Google is expanding its customer acquisition and retention capabilities across Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns, giving e-Commerce advertisers greater flexibility over how they prioritise new customers, re-engage existing buyers and optimise towards customer value.
The changes include high-value new customer acquisition for Shopping campaigns, new customer retention goals and percentage-based conversion value adjustments.
For e-Commerce brands, these updates present an opportunity to move beyond optimising purely for immediate return on ad spend (ROAS) and build more commercially informed bidding strategies.
At 360 OM, we see this as an important development in how retailers can use their first-party customer data to drive more profitable growth.
1. Shopping Campaigns Can Now Prioritise High-Value New Customers
Google is extending its New Customer High Value Mode to Shopping campaigns, a capability previously available through Search and Performance Max.
This lets advertisers place greater emphasis on acquiring new customers predicted to generate higher long-term value.
Traditionally, Google Shopping strategies have focused heavily on conversion value and ROAS. However, two customers with the same initial order value may deliver very different profitability over time.
Consider an e-Commerce retailer acquiring two customers:
- Customer A: Makes a £60 purchase and never returns.
- Customer B: Makes a £60 purchase, then places another three orders over the following year.
Both initially generate the same revenue, but Customer B represents a significantly more valuable acquisition.
With high-value customer acquisition goals, Google Ads can use advertiser-provided customer information to help prioritise customers expected to deliver greater value.
Our perspective: e-Commerce advertisers should increasingly evaluate acquisition performance against customer lifetime value (CLV), rather than relying exclusively on first-order ROAS.
However, predicted customer value is only as useful as the data supporting it. Retailers need reliable customer records and meaningful value segmentation to benefit from these capabilities.
2. New Retention Goals Create More Opportunities to Re-Engage Customers
Google is also expanding its customer retention controls across Search, Shopping and Performance Max.
Three modes are being introduced more widely:
Re-engagement Mode
Designed to help advertisers prioritise existing customers who have not purchased recently. For example, a beauty retailer could use this capability to place greater emphasis on customers who previously purchased skincare products but have not returned within their typical replenishment window.
Loyalty Mode
Allows advertisers to prioritise loyalty programme members, including opportunities to promote relevant messaging and member-specific pricing. This could be particularly valuable for retailers with established VIP programmes, subscription offerings or tiered customer benefits.
Retention Only Mode
Enables campaigns to focus exclusively on specified existing-customer segments.
Rather than combining new customer acquisition and retention activity within the same targeting strategy, advertisers can create campaigns specifically focused on reactivating or engaging existing customers.
Our perspective: Retention strategies should reflect how customers actually purchase.
A customer buying fragrance every three months behaves differently from someone purchasing furniture every five years.
Effective customer segmentation requires an understanding of purchase frequency, average order value, product categories and customer lifecycle behaviour.
These new controls create additional opportunities to apply that intelligence within Google Ads.
3. Percentage-Based Value Multipliers Offer More Flexible Bidding
Another significant update is the introduction of percentage-based customer value multipliers. Previously, advertisers could apply fixed monetary adjustments when assigning additional value to certain customer types.
However, a fixed adjustment does not always reflect the economics of businesses with widely varying order values. For example, a 20% value multiplier adjusts order values as follows: £50 → £60, £100 → £120, £250 → £300, and £500 → £600.
Rather than adding the same fixed amount to every eligible conversion, the adjustment scales proportionally with the transaction value.
This gives advertisers greater flexibility when signalling the relative value of acquiring or retaining different customers.
Importantly, these adjustments influence the conversion value signals used by Google's automated bidding systems. They do not directly guarantee a particular bid increase or improvement in campaign performance.
Our perspective: Advertisers should avoid introducing arbitrary value multipliers.
A 20% adjustment should be supported by evidence that the relevant customer segment delivers sufficient additional commercial value to justify the bidding signal.
Without that understanding, advertisers risk optimising towards inflated conversion values rather than genuine incremental profitability.
4. Why First-Party Customer Data Is Becoming More Important
The effectiveness of these features will depend heavily on the quality of the customer information advertisers provide. For e-Commerce businesses, this means connecting advertising activity more closely with customer purchase behaviour.
Useful inputs include:
- Historical customer purchase data
- New versus returning customer identification
- Repeat purchase frequency
- Customer lifetime value
- Customer segments based on purchasing behaviour
- Loyalty programme membership
- Customer Match audiences
Platforms such as Shopify, Klaviyo and customer data systems can provide valuable inputs when integrated appropriately with Google Ads. However, simply connecting a customer list is unlikely to unlock the full potential of these features.
Advertisers need to understand which customer groups generate meaningful incremental value and ensure their campaign objectives reflect those differences.
5. What Should e-Commerce Advertisers Do Next?
At 360 OM, we recommend that e-Commerce brands review five areas before implementing these new controls.
1. Review your new versus returning customer performance
Understand how much of your advertising revenue comes from genuinely new customers and whether your acquisition activity is driving incremental growth.
2. Analyse customer lifetime value
Identify which customer segments, categories and acquisition cohorts generate the strongest repeat purchase behaviour and long-term contribution.
3. Audit your first-party data
Ensure customer lists, conversion tracking and relevant integrations are accurate, consent-compliant and regularly updated.
4. Test customer value adjustments carefully
Use commercial evidence to determine appropriate multipliers, and evaluate performance against actual revenue, customer acquisition costs and profitability.
5. Align Google Ads with your wider retention strategy
Google Ads should complement your email, SMS and CRM activity rather than operate in isolation.
For example, an e-Commerce retailer might use Klaviyo to identify lapsed high-value customers, then use eligible customer segments to support a targeted Google Ads re-engagement strategy.
The objective should be to improve total customer value while managing acquisition and retention costs effectively.
Our Take: Google Ads Is Moving Towards More Customer-Centric Optimisation
For years, ROAS has dominated e-Commerce advertising conversations.
While it remains an important performance indicator, it does not always tell the full story.
A campaign generating a 5x ROAS from existing loyal customers may deliver less incremental business growth than a campaign generating a lower immediate ROAS while acquiring valuable new customers.
Google's latest updates provide advertisers with additional tools to account for these differences.
The opportunity lies in combining Google's automated bidding capabilities with accurate first-party data, commercially meaningful customer segmentation and a clear understanding of customer profitability.
For retailers, the challenge is no longer simply deciding how much to bid for a conversion.
It's understanding which conversions are worth investing more to acquire.
How 360 OM Can Help
At 360 OM, we help e-Commerce brands improve performance across Google Ads, paid social and customer retention. Our approach combines paid media expertise, first-party data, conversion tracking and customer lifecycle strategies to support profitable growth.
Whether you're looking to acquire more valuable new customers, improve repeat purchase rates or make better use of Google's automated bidding capabilities, our team can help you identify and implement the right opportunities.
Want to improve your Google Ads acquisition and retention strategy?
Speak to the 360 OM team about how we can help you get more value from your advertising investment.
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