1. Why Combining New Customer and Profit Optimization Matters

Many businesses pursue two goals with their Google Ads campaigns:

• Acquire as many new customers as possible

• Grow as profitably as possible

Campaigns that optimize exclusively for Purchase may generate a high volume of orders, but Google does not distinguish between new and returning customers or account for how profitable each order actually is.

Optimizing only for NewCustomerPurchase addresses part of this challenge. Google receives a signal that the order came from a new customer, but it does not consider the financial value of that purchase.

Optimizing only for CM1, on the other hand, accounts for the economic value of each conversion but does not distinguish between new and returning customers.

Combining both approaches brings these two objectives together.

Google receives an optimization signal based specifically on profitable new customer purchases. This allows the algorithm to consider both:

• Whether the purchase came from a new customer

• How much economic value that purchase generated for the business

As a result, campaigns can be optimized and evaluated from both a new customer acquisition and profitability perspective.

Example

Two new customers each place an order worth €200.

When optimizing only for NewCustomerPurchase, both purchases appear equally valuable to Google.

By combining NewCustomerPurchase with CM1, Google also learns that Order B generates a significantly higher contribution margin.

2. Prerequisites

To use combined new customer and profit optimization, both the new customer and profitability components must be configured in Mable and Google Ads.

2.1 Review Your Google Ads Setup

Before switching campaigns to combined optimization, verify that your Google Ads account follows the recommended best-practice setup.

For the complete guide, see ⬇:

Google Ads Best Practice Setup

2.2 Configure COGS

Mable needs your product costs to calculate the actual contribution margin and send it to Google Ads.

Without Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), Mable cannot calculate CM1.

For detailed instructions, see ⬇:

Configure COGS in Mable

2.3 Create a CM1 NewCustomerPurchase Conversion for Google Ads

Once your COGS values are configured in Mable, you can create a CM1 NewCustomerPurchase conversion action for Google Ads.

Navigate to:

Optimizations → Event Control → Google Ads

At the bottom of the page, click:

+ Add Custom Mable Event

Use the following configuration:

• Trigger: New Customer Purchase

• Conversion Value: CM1

• CV Filter: ≥ 0

After you click Confirm, Mable automatically creates a new conversion action in the Google Ads account selected in the Google Ads Account dropdown in the Mable dashboard.

The conversion action will typically appear as:

CM1 NewCustomerPurchase – [Store Name] Mable

For every new customer purchase, this conversion sends the actual CM1 to Google Ads as the conversion value.

It can then be used for both reporting and campaign optimization.

For detailed instructions, see ⬇:

How to Create a CM1 NewCustomerPurchase Conversion for Google Ads

2.4 Create a CM1 NewCustomerPurchase Custom Goal

To optimize Google Ads campaigns for profitable new customers, create a dedicated Custom Goal.

This Custom Goal should contain the CM1 NewCustomerPurchase conversion you created in the previous step.

You can then use it as the optimization goal for selected campaigns.

For detailed instructions, see ⬇:

How to Create CM1 NewCustomerPurchase Custom Goals in Google Ads

3. Switch Campaigns to Profitable New Customer Optimization

Once the CM1 NewCustomerPurchase conversion is available in Google Ads, allow it to collect sufficient data before using it for campaign optimization.

⚠ Important:
We recommend waiting at least 7 days after the conversion is first sent to Google Ads before optimizing campaigns for CM1 NewCustomerPurchase.

Ideally, the waiting period should match the conversion action's click attribution window. In practice, however, approximately 7 days is sufficient for most accounts.

Once enough data has been collected, campaigns can be switched from standard Purchase optimization to profitable new customer optimization.

3.1 Update the Campaign Conversion Goal

Switch the selected campaign to the CM1 NewCustomerPurchase Custom Goal you created earlier.

You can verify which conversion goal a campaign currently uses in two ways:

• Add the Goals column to the campaign overview to review all campaign goals at a glance. https://scribehow.com/o/fl-pFDEPSpia9ZzF-8i-YA/viewer/How_to_Add_the_Goals_and_Bid_Strategy_Type_Columns_in_Google_Ads__GzgMSM3lQvGp-PA_E1IreA?referrer=workspace

• Open the campaign settings and review the selected Conversion Goal.

For detailed instructions, see ⬇:

How to Switch a Google Ads Campaign to CM1 NewCustomerPurchase Optimization

3.2 Review the Bidding Strategy

Combined new customer and profit optimization works best with value-based bidding strategies.

These include:

• Maximize Conversion Value

• Target ROAS

These strategies use the CM1 value sent with each conversion when optimizing bids.

If you use Maximize Conversions or Target CPA, Google does not take the profit value into account.

