1. Why Combine New Customer and Profit Optimization?

Many businesses pursue two goals with their Meta campaigns:

• Acquire as many new customers as possible

• Grow as profitably as possible

When optimizing only for Purchase, Meta can generate a high number of purchases, but it doesn't distinguish between new and existing customers, nor does it consider how profitable individual orders are.

Optimizing solely for NewCustomerPurchase addresses only part of this objective. While Meta understands that a purchase came from a new customer, it has no information about the actual business value of that purchase.

Conversely, optimizing solely for CM1 focuses on the profitability of a conversion but does not differentiate between new and returning customers.

Combining these two approaches gives Meta an optimization signal for profitable new customer purchases. This allows the algorithm to optimize for both customer acquisition and business profitability at the same time.

As a result, campaigns can be evaluated and optimized based on both new customer growth and profitability.

Example

Two new customers each purchase products worth €200.

With a standard NewCustomerPurchase optimization, Meta considers both purchases equally valuable.

By combining NewCustomerPurchase with CM1, Meta also learns that Order B delivers significantly greater business value.

2. Prerequisites

To use the combined optimization strategy, both the profit optimization and new customer optimization components must be configured in Mable and Meta.

2.1 Review Your Meta Best Practice Setup

Before getting started, verify that your Meta setup follows the recommended best practices.

In particular, ensure that:

• Your Mable Dataset is configured correctly.

• Your Catalog is connected properly.

• Your Product Matching setup follows the recommended configuration.

For the complete guide, see ⬇:

Meta Best Practice Setup

2.2 Configure Your COGS

Before Mable can calculate and send Contribution Margin 1 (CM1) to Meta, your Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) must be configured.

Without COGS data, Mable cannot calculate CM1.

For step-by-step instructions, see ⬇:

Configure COGS in Mable

2.3 Create a CM1 NewCustomerPurchase Event

Once your COGS have been configured, create a dedicated event that combines the NewCustomerPurchase trigger with CM1 as the conversion value.

Navigate to:

Optimizations → Event Control → Meta

Then click:

+ Add Custom Mable Event

Configure the event as follows:

• Trigger: New Customer Purchase

• Conversion Value: CM1

• CV Filter: ≥ 0

After clicking Confirm, Mable automatically creates the CM1 NewCustomerPurchase Custom Event in your connected Meta Dataset.

It also creates the corresponding CM1 NewCustomerPurchase Custom Conversion in the Meta ad account selected in the Ad Account dropdown.

Both are then available for reporting and campaign optimization.

For detailed instructions, see ⬇:

How to Create a CM1 NewCustomerPurchase Event in Mable

2.4 Verify the CM1 NewCustomerPurchase Event

New Mable events may initially appear with a warning icon in Meta Events Manager and must be reviewed once before they can be used for campaign optimization.

If CM1 NewCustomerPurchase is not available as a conversion event when creating a campaign, the most common reason is that the event has not yet been verified.

To verify the event, navigate to:

Events Manager → Mable Dataset → Hover over the warning icon → Review

Once approved, the CM1 NewCustomerPurchase event becomes available as an optimization goal in your Meta ad account.

2.5 Create an Active Customers Audience

We also recommend creating the Mable Active Customers Audience and excluding it from your campaigns.

This gives Meta additional information about which users are already existing customers.

For detailed instructions, see ⬇:

How to Create a Custom Audience in Mable

Troubleshooting Audience Creation

If your audience cannot be created or an error message appears, there are typically two possible causes.

1. Meta Custom Audience Terms Have Not Been Accepted

Before Custom Audiences can be created, Meta requires you to accept its Custom Audience Terms of Service once.

If you haven't completed this step yet, accept the terms first and then try creating the audience again.

For detailed instructions, see ⬇:

How to Accept Meta Terms of Service in Mable

2. Your Meta Ad Account Has Reached Its Audience Limit

Meta limits the number of Custom Audiences that can exist within an ad account.

If you've reached this limit, you'll need to delete existing audiences before creating new ones.

3. Set Up Campaigns for Combined Optimization

Once the CM1 NewCustomerPurchase event is available in your Meta Dataset, allow it to collect sufficient data before using it for campaign optimization.

⚠ Important:
We recommend waiting at least 7 days after the event is first sent to Meta before optimizing campaigns with CM1 NewCustomerPurchase. This gives Meta enough data to learn from the new optimization signal.

Once sufficient data has been collected, you can optimize campaigns for profitable new customer acquisition instead of standard purchases and revenue.

For the combined optimization, configure the following three settings.

3.1 Select the CM1 NewCustomerPurchase Event

First, make sure the Conversion Source is set to your Mable-connected Dataset.

Only this dataset contains the CM1 NewCustomerPurchase event you created earlier.

When creating the new ad set, select:

Conversion Event → CM1 NewCustomerPurchase

This provides Meta with optimization signals for profitable new customer purchases.

⚠ Important:
Always use the Custom Event (Conversions API) for campaign optimization.

Correct: CM1 NewCustomerPurchase (Conversions API) ✅
Incorrect: CM1 NewCustomerPurchase (Custom Conversion) ❌

The Custom Event is sent directly from Mable to Meta and serves as the optimization signal for Meta's algorithm. The corresponding Custom Conversion should only be used for reporting.

3.2 Optimize for Conversion Value

Next, verify the campaign's optimization strategy.

On the Ad Set level, navigate to:

Optimization & Delivery

Under Performance Goal, select:

• ✅ Maximize Conversion Value

• ❌ Maximize Number of Conversions

Only Conversion Value optimization allows Meta to use the CM1 values provided by Mable.

