About the new customer conversion goal for Smart Shopping campaigns

Most Smart Shopping and Local campaigns have upgraded to Performance Max, bringing you additional inventory and formats to reach new customers. Accounts in which all campaigns have been upgraded are no longer able to create new Smart Shopping campaigns. Learn how to Upgrade Smart Shopping and Local campaigns to Performance Max.

The new customer conversion goal for Smart Shopping campaigns lets you increase the number of new customers your campaigns acquire.

Smart Shopping campaigns optimize conversion value for both online sales and new customer acquisitions. Conversion value for new customers is the sum of the purchase value and the new customer value you set. The combined value is attributed to a purchase made by a new customer.

New customer value	Online Sale	Calculation	Total conversion value
Set fixed value: $50	$100	$100 + $50	$150

Smart Shopping campaigns use a bid strategy that maximizes conversion value, so when new customer acquisition is enabled in your conversion goals, bids may lead to an increase in new customer purchases.

Note: The new customer goal will not optimize for sensitive products such as alcohol or medical products. Conversions for these products will be set as “unknown” instead of “new” or “returning”. Other products in your account may still be eligible to participate in new customer goals. If you sell sensitive products, the only way to report on new customers is to provide the information in your conversion tag. Learn more about our personalized advertising policies

Getting started in Google Ads

Note: The instructions below are part of a new Google Ads user experience that will launch for all advertisers in 2024. If you’re still using the previous version of Google Ads, review the Quick reference map or use the Search bar in the top navigation panel of Google Ads to find the page you’re searching for.

• Select the new customer conversion goal in your Smart Shopping campaigns:
  • Open your conversion goals by clicking Settings under the "Conversions" dropdown of your Smart Shopping campaign to see the “Conversion goals” card.
  • Select Campaign-level conversion goals.
  • Enable “New customer acquisition goal” and set the conversion value for each new customer.
• If you don’t already have a conversion action with purchase category, create a conversion action.
• Optional:
  • Create a field in your conversion tag that helps you identify when a customer is new or existing.

How to distinguish new customers from existing customers

There are two ways you can provide signals that help to identify new customers for your business. You can use only one or any combination of the two. Google detection will always be used by default.

1. Google detected: If your Google Ads conversion tracking is set to track “purchases”, Google's AI can create an audience list based on up to the last 540 days of campaign activity and tracked purchases. This is the easiest method for distinguishing new customers from existing customers, but may be less comprehensive since users can remove cookies and opt out. This is automatically used when you select the “new customer” conversion goal.

Note: For EU targeted campaigns, the audience list is based on the last 390 days of campaign activity and tracked purchases.

2. Uploaded audience list: You can also upload your audience list so that Google can designate new customers with up-to-date information that has been audited by you.

• Steps to upload and select your audience list:
  1. Create and upload your customer list following instructions on creating customer list.
  2. Select your uploaded customer list by following these steps:
     Note: The instructions below are part of a new Google Ads user experience that will launch for all advertisers in 2024. If you’re still using the previous version of Google Ads, review the Quick reference map or use the Search bar in the top navigation panel of Google Ads to find the page you’re searching for.
     1. In your Google Ads account, click the Goals icon .
     2. Click the Conversions drop down in the section menu.
     3. Click Settings.
     4. Expand the “Existing customers” menu. You’ll see the audience lists you’ve uploaded in the “My audience lists” box, or you can search for your audience list by typing the list name in the search field and selecting the box beside the correct list. (Note: you can also use “Browse” to select from the full set of audience lists that you’ve uploaded)
     5. Select up to 5 audience lists.
     6. Click Save.

Note: If most of your uploaded audience lists are not shared with the Ads account of your Smart Shopping campaign, Google-detected classification will be set to “Unknown”. Share your uploaded audience lists so you can see accurate new and existing customer segmentation.

3. New customer conversion tracking using tags: You can set up new customer conversion tracking with tagging. This method requires more set up on your side, but allows greater control over which conversions are reported as new vs. returning. Learn how to set up new customer conversion tracking using tags

Bidding

Smart Bidding accounts for the new customer value you set and maximizes total conversion value including the additional value you specify for new customers. Smart Bidding factors the understanding that new customers help drive more overall value into bidding decisions.

The new customer value you set should equal the expected future organic revenue of a new customer. For example: If customers spend an average of $120 per purchase and 2 out of 3 customers buy once a year for two years, the recommended new customer value would be $120 * ⅔ * 2= $160.

You can use the recommended value that’s set as default when you select the new customer conversion goal, if you’re unsure what your new customer value should be.

The default value considers the potential future revenue from a customer and is based on your average order value for Shopping campaigns.

Learn how to set up the new customer conversion goal so that you can maximize new customer acquisition in your Smart Shopping campaign bidding.

Reporting

New customer reporting provides numerical values for new customers and distinguishes values for three types of customers:

1. New: The number of people who purchased something online from your website or app for the first time. New customers are identified as follows:
   • They have not made a purchase within the last 540 days (this applies when using Google autodetection system).
   • They are also not included in the existing customer list you specified in account-level conversion settings.
2. Returning: The number of people who purchased something online from your website or app previously. Returning customers are identified as follows:
   • They have made a purchase within the last 540 days if you use Google autodetection system.
   • Or they are included in the existing customer list you specified in account-level conversion settings.
3. Unknown: Customers who we can’t report on due to policies around legally or culturally sensitive categories.

Note: If you use new customer conversion tracking in the Google tag, Google Tag Manager or Firebase, we use the values provided in the tag for “new”, “returning”, or “unknown" customers in place of Google autodetection. For EU targeted campaigns, customers are distinguished into new, returning, or known based on 390 days of data.

Where to view performance reporting

Note: The instructions below are part of a new Google Ads user experience that will launch for all advertisers in 2024. If you’re still using the previous version of Google Ads, review the Quick reference map or use the Search bar in the top navigation panel of Google Ads to find the page you’re searching for.

“Campaigns” or “Ad groups” tabs metrics overview

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Campaigns or Ad groups.
4. Select Shopping campaigns using the workspace filter on top.
5. Click the “Columns” icon in the icon menu at the upper right of the campaigns list.
6. Click Modify columns.
7. Click the down arrow for “Conversions” to see all metric options from conversions.
8. Check the box beside “New customers”.
9. Click Apply.
10. Now when you view campaigns or ad groups, you will be able to see “new customers” as a metrics column.

“Campaigns” tab metrics by new vs. returning customer

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon .
2. Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu.
3. Click Campaigns.
4. Select Shopping campaigns using the workspace filter on top.
5. Click the “Segments” icon in the icon menu at the upper right of the campaigns list.
6. Click Conversions.
7. Click New vs. returning customers.
8. You'll see "conversions" and "conversion value" by ckoustomer type.

Related links

• About conversion goals in Shopping campaigns
• Set up new customer conversion reporting for Smart Shopping campaigns