4. Review Your Target ROAS for Combined Optimization

If your campaigns use Target ROAS, review the target before switching to CM1 NewCustomerPurchase.

The conversion value sent to Google changes significantly after the switch.

Instead of seeing the Gross Revenue from all purchases, Google now receives only the CM1 from new customer purchases.

This value is usually much lower because:

• Cost of Goods Sold have already been deducted.

• Only purchases from new customers are included.

As a result, your existing Target ROAS will often become significantly harder—or impossible—for the algorithm to achieve.

Example

Before the switch

• Optimization based on Purchase

• Average ROAS = 400%

• Target ROAS = 350% → The algorithm can reliably achieve this target.

After the switch

• Optimization based on CM1 NewCustomerPurchase

• The average CM1 from new customer purchases equals 63.5% of the previous conversion value.

• Average POAS = 63.5% × 400% = 254%

The previous Target ROAS of 350% is no longer realistic.

If you do not adjust the target, Google may continue reducing spend in an attempt to reach it. In extreme cases, campaign delivery may become severely limited or stop altogether.

Potential Impact

Keeping the previous Target ROAS unchanged may cause Google to restrict the campaign more aggressively than intended.

Common symptoms include:

• Lower spend

• Fewer impressions

• Fewer clicks

• Fewer new customer purchases

Recommended Approaches

We recommend one of the following two approaches.

Option 1: Recalculate the Target ROAS

If you can estimate how much the attributed conversion value decreases after switching to CM1 NewCustomerPurchase, reduce your Target ROAS accordingly.

Use a comparison period that falls entirely after the CM1 NewCustomerPurchase conversion was activated.

This ensures that both conversion actions are based on the same underlying data.

Option 2: Temporarily Remove the Target ROAS

If you cannot reliably estimate the impact—or if Google significantly reduces spend even after adjusting the target—we recommend:

• Remove the Target ROAS

• Switch to Maximize Conversion Value

• Collect data for several weeks

• Set a new Target ROAS once performance has stabilized

For larger optimization changes, this is often the most stable approach.

5. Reporting After the Switch

After switching to CM1 NewCustomerPurchase optimization, campaign performance should be evaluated using metrics that reflect both new customer acquisition and profitability.

For a complete reporting setup, we recommend creating the following additional metrics alongside the columns already covered in Google Ads Reporting & KPI Analysis for New Customer Optimization and Profit Reporting in Google Ads:

• NC CM1

• NC CM1 POAS

• NC CM1 %

The following metrics should already be available in your account.

New Customer Metrics

• NC %

• NC ROAS

Profit Metrics

• POAS

• CM1 %

The sections below cover only the additional metrics required for combined new customer and profit optimization.

For complete instructions on configuring the standard new customer and profit metrics, see ⬇:

• Google Ads Reporting & KPI Analysis for New Customer Optimization

• Profit Reporting in Google Ads

5.1 Create the NC CM1 Column

The NC CM1 column shows the total attributed Contribution Margin 1 generated by new customer purchases.

Recommended Configuration

• Owner: Advertiser

• Name: NC CM1

• Description: Mable New Customer CM1

• Data Format: Currency

• Metric: All Conversion Value

• Filter: Conversion Action = CM1 NewCustomerPurchase

For detailed instructions, see ⬇:

How to Configure the NC CM1 Column in Google Ads

5.2 Create the NC CM1 POAS Column

The NC CM1 POAS metric shows the return on ad spend based on the contribution margin generated by acquired new customers.

Formula

CM1 NewCustomerPurchase ÷ Cost

This metric indicates how much new customer contribution margin is generated for every dollar or euro spent on advertising.

For detailed instructions, see ⬇:

How to Create an NC CM1 POAS Custom Column in Google Ads

5.3 Create the NC CM1 % Column

The NC CM1 % metric shows what percentage of revenue generated by new customers remains as Contribution Margin 1.

Formula

CM1 NewCustomerPurchase ÷ NC Revenue

This metric helps you evaluate the margin quality of the revenue generated through new customer acquisition.

For detailed instructions, see ⬇:

How to Create an NC CM1 % Custom Column in Google Ads

6. Learning Phase and Best Practices

After switching to CM1 NewCustomerPurchase, Google Ads needs time to learn the new optimization signal.

Short-term performance fluctuations are normal during this learning phase.

We recommend switching only a selected group of campaigns initially and monitoring their performance over a sufficiently long period.

Once performance stabilizes, additional campaigns can gradually be moved to combined new customer and profit optimization.

The most important metrics for evaluating performance are:

• NC CM1

• NC CM1 POAS

• NC CM1 %

Together, these metrics show:

• How much contribution margin is generated by new customers

• How efficiently advertising spend produces new customer contribution margin

• What share of new customer revenue remains as contribution margin