Google Ads' New Customer Acquisition (NCA) feature helps reach and convert prospects who haven't engaged with your business. Effective use requires a strategic approach, setting correct campaign parameters, and monitoring performance data.
Google identifies new vs. existing customers through three methods:
- Automatic detection: Analyzes your account’s conversion data from the last 540 days to create an audience list of existing customers.
- Customer list uploads: You can upload your own first-party data via customer match lists. Users not found on your uploaded list(s) are designated as new customers.
- Conversion tracking tags: Uses a custom conversion tracking tag to label each conversion as “new customer,” “existing customer” or “unknown.”
Some conversions from existing customers may appear in your reports due to identification limitations and multi-conversion scenarios.
Setting up NCA tracking requires implementing specific code on your website, either using the global site tag or Google Tag Manager.
Google's default 540-day window for classifying new vs. existing customers may not align with your business needs. Through audience segmentation, you can customize how Google isolates and prioritizes new audiences.
A concern with Google’s NCA reporting is the potential for inflated and misleading conversion values. Start testing in a limited campaign with very low assigned values before full rollout.
When experimenting with NCA campaigns, start slowly by assigning a very low “new customer” value. Create an “active customer” audience segment as a negative exclusion list. Add the “New Customers” and “New Customer Lifetime Value” columns to your reports.
