Disclosed herein is a method for determining whether to apply a lazy materialization technique to a query run. A data processing service receives a request to perform a query identifying a filter column and a non-filter column in a columnar database. The data processing service accesses a first task of contiguous rows in the filter column from a cloud-based object storage. The data processing service applies a filter defined by the query to the first task. The data processing service generates filter results for the first task that may include a percentage of the first task discarded and a run-time. The data processing service determines, based on the filter results for the first task, a likelihood value that indicates a likelihood of gaining a performance benefit by applying the lazy materialization technique to a second task of the query.