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Customer lifecycle goals in Google Ads help you increase value from both new and existing customers by revitalising new customer acquisition efforts, seeking new high-value customers or re-engaging lapsed customers. These goals are powered by Smart Bidding and go beyond simple revenue generation.
In this article, you’ll learn more about customer lifecycle goals, the different modes available and the various customer segments that these modes are built to reach.
On this page
- What are customer lifecycle goals
- Types of customer lifecycle goals
- About new customer acquisition goals
- About retention goals
Understanding customer lifecycle goals
Customer lifecycle goals in Google Ads are a set of performance optimisation features that help you prioritise your advertising campaigns for specific customer lifecycle stages. There are two categories of customer lifecycle goals:
- New customer acquisition goal: This lifecycle goal helps you to prioritise bidding that can reach and acquire new customers.
- Retention goal: This lifecycle goal is designed to help you keep existing customers engaged and to re-engage lapsed customers.
Types of customer lifecycle goals
Below are the different types of customer lifecycle goals available in Google Ads for Performance Max, Search, Shopping and Demand Gen campaigns.
| Goal | Mode | Eligible campaign types | Bidding Strategies | Conversion goal configuration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New customer acquisition |
New Customer Value mode Bid higher for new customers than existing ones |
|
Value-based bidding: |
At least one purchase conversion goal is required. |
|
High-value new customer mode Bid higher for high-value new customers than regular new customers and existing |
|
Value-based bidding: |
At least one purchase conversion goal is required. | |
|
New Customer Only mode Only bid for new customers |
|
All bid strategies |
A purchase conversion goal isn't required, but recommended for accurate reporting of new vs returning conversions. | |
| Customer retention |
Re-engagement mode Bid higher for lapsed customers than existing ones |
Performance Max |
Value-based bidding: |
At least one purchase conversion goal is required. |
|
High-value re-engagement mode Bid higher for high-value lapsed customers than for regular lapsed customers |
Performance Max |
Value-based bidding: |
At least one purchase conversion goal is required. |
About the new customer acquisition goal
Learn more about how to implement new customer acquisition in the activation instructions article.
New Customer Value mode
We recommend New Customer Value mode for all advertisers with purchase conversion goals. It prioritises bidding towards new customers while maintaining your engagement with potential returning customers.
High-value new customer mode
If you already use New Customer Value mode to bid higher for new customers, try to attract high-value new customers similar to your most valuable existing customers. This mode enables you to set different bidding priorities for high-value new prospects, regular new customers and existing ones. Use your own observations to differentiate high-value customers from regular customers. For example, high-value customers could be customers who purchase twice as much product as compared to others.
New Customer Only mode
This strategy is recommended only if you have strict budgets for new customer acquisition, or have non-purchase conversion goals like lead generation. With New Customer Only mode, your campaigns are optimised to bid exclusively for new customers. You should set up a separate campaign to reach existing customers when using this mode.
You can pair Performance Max and Standard Shopping new customer acquisition campaigns with 'Promotions' in Google Merchant Center to enable showing first-order promotions to new users. This is available only in the US. Reach out to your Account Manager for more information.
Here is how it works:
- Create a first-order promotion in your Merchant Center.
- Understand and adhere to promotions policies.
- Define your existing customers through first-party data when enabling new customer acquisition in Google Ads: use your first-party data through a customer list and website tag to boost your performance.
About the retention goal
The retention goal is designed to help you keep existing customers engaged and to entice lapsed customers back to your business. The two modes currently available in the retention goal are re-engagement mode and high value re-engagement mode, designed to optimise for lapsed customers.
Your definition of a lapsed customer is important because it’s used to drive customer matching and bidding. You can upload this definition through a customer list with Customer Match to be eligible for the retention goal.
Re-engagement mode
Re-engagement mode helps you reconnect with lapsed customers – those who haven’t engaged with your brand for a certain period of time as defined by your business. This mode can complement other modes such as new customer only and New Customer Value mode to provide a comprehensive approach to customer acquisition and retention.
You define what constitutes a 'lapsed customer' based on your unique business criteria, whether it's a period of inactivity or a specific lack of engagement. You can upload lists of these lapsed customers and assign a higher bid value for them using Customer Match. These lists make it possible for Google to optimise bidding for lapsed customers. This increases your likelihood of winning back customers and growing revenue for your business.
High-value re-engagement mode
If you already use re-engagement mode to bid higher for lapsed customers, you can optimise for a specific group of high-value lapsed customers. High-value re-engagement mode allows you to re-engage with customers who previously drove high value to your business, from a high frequency of purchases, large basket size or high-value orders, but have since stopped engaging with your business.
Member pricing and member delivery annotations
To build on your loyalty marketing strategy, enable member pricing and member delivery annotations on Shopping ads. These are currently available in the US and can also be accessed on mobile when a loyalty programme has been set up in Merchant Center.
Member pricing and member delivery annotations strengthen relationships with existing high-value customers by highlighting exclusive loyalty member benefits and discounts. It’s a new way to reach loyalty members by cultivating personalised and engaging ad experiences that speak directly to the unique needs and motivations of loyalty members.
You can manage pricing, promotion and loyalty tiers in Merchant Center and manage your Shopping ads in Google Ads. You have the flexibility to define member pricing based on evergreen discounts or time-bound promotions, and have the ability to assign up to seven loyalty tiers for added personalisation. For more information, reach out to your Account Manager.
