New Customer Reporting in Google Ads

Last updated: June 30, 2026

1. Why Reporting Changes After Switching to New Customer Optimization

When a campaign begins optimizing for NewCustomerPurchase, the meaning of several standard Google Ads KPIs changes automatically.

From that point forward, the Conversions column no longer shows all purchases. Instead, it reports new customer purchases only.

As a result:

  • The number of reported Conversions decreases.

  • Cost per Conversion increases.

This does not indicate worse campaign performance.

Instead, the underlying KPI has changed.

Example

Before switching, a campaign optimizes for the standard Purchase conversion and generates:

  • 146 Purchases

  • €211 Cost per Conversion

After switching to NewCustomerPurchase, Google reports only new customer purchases:

  • 73 NewCustomerPurchases

  • €422 Cost per Conversion

The campaign may still be performing better than before.

Previously, Cost per Conversion effectively represented Cost per Order (CPO).

After switching, it effectively represents Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC).

Many marketers initially misinterpret this change and assume campaign performance has declined, when in reality only the KPI definition has changed.

Chapter 3 explains how to evaluate campaign performance correctly after switching to NewCustomerPurchase.

2. Configure Your Campaign View for New Customer Reporting

To properly evaluate new customer performance, we recommend expanding your campaign view with additional standard columns and custom columns.

This allows you to view both traditional purchase KPIs and the most important new customer KPIs directly within the campaign overview.

2.1 Add the Recommended Standard Columns

In addition to your standard performance metrics, we recommend enabling the following Google Ads columns:

  • Goals

  • Bid Strategy Type

These columns allow you to immediately see:

  • Whether a campaign is optimizing for Purchase or NewCustomerPurchase

  • Which bidding strategy is being used

  • Whether a Target ROAS is active

  • Whether a Target CPA is active

For detailed instructions, see ⬇:

How to Add the Goals and Bid Strategy Type Columns in Google Ads

2.2 Recommended Custom Columns for New Customer Reporting

For a complete performance evaluation, we recommend creating the following nine custom columns.

Purchase KPIs

  • Purchase

  • Gross Revenue

  • ROAS

  • CPO

New Customer KPIs

  • NewCustomerPurchase

  • NC Revenue

  • NC %

  • CAC

  • NC ROAS

Together, these metrics provide a complete view of both overall business performance and new customer acquisition.

2.2.1 Create the Purchase Column

The Purchase column shows the total number of attributed purchases based on the Mable AllCustomerPurchase conversion action.

Recommended Configuration

  • Owner: Advertiser

  • Name: Purchase

  • Description: Mable AllCustomerPurchase

  • Data Format: Number

  • Metric: All Conversions

  • Filter: Conversion Action = AllCustomerPurchase

For detailed instructions, see ⬇:

How to Create a Purchase Custom Column in Google Ads

2.2.2 Create the Gross Revenue Column

The Gross Revenue column displays the total attributed revenue generated by the Mable AllCustomerPurchase conversion action.

Recommended Configuration

  • Owner: Advertiser

  • Name: Gross Revenue

  • Description: Mable Gross Revenue

  • Data Format: Currency

  • Metric: All Conversion Value

  • Filter: Conversion Action = AllCustomerPurchase

For detailed instructions, see ⬇:

How to Create the Gross Revenue Custom Column in Google Ads

2.2.3 Create the ROAS Column

The ROAS column shows the traditional Return on Ad Spend based on all purchases.

Formula

Gross Revenue ÷ Cost

Recommended Configuration

  • Owner: Advertiser

  • Name: ROAS

  • Description: Mable AllCustomerPurchase Return on Ad Spend

  • Data Format: Number

  • Metric: All Conversion Value

  • Filter: Conversion Action = AllCustomerPurchase

For detailed instructions, see ⬇:

How to Customize ROAS Columns in Google Ads

2.2.4 Create the CPO Column

The CPO (Cost per Order) column shows your advertising cost per attributed purchase.

Formula

Cost ÷ Purchase

Recommended Configuration

  • Owner: Advertiser

  • Name: CPO

  • Description: Mable Cost per Order

  • Data Format: Currency

  • Metric: All Conversions

  • Filter: Conversion Action = AllCustomerPurchase

For detailed instructions, see ⬇:

How to Customize CPO Columns in Google Ads

2.2.5 Create the NewCustomerPurchase Column

The NewCustomerPurchase column displays the total number of attributed new customer purchases for each campaign, allowing you to track new customer acquisition at the campaign level.

