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All you need to know about the WorkMagic 3-cell lift test

Updated over 2 months ago

WorkMagic allows you to configure advanced lift tests with 3-cell geo-pairing, enabling you to test incrementality across two separate control geos and one shared test geo. This setup is particularly effective when evaluating the performance of two different ad platforms or strategies concurrently.

❗ Note: This option becomes available when at least two test channels are selected during the Test Design (Step 1).

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1 - Test Design

  1. Create a New Lift Test.

  2. Under Purpose, select Test Incrementality.

  3. Choose your primary metric (e.g., Orders, Sales, New customers).

  4. In the Test Channel section:

    • Click add test channel

    • You can select multiple ad platforms (e.g., Meta Ads and AppLovin) for each test channel.

    • The UI will unlock the 3-cell pairing logic.

    • If any selected ad platform requires manual holdout (e.g., AppLovin), WorkMagic will display a reminder that manual platforms do not support historical data, which may limit pairing accuracy.

    • ⚠️ Manual holdout warning if your test includes platforms like AppLovin, MNTN, or TikTok.

Step 2 - Geo-Pairing

WorkMagic will display geo-pairing combinations as follows:

  • Control Geo 1 (Test channel 1) – Markets excluded from campaigns on test channel 1

  • Control Geo 2 (Test channel 2) – Markets excluded from campaigns on test channel 2

  • Test Geo – Shared markets running both platforms

You may encounter one of the following scenarios:

  • ✅ Recommended pairing based on historical ad spend and sales data).

  • ❌ No Geo-Pair Available if WorkMagic is unable to compute valid geo groups — in this case, contact WorkMagic Data Scientist for assistance.

Step 3: Holdout Setup

Depending on your selected platforms:

  • Automatic setup is available for platforms like Meta Ads, Google Ads, TikTok Ads.

  • Manual setup is required for others like MNTN, AppLovin, and Snapchat.

For manual platforms, follow these guides:

For TikTok Ads: Ensure your ad account is whitelisted for Premium Audience before proceeding. Then create a custom audience and exclude the DMA geos.

Read more: How to Set Up a Premium Audience on TikTok Ads for Lift Testing

Step 4: Scheduling

  1. Set your Start Date and Start Time.

  2. Define your:

    1. Testing Period (e.g., 21 days)

    2. Cooling Period (e.g., 7 days)

Cooling period allows post-test lag data to stabilize before analysis.

Step 5: Review and Schedule

  • Review test metadata:

    • Platform channels, Geo pairings, and holdout assignments.

  • If everything looks good, click Schedule Now.

Troubleshooting tips

  • WorkMagic ensures that each control geo must be linked to a different test channel.

  • If both control geos are assigned to the same platform, the platform will flag the error: “Ad platform of control group 2 should be different from control group 1”

  • If the Add test channel button is greyed out, that means it only supports max. 2 test channel.

  • Mixed holdout support (automatic and manual) is possible, but manual setup will apply to all selected platforms.

  • If you combine channels like Google Ads (auto holdout) and MNTN (manual holdout), the holdout setup becomes fully manual.

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