiment architecture:
- Focus on a top-funnel audience that isn't already in your sales funnel
- Exclude previous site visitors and converters
- Consider the audiences you're targeting in other channels to avoid overlap
- Avoid running lift tests for retargeting audiences
Run a single campaign.
To maintain experimental integrity, run one CTV campaign for the test. A single campaign with a clear objective ensures balanced delivery and clean data.
Select the right objective.
Choose the campaign objective that matches what your LiftLab test measures. For example, if your test focuses on incremental sales, select Sales to keep reporting aligned.
Set your budget.
Use the pulse pacing schedule provided by LiftLab during experiment setup.
Lock and monitor your campaign.
Once your campaign is live:
- Avoid changing budgets, targeting, or creative
- Contact your MNTN team before making any updates
- Monitor impressions, engagement, and incremental actions in real time
💡 Pro Tip: Results signal feedback, not failure. Work with your MNTN and LiftLab teams to interpret what your data reveals, especially if it significantly deviates from past performance.

After the Test

Once your LiftLab test is complete, work with your MNTN team to evaluate the results and apply them to your media strategy.

Test findings can help you:

Understand your true return on ad spend and marginal return
Identify where diminishing returns begin
Refine spend levels and reallocate budget across channels
Improve future campaign planning with full-funnel modeling

LiftLab combines experiment results with broader modeling to help you apply these learnings across your entire marketing funnel, not just the channels directly tested.