WorkMagic supports two types of lift testing methodologies. Both measure incremental lift (the difference in performance between an exposed group and a holdout group), but they split audiences differently.
Pause-to-Measure (PTM)
How it works: Ads continue as usual for most of your audience, but you pause ads for a small holdout group.
Best for: Channels or campaigns that already have a significant budget running. You want to keep most ads live, while setting aside a fraction of your audience for testing.
Impact: Requires a larger budget, since most of the audience is still exposed to ads.
Launch-to-Measure (LTM)
How it works: Ads are launched only to a small exposed group, while the larger holdout group does not see ads.
Best for: New channels, tactics, or campaigns where budgets are still small or unproven. This method minimizes cost while still capturing incremental lift.
Impact: Requires a smaller budget, since only a fraction of the audience is exposed.
Quick Comparison
Aspect | Pause-to-Measure (PTM) | Launch-to-Measure (LTM) |
Ads ON | Majority of the audience | Minority of the audience |
Ads OFF | Minority of the audience | Majority of the audience |
Lift Measurement | Based on removing exposure | Based on adding exposure |
Spend Required | Higher – closer to BAU ad spend | Lower – small incremental spend |
Which one should I use?
Use PTM when your campaign already has large ongoing budgets and you only need to carve out a small holdout group.
Use LTM when testing new channels or lower-spend campaigns, where a PTM test would require too much budget.
💡 Both methodologies deliver the same level of confidence and statistical significance -> the choice depends mainly on budget size and how disruptive you want the test to be to your live campaigns.