Google added an Enhanced Brand Lift option that detects lifts from 1.2%

Google has launched an Enhanced version of Brand Lift Studies — the surveys that show how much an ad campaign raised brand awareness. The announcement came on July 20, 2026, and advertisers now choose between standard and more sensitive measurement.

The mechanics are unchanged: Google surveys two groups — people exposed to the ad and a control group — and the gap in their answers is the "lift" in brand metrics such as recall or purchase intent. Enhanced simply makes that measurement statistically more sensitive.

The key difference is sensitivity. Standard studies detect a lift of 2% or higher, while the Enhanced version can "see" even a weak effect — from 1.2%. The price for that precision is budget:

• standard — detects lift from 2%, base budget;
• Enhanced — catches lift from 1.2%, needs roughly 3x the budget;
• the chance of detecting a positive effect rises by about 60%;
• the option was first spotted by Google Ads specialist Thomas Eccel.

According to Search Engine Land, this is part of Google's broader bet on brand-campaign measurement — advertisers increasingly want proof that upper-funnel spend drives real outcomes, not "just impressions."

Enhanced is not for everyone: if brand lift is already visible, paying triple makes little sense — standard will do. But for niche brands and campaigns with a modest effect that a standard study simply can't catch, the extra sensitivity might finally prove the awareness budget isn't wasted. The open question is whether advertisers will actually pay three times as much for a 60% better shot at seeing a lift that used to stay invisible.

Related reading: Google Analytics 4 for SEO: Reports, Setup and Organic Traffic Analysis · Contextual Advertising Audit