About customer lifecycle goals

Customer lifecycle goals in Google Ads help you increase value from both new and existing customers by revitalizing new customer acquisition efforts, seeking new high-value customers, or re-engaging lapsed customers. These goals are powered by Smart Bidding and go beyond simple revenue generation.

In this article, you’ll learn more about customer lifecycle goals, the different modes available, and the various customer segments these modes are built to reach.

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Understanding customer lifecycle goals

Customer lifecycle goals in Google Ads are a set of performance optimization features that help you prioritize your advertising campaigns for specific customer lifecycle stages. There are 2 categories of customer lifecycle goals:

  • New customer acquisition goal: This lifecycle goal helps you to prioritize bidding that can reach and acquire new customers.
  • Retention goal: This lifecycle goal is designed to help you keep existing customers engaged and to win back lapsed customers.
You can select specific bidding modes within each category to focus on distinct customer segments. Customer lifecycle goals can also help you to optimize your campaigns to support customer loyalty and grow lifetime value.

Types of customer lifecycle goals

Below are the different types of customer lifecycle goals available in Google Ads for Performance Max, Search, and Shopping campaigns.

Goal Mode Eligible Campaign Types Bidding Strategies Conversion Goal Configuration
New Customer Acquisition

New Customer Value Mode

Bid higher for new
customers than existing ones

  • Search
  • Performance Max
  • Shopping (Beta)

Value-based bidding:

At least one Purchase conversion goal is required.

High Value New Customer Mode (Beta)

Bid higher for high value new customers than regular new customers and existing

  • Performance Max

Value-based bidding:

At least one Purchase conversion goal is required.

New Customer Only Mode

Only bid for new customers

  • Search
  • Performance Max
  • Shopping (Beta)

Value-based bidding:

Cost-based bidding:

A Purchase conversion goal isn't required.
Customer Retention

Win-Back Mode (Beta)

Bid higher for lapsed customers than existing ones

Performance Max

Value-based bidding:

At least one Purchase conversion goal is required.

High Value Win-Back Mode (Beta)

Bid higher for high-value lapsed customers than for regular lapsed customers

Performance Max

Value-based bidding:

At least one Purchase conversion goal is required.

About the new customer acquisition goal

Google Ads Tutorials: Setting up the New Customer Acquisition Goal in Google Ads

For subtitles in your language, turn on YouTube captions. Select the settings icon Image of YouTube settings icon at the bottom of the video player, then select "Subtitles/CC" and choose your language.


The new customer acquisition goal is geared to optimize your campaigns to acquire new customers. You can also be more competitive with your bids for high value new customers.

Learn more about how to implement new customer acquisition in the activation instructions article.

New Customer Value Mode

We recommend New Customer Value Mode for all advertisers with purchase conversion goals. It prioritizes bidding towards new customers while maintaining your engagement with potential returning customers.

High Value New Customer Mode (Beta)

If you already use New Customer Value Mode to bid higher for new customers, try to attract high value new customers similar to your most valuable existing customers. This mode enables you to set different bidding priorities for high value new prospects, regular new customers and existing ones. Use your own observations to differentiate high value customers from regular customers. For example, high value customers could be customers who purchase twice as much product compared to others.

New Customer Only Mode

This strategy is recommended only if you have strict budgets for new customer acquisition, or have non-purchase conversion goals like lead generation. With New Customer Only Mode, your campaigns are optimized to bid exclusively for new customers. You should set up a separate campaign to reach existing customers when using this mode.


About the retention goal

The retention goal is designed to help you keep existing customers engaged and to entice lapsed customers back to your business. The 2 modes currently available in the retention goal are Win-Back Mode and High Value Win-Back Mode, designed to optimize for lapsed customers.

Your definition of a lapsed customer is important because it’s used to drive customer matching and bidding. You can upload this definition through a customer list with Customer Match to be eligible for the retention goal.

Win-Back Mode (Beta)

Win-Back Mode helps you reconnect with lapsed customers – those who haven’t engaged with your brand for a certain period of time as defined by your business. This mode can complement other modes such as New Customer Only and New Customer Value Mode to provide a comprehensive approach to customer acquisition and retention.

You define what constitutes a "lapsed customer" based on your unique business criteria, whether it's a period of inactivity or a specific lack of engagement. You can upload lists of these lapsed customers and assign a higher bid value for them using Customer Match. These lists make it possible for Google to optimize bidding for lapsed customers. This increases your likelihood of winning back customers and growing revenue for your business.

High Value Win-Back Mode (Beta)

If you already use Win-Back Mode to bid higher for lapsed customers, you can optimize for a specific group of high-value lapsed customers. High Value Win-Back Mode allows you to re-engage with customers who previously drove high value to your business, from a high frequency of purchases, large basket size, or high value orders, but have since stopped engaging with your business.

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