Troubleshooting the new customer acquisition goal

Starting August 2024, repeat purchases from new customers will be categorised as 'new' in reporting.

Going forward, we will categorise subsequent conversions made by new customers within your conversion window as 'new' if your conversion count settings are configured to count 'every' conversion. If your conversion count settings are configured to count 'one' conversion, your reporting won’t be affected, as all repeat purchases will continue to be excluded from reporting as usual.

Learn more about how to view your new customer acquisition reporting.

The new customer acquisition goal uses Performance Max or search campaigns to help you gain new customers. You can choose to optimise the campaign to bid higher for new customers or to bid for new customers exclusively.

If your campaign isn’t optimising to acquire new customers, here are a few common scenarios you may encounter, with steps on how to troubleshoot.

On this page

• Lower than expected performance
• High proportion of returning customers
• High proportion of unknown customers

Tip: You can review the new customer acquisition goal to learn more about your campaign goals, new customer acquisition goal requirements or setup and activation options.

Lower than expected performance

Occasionally, Performance Max or search campaigns using the new customer acquisition goal may serve fewer ads than expected. This may be due to incorrect campaign setup. Follow the steps below to troubleshoot.

Step 1 of 3: Confirm your campaign settings

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Campaigns drop-down in the section menu.
3. Click Campaigns.
4. On the 'Campaigns' page, find the Performance Max or search campaign that you want to edit.
5. Click the gear icon beside the campaign name to open the 'Settings' panel.
6. Expand the 'Customer acquisition' section and confirm that 'Only bid for new customers' is selected.
7. Expand the 'Customer acquisition' section and confirm that:
   • The 'Adjust your bidding to help you gain new customers' box is selected.
   • If you’ve selected 'Only bid for new customers' and are concerned about your performance not being optimised, we recommend to instead select 'Bid higher for new customers (recommended)' as this will not limit the reach of your campaign.
   • If you’re concerned about your performance optimisation after selecting 'Only bid for new customers', consider choosing 'Bid higher for new customers (recommended)'. Bidding higher for new customers won’t limit the reach of your campaign.

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Step 2 of 3: Confirm your conversion settings

Note: The 'Summary' page may appear differently depending on how your conversions are set up. Review the following before you begin.

• Your new customer acquisition goal will be at the top of the page if purchase conversions are set up.
• Your new customer acquisition goal will be at the bottom of the page if purchase conversions aren't set up.
• Your new customer acquisition goal won’t appear on the 'Conversions' page if the goal hasn't been set up correctly.

1. Click the goals icon in the navigation panel on the left.
2. Click the Conversions drop-down in the section menu.
3. Click Summary.
4. For non-retail advertisers, confirm that the purchase conversions listed are within the last 30 days or have an existing customer user list added. You must use either of these options to enable a new customer acquisition goal.
5. If your new customer acquisition goal has been set up correctly, confirm when it was added to the campaign.
   • Performance Max and search campaigns need 1–2 weeks to adjust to any significant changes made to a campaign. Your campaign may take time to adjust to this new targeting and optimisation setting.
6. If there are no issues with setup, confirm that the search campaign or Performance Max campaign has been set up correctly.

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Step 3 of 3: Check your customer list match rates

In order for the NCA goal to be as accurate as possible when detecting new vs. existing customers, we recommend that advertisers use first-party data to supplement autodetection and the new vs. existing customer parameter in your conversion tracking tag.

For advertisers that opt to use first in their NCA campaigns, Customer Match is one of the methods to provide a 1PD customer list. When advertisers use Customer Match, we want them to provide the best data to ensure that we have high match rates to ensure that we are as accurate as possible when detecting if a user is new or existing. Match rate is defined as % of people matched across your first-party Customer Match list and Google users, after filtering out opted out users. You can check your advertisers's Customer Match match rates directly in Google Ads audience manager or in Google Ads Data Manager (by adding in the match rate column)

To bolster match rate, we suggest that you follow best practices of supplying multiple match keys – including multiple email addresses (if applicable), phone number and postcode.

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High proportion of returning or unknown customers

Refer to Measure your lifecycle goals campaigns for more information on why customers are reported as unknown or returning and how to improve the situation.

Related links

• Set up new customer acquisition reporting
• About Performance Max campaigns
• Create a Search campaign
• Choose the right campaign type