New customer acquisition goal

How it works

It is one of Google’s customer lifecycle goals. A campaign that uses it picks one of two options:

• Bid higher for new customers: Google adds an extra value you set to a new customer’s first purchase. The campaign then optimises for conversion value, as Target ROAS does, and that value includes the extra. You can also set a larger value for new customers Google identifies as likely to have a high lifetime value.
• Only bid for new customers: the campaign targets new customers alone, and Google adds no extra value.

Google decides who is new. You can help it by marking your own customer lists, such as Customer Match lists, as purchasers or other customer types.

You set the extra value yourself. It should reflect what a first order leads to later: the customer lifetime value, which only your own order history shows. Whether your store should use the goal is covered in bidding more for first-time buyers.

Where you see it

Google Ads reports can split conversions into new and returning customers. They can also show the lifetime value added for new customers next to the original conversion value, counted before lifecycle goal adjustments.

Example

Example store, not client data.

The tableware shop spends 40,000 and gets 180,000 in revenue from 300 orders, 180 of them first purchases. With an extra 200 per new customer, Google adds 180 × 200 = 36,000. Conversion value becomes 216,000, which reads as a ROAS of 5.4. On the original 180,000, ROAS is still 4.5.

Not to be confused with

• Customer retention goal — the other lifecycle goal, which makes a campaign bid higher for lapsed customers on your list.
• Returning customer — a buyer Google sees coming back. What counts as returning depends on the conversion type, such as a second online purchase or a second store visit.

Right and wrong readings

• Wrong: “ROAS rose from 4.5 to 5.4, so the ads became more efficient.” Right: revenue is still 180,000, and the remaining 36,000 of the 216,000 is the value the store assigned to new customers.

Sources

• Lifecycle goals (Google Ads API) — the two options, value added to the first purchase, high lifetime value, customer lists, retention goal. Checked 2 October 2026.
• Metrics and Segments (Google Ads API) — added value counted in conversion value, original conversion value, new versus returning customers. Checked 2 October 2026.
• ConvertingUserPriorEngagementTypeAndLtvBucket (Google Ads API) — what counts as returning. Checked 2 October 2026.