Blocking-lift experiments: measure what blocking saves
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A blocking-lift experiment measures what Tapper's blocking is worth on one Google Ads campaign. Tapper sets up a Google Ads campaign experiment: your live campaign stays protected, and Google's copy of it runs with Tapper's exclusions removed. You compare the cost per acquisition (CPA) of the two. Experiments are part of Tapper Block.
How it works
- The control (the base) is protected. It is your real campaign, with Tapper's exclusions in place throughout.
- The treatment (the trial) is not. It is Google's copy with Tapper's exclusions removed. It gets the traffic share you choose, is exposed to invalid traffic and spends real budget while the experiment runs.
- Audience and IP exclusions are measured. Placement exclusions apply to the whole account, so they affect both halves the same way. Video and Hotel campaigns get no IP exclusions, so there the test measures audience exclusions only.
- Blocking has to be on. In monitor-only the protected campaign blocks nothing, so the test cannot show a difference. See Switch blocking on or off.
Before you start
- You are an Owner or Admin of the workspace, and it includes Block.
- The entity has a connected Google Ads account. Without one, the tab reads Connect Google Ads to start protection.
- The account has a Search, Display, Video or Hotel campaign. Other types, Performance Max included, cannot be split.
Create an experiment
- In the sidebar, under Block, click Experiments. The page opens on the Google Ads experiments tab.
- If your workspace has two or more protected entities, choose one in the switcher under the workspace name.
- Under Blocking-lift experiments, click Create experiment. The Create blocking-lift experiment dialog opens.
- Read the warning at the top: the treatment runs without Tapper's blocking and spends real budget; your live campaign stays fully protected.
- Fill in the fields:
| Field | Default | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Ad account | The connected Google Ads account that runs the campaign | |
| Campaign | Only Search, Display, Video and Hotel campaigns are listed | |
| Experiment name | "Lift test" followed by the date | Any name you will recognize |
| Treatment traffic split (%) | 50 | 1 to 99: the share of traffic that goes to the unprotected copy |
| Duration (days) | 14 | At least 1 day; the field suggests up to 90 |
- Click Create.
Follow your experiments
The list has the columns Name, Status, Arms (base → trial), Split and Window. Status is Draft, Scheduled, Starting, Running, Ended, Graduated, Cancelled or Failed. Ended, Graduated and Cancelled experiments move to Past experiments.
- End appears on Draft, Scheduled, Starting and Running experiments. End experiment? explains that ending clears the control and treatment tags and stops the treatment campaign. Click End experiment to confirm.
- Delete appears on a failed experiment. Delete experiment? asks first; click Delete to confirm and it leaves the list.
Read the results
Click an experiment to open Experiment results. The header shows the base campaign (protected) against the trial campaign (unprotected), the split, the dates and progress (day N of M). Only days on which both campaigns ran are compared.
Until then the page shows No results yet; first results are expected within 24 hours of the start. Then a verdict sits at the top:
| Verdict | When it shows |
|---|---|
| Protection is winning so far | Protected CPA is at or below 90% of unprotected CPA |
| The unprotected campaign is ahead so far | Protected CPA is at or above 110% of unprotected CPA |
| No clear CPA difference yet | Protected CPA is between 90% and 110% of unprotected CPA |
| Too early to call | Either half has fewer than 100 clicks or fewer than 10 conversions |
The verdict leaves out the last 3 days. Below it, tiles compare CPA, CPC, Conversion rate, Conversions, Visitors, Spend and Detected IVT rate, followed by charts such as Performance over time, Google invalid click rate - both arms and Invalid traffic by reason - Base (enforced). Data refreshes every hour.
Compare several experiments
Tick running, ended or graduated experiments, then:
- View summary (N) opens Experiments summary: protected base arms against unprotected treatment arms, summed, with a Per-experiment breakdown. It needs at least 2 experiments in the same currency.
- Native A/B (N) opens Native A/B analysis, which also works with one experiment. It is "Built from Tapper's own data (conversions matched to the ad click, and block decisions), separate from the Google-reported summary." It takes a few minutes and the page updates on its own. It leaves out campaigns with fewer than 20 converting clicks in either group, an uneven split or no blocks.
You can tick up to 50. Then the other boxes are disabled and a note reads "Up to 50 experiments can be compared at once." Untick one to pick another.
If something goes wrong
- "This account has no Search, Display, Video or Hotel campaigns. Experiments are only supported for those campaign types." Pick another ad account, or create a campaign of one of those types.
- "This test cannot show Tapper's effect yet": the account is in monitor-only. Turn blocking on for it.
- "This experiment failed during setup": click Delete and create it again.
- "These experiments use different currencies": tick experiments from accounts that share a currency.
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