Does Paid Social Actually Make Search Perform Better? We Tested It.

Over a 99-day period, IMGE ran a measurement test for FlowCorps, a fitness studio based in North Carolina with several locations, to understand the "halo effect" of paid social ads on search performance. In other words: if we turn Meta ads on, do more people go looking for the brand on Google, and do they convert at a higher rate once they get there?

To find out, we alternated between "Meta On" and "Meta Off" periods and tracked branded search volume, conversion rates, and acquisition costs across each week. This approach let us observe incrementality: not just clicks Meta can take credit for, but the lift it creates across other channels.

Here's How Paid Social Impacted Search, Week by Week

Seasonality and small-market advertiser dynamics introduced noise to our study, making it difficult to achieve statistical significance. However, this test did measure strong directionality in each pod. Here's what we saw:

• Higher Conversion Rates
  Branded search CVR was 25.7% stronger during "Meta On" weeks, demonstrating the value of mid-funnel social placements to paid search performance.

• Lower Acquisition Costs
  Across 7 weeks, "Meta On" periods consistently delivered lower average CPAs on Search and higher branded conversion rates. We saw the best results in Weeks 4 and 9 where Search CPAs were between 17.5%-40% lower than average, suggesting Meta's potential to drive qualified lower-funnel traffic.

The TL; DR? Even without direct attribution, Meta advertising positively influenced branded search behavior and downstream purchases.

What We're Testing Next

Stay tuned: We plan to run this test using Meta's Conversion Lift capabilities. While we won't be able to measure ROAS directly, this approach will allow us to isolate Meta's effect on conversion rate with stronger statistical confidence.

Extending test windows, expanding budgets, or applying geo-splits across multiple markets will help validate results and reduce seasonal noise.

Want to see more of IMGE's advertising tests? Explore our Testing Hub here.