The column is based on All Conversions, filtered to the NewCustomerPurchase conversion action.

Recommended Configuration

  • Owner: Advertiser

  • Name: NewCustomerPurchase

  • Description: Mable New Customer Purchase

  • Data Format: Number

  • Metric: All Conversions

  • Filter: Conversion Action = NewCustomerPurchase

For detailed instructions, see ⬇:

How to Create a NewCustomerPurchase Custom Column in Google Ads

2.2.6 Create the NC Revenue Column

The NC Revenue column displays the revenue generated by attributed new customer purchases.

Recommended Configuration

  • Owner: Advertiser

  • Name: NC Revenue

  • Description: Mable New Customer Revenue

  • Data Format: Currency

  • Metric: All Conversion Value

  • Filter: Conversion Action = NewCustomerPurchase

For detailed instructions, see ⬇:

How to Create an NC Revenue Custom Column in Google Ads

2.2.7 Create the NC % Column

The NC % metric shows what percentage of all purchases came from new customers.

A higher value indicates a greater share of new customers within the campaign.

Formula

NewCustomerPurchase ÷ (NewCustomerPurchase + ReturningCustomerPurchase)

Recommended Configuration

  • Owner: Advertiser

  • Name: NC %

  • Description: Mable New Customer Share

  • Data Format: Percent

For detailed instructions, see ⬇:

How to Create an NC % Custom Column in Google Ads

2.2.8 Create the CAC Column

The CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) column shows the advertising cost required to acquire one new customer.

This provides a direct measure of how efficiently your campaigns are acquiring new customers.

Formula

Cost ÷ NewCustomerPurchase

Recommended Configuration

  • Owner: Advertiser

  • Name: CAC

  • Description: Mable Customer Acquisition Cost

  • Data Format: Currency

For detailed instructions, see ⬇:

How to Create a Customer Acquisition Cost Custom Column in Google Ads

2.2.9 Create the NC ROAS Column

The NC ROAS column shows the Return on Ad Spend generated exclusively by new customers.

This allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of new customer acquisition independently of your overall ROAS.

Formula

NC Revenue ÷ Cost

Recommended Configuration

  • Owner: Advertiser

  • Name: NC ROAS

  • Description: Mable New Customer Return on Ad Spend

  • Data Format: Number

For detailed instructions, see ⬇:

How to Create an NC ROAS Custom Column in Google Ads

3. How to Evaluate New Customer Performance

After switching campaigns to NewCustomerPurchase, several standard Google Ads KPIs change their meaning.

Many advertisers immediately notice:

  • Fewer reported Conversions

  • A higher Cost per Conversion

and assume campaign performance has declined.

In reality, this is not the case.

The reason is that Google is no longer counting all purchases as conversions. Instead, it counts new customer purchases only.

The standard reporting columns therefore represent different KPIs than they did previously.

Example

Before the switch

  • 100 Purchases

  • 100 Conversions

After switching to NewCustomerPurchase (assuming a 60% new customer rate)

  • 100 Purchases

  • 60 NewCustomerPurchases

  • 60 Conversions

In this example, the total number of purchases has not changed at all.

Google is simply displaying only new customer purchases in the Conversions column.

Evaluate Both New Customer and Overall Performance

As a general best practice, we do not recommend evaluating campaigns based only on new customer KPIs.

For a complete assessment, you should always consider both perspectives.

New Customer KPIs

  • NewCustomerPurchase

  • NC Revenue

  • NC %

  • CAC

  • NC ROAS

Overall Business KPIs

  • Purchase

  • Gross Revenue

  • CPO

  • ROAS

Reviewing both perspectives together allows you to understand:

  • How many new customers your campaigns are acquiring

  • How efficiently those customers are being acquired

  • How overall business performance is evolving

  • Whether advertising budget is successfully shifting from existing customers toward new customer acquisition

Only by combining both perspectives can you accurately evaluate campaign performance after switching to NewCustomerPurchase optimization.