3.3 Exclude the Active Customers Audience

Finally, exclude the Mable Active Customers Audience from your campaign targeting.

This gives Meta both:

• The correct conversion signal

• Clear information about which users are already existing customers

These two signals complement each other and typically deliver the strongest optimization results.

For detailed instructions on creating a CM1 NewCustomerPurchase campaign—including selecting the Mable Dataset, choosing the CM1 NewCustomerPurchase event, setting Maximize Conversion Value, and excluding the Active Customers Audience—see ⬇:

How to Set Up a Meta Campaign for CM1 New Customer Optimization

4. Using Custom Events and Custom Conversions Correctly in Reporting

When you create the CM1 NewCustomerPurchase event, Mable typically creates both a Custom Event and a Custom Conversion in Meta.

For example:

• CM1 NewCustomerPurchase

• CM1 NewCustomerPurchase (Custom Conversion)

For campaign optimization, you should always use the Custom Event.

Which version you should use for reporting depends on whether your campaigns are already optimizing for CM1 NewCustomerPurchase.

Reporting Before Switching to CM1 NewCustomer Optimization

If your campaigns are still optimizing for Purchase and you simply want to report on CM1 NewCustomer metrics, use the corresponding Custom Conversion for reporting.

Reporting After Switching to CM1 NewCustomer Optimization

Once your campaigns are optimizing for CM1 NewCustomerPurchase, we recommend using the Custom Event for reporting as well, since it reflects the exact optimization signal sent from Mable to Meta.

Custom Conversions are based on an additional processing layer within Meta. While the values usually match, minor discrepancies can occasionally occur.

As a general rule:

• Always use the Custom Event for campaign optimization.

• For campaigns optimizing on CM1 NewCustomerPurchase, use the Custom Event for reporting whenever possible.

• If campaigns are not yet optimizing on CM1 NewCustomerPurchase, or if the Custom Event is not yet available as a reporting column, use the corresponding Custom Conversion instead.

4.1 Why the Custom Event May Not Yet Be Available as a Reporting Column

Meta only makes Custom Events available as reporting columns after at least one campaign in the ad account has optimized for that event.

Before your first campaign optimizes for CM1 NewCustomerPurchase, only the corresponding CM1 NewCustomerPurchase (Custom Conversion) will be available as a reporting column.

Once a campaign has optimized for the CM1 NewCustomerPurchase event, it becomes permanently available as a reporting column in Meta Ads Manager across all campaigns, regardless of their conversion goal.

4.2 What If the Custom Conversion Is Missing?

If CM1 NewCustomerPurchase (Custom Conversion) is also unavailable, first verify that it has been created in Meta Events Manager.

Navigate to:

Events Manager → Custom Conversions

You should see a CM1 NewCustomerPurchase (Custom Conversion) listed there.

If it doesn't exist, you can create it manually.

For detailed instructions, see ⬇:

How to Verify and Create Mable Custom Conversions (CM1 NewCustomerPurchase) in Meta

5. Reporting After the Switch

Once you've switched to the combined optimization strategy, campaign performance should be evaluated using metrics that reflect both new customer acquisition and profitability.

In addition to the reporting columns you've already created by following the New Customer Reporting in Meta and Profit Reporting in Meta guides, we recommend adding the following metrics for the combined optimization setup:

• NC CM1

• NC POAS

• NC CM1 %

The following metrics should already be part of your reporting.

New Customer Metrics

• NC %

• NC ROAS

Profit Metrics

• POAS

• CM1 %

The remainder of this guide focuses only on configuring the additional metrics required for the combined optimization strategy.

For the complete setup instructions for New Customer and Profit reporting, see ⬇:

• New Customer Reporting in Meta

• Profit Reporting in Meta

5.1 Add the Standard Reporting Column

For the combined optimization setup, we recommend adding the following standard column:

• NC CM1

This metric shows the total CM1 generated by acquired new customers and serves as the foundation for evaluating campaign profitability.

For detailed instructions, see ⬇:

How to Create the CM1 NewCustomerPurchase Value Column

5.2 Create Custom Metrics

We also recommend creating the following custom metrics:

• NC POAS

• NC CM1 %

These metrics are not available by default in Meta Ads Manager and should be created once as custom metrics.

5.2.1 NC POAS

NC POAS measures Profit on Ad Spend based on the CM1 generated by new customers.

Formula

CM1 NewCustomerPurchase Value ÷ Spend

For detailed instructions, see ⬇:

Create an NC POAS Custom Metric in Facebook Ads Manager

5.2.2 NC CM1 %

NC CM1 % measures the average contribution margin relative to the revenue generated by new customers.

Formula

CM1 NewCustomerPurchase Value ÷ NewCustomerPurchase Value

For detailed instructions, see ⬇:

Create an NC CM1% Custom Metric in Meta Ads Manager

5.3 Save Your Reporting Preset

Once you've configured the relevant reporting metrics, we recommend saving your column setup as a dedicated reporting preset.

You can also create a dedicated view based on this preset, giving you quick access to all relevant metrics directly within Meta Ads Manager.

For detailed instructions, see:

How to Save an NC Reporting Preset in Meta Ads Manager

6. Learning Phase & Best Practices

After switching to the combined optimization strategy, Meta needs time to learn the new optimization signal.

During this learning phase, it's normal to experience temporary performance fluctuations or higher acquisition costs.

As with standard New Customer optimization, we recommend duplicating your existing campaigns and testing the combined optimization strategy with a smaller budget first.

Once performance stabilizes, you can gradually increase spend on the new campaigns while scaling back your previous setup.

To evaluate campaign performance, we recommend focusing on the following KPIs:

• NC CM1

• NC POAS

• NC CM1 %