How to use customer acquisition and retention goals in Google Ads

Google has introduced new capabilities within its new customer acquisition goals, including high-value customer bidding and retention targeting.

Most Google Ads strategies still treat new customers as inherently more valuable. That assumption breaks down quickly.

Not every new customer is worth acquiring, and not every existing customer is worth ignoring. Just because someone buys once doesn’t make them a customer for life. Likewise, some past buyers are far more likely to convert again than a net-new user.

This is where Google’s high-value customer and retention bidding goals start to matter.

How high-value customer bidding works in Google Ads

Google uses predictive bidding to help determine who your high-value customers are. However, the primary signal is the customer match list you upload within your account. 

To make these adjustments, go to the customer lifecycle optimization section under Goals > Summary, then select Edit goal.

Here, you’ll set a higher new customer value to bid more aggressively for high-value customers. Google will typically pre-populate a suggested value based on a higher LTV than your typical new customers. Review this carefully and decide how much higher you want to bid for a high-value new customer.

Once you do this, Google reports that added amount as in-platform conversion value, on top of the actual value from the sale or lead. If you use a cost-per-conversion model, this discrepancy may not matter as much. However, for ROAS-based bidding, the additional value can artificially inflate your campaign’s ROAS.

Google recently introduced a new column, original conversion value (found under the conversions columns section), to help separate the actual value from the additional value used to prioritize bidding. However, if you typically rely on conversion value/cost, that figure will still include the added value in its reporting.

Dig deeper: Google Ads quietly rolls out a new conversion metric

Building and activating high-value customer audiences

To help Google identify high-value customers, you’ll need to add an audience list of high-value customers. 

Consider what qualifies a high-value customer to you when creating this list. Did they have a particularly high average order value, or were they a lead for a higher-tier service you offer? Compile this list and upload it. 

You’ll need at least 1,000 active members in the YouTube or Search network for it to be eligible to serve, and we typically see match rates between 29%-62% — meaning you’ll likely need well over 1,000 for the list to become eligible. 

The more data you include for each record in your first-party data, the higher…