Acquiring new customers is a vital goal for any business. One of the most powerful advertising platforms, Google Ads has introduced its New Customer Acquisition (NCA) goal to help marketers in this pursuit, seamlessly targeting and converting fresh audiences. White-label PPC services are honing in on this innovative resource to ensure agencies get the best results from their PPC efforts.
NCA is designed to target and convert prospects without prior engagement with your marketing agency or client’s business. However, leveraging the feature requires a strategic approach encompassing thoughtful audience segmentation and meticulous campaign setup.
We’ll explore how to leverage this feature effectively to maximise your ad spend and increase your return on investment (ROI), whether you own a digital marketing agency or operate on a freelancing basis. We will also explore white-label PPC and its role in leveraging NCA for success.
Table Of Contents:
- What Is the New Customer Acquisition Goal in Google Ads?
- Understanding Google’s Approach to Identifying New vs. Existing Customers
- Nuances in New vs. Existing Customer Classification
- Best Practices and Potential Challenges
- Implementing New Customer Acquisition Tracking
- Customising NCA for Your Unique Business Goals
- How White-Label PPC Companies Can Help
- Final Thoughts
What Is the New Customer Acquisition Goal in Google Ads?
Google Ads’ New Customer Acquisition goal feature optimises your campaigns for new customers who have not yet converted. When you select this goal, Google automatically analyses your conversion data to identify existing customers against new prospects. Google then optimises your campaign to target the latter group exclusively. When implemented correctly, this feature can be a powerful way to drive growth for your business.
The feature offers significant benefits, such as:
- Targeting new customers: Focus your advertising efforts on individuals who are more likely to convert into new customers.
- Improving ad spend efficiency: Allocate your budget more effectively by targeting a specific audience segment.
- Increasing ROI: Drive more valuable traffic to your or your client’s website and convert new customers, leading to higher revenue and improved client satisfaction.
Understanding Google’s Approach to Identifying New vs. Existing Customers
At the core of the NCA goal lies Google’s ability to distinguish between users who have previously converted for your marketing agency or client’s business and entirely new prospects. Google employs three primary methods to classify customers as either new or existing:
1. Automatic Detection
When you opt for the NCA goal, Google automatically analyses the account’s conversion data from the past 540 days to create an audience list of existing customers. Users who have converted within this timeframe are classified as existing customers, while those not on this list are identified as new customers.
2. Customer List Uploads
For a more comprehensive approach to defining your existing customer base, you can upload your first-party data using customer match lists. This method allows you to define existing customers based on factors like email addresses and phone numbers. Users not found on your uploaded lists are classified as new customers.
3. Conversion Tracking Tags
This method offers the highest level of control, requiring the insertion of a custom conversion tracking tag on your conversion pages to explicitly label conversions as new customer, existing customer, or unknown.
Combining these methods is generally recommended for accurate new vs. existing customer segmentation.
Nuances in New vs. Existing Customer Classification
Even while optimising for new customers using NCA, some conversions from existing customers may still be recorded for various reasons such as identification limitations and multi-conversion scenarios. It is essential to understand these nuances to strike the right balance in your campaigns.
For instance, if you advertise a deal that existing customers take advantage of, you may want to exclude them from subsequent campaigns aimed at targeting new customers. Additionally, when an existing customer purchases a product or service as a gift for someone, it’s best to consider this as a new customer acquisition and factor that into your campaigns.
Best Practices and Potential Challenges
To successfully leverage the NCA feature, digital marketers should pay close attention to potential areas of confusion or misconfigurations that may arise, including sharing customer list data, minimising conversions classified as unknown, and ensuring alignment between bid strategies and customer signals provided to Google.
Here are some best practices to help guide you:
1. Maintain Accurate Customer Lists
When using customer lists to differentiate between existing and new customers, it’s essential to maintain the accuracy of these lists. Include only those users for whom you have complete, up-to-date information. Incomplete or outdated customer lists can lead to misclassification of your users.
2. Use Conversion Tracking Wisely
Conversion tracking tags are one of the best ways to differentiate between new and existing customers. Make sure to use conversion tracking consistently across all pages where a user can complete a conversion. Also, ensure that the conversion tracking is set up correctly for all pages on your website.
3. Optimise for Customer Value
When optimising for new customer acquisition, it’s important to ensure you’re targeting users with a high potential for customer value. Use Google’s audience insights to identify high-potential demographics, interests, and behaviors, and adjust your campaigns accordingly.
4. Stay Current on Industry Changes
Stay informed of changes in the industry and how they may impact NCA campaigns. For instance, recent changes to data privacy regulations may impact how you collect and use customer data.
Implementing New Customer Acquisition Tracking
Setting up new customer acquisition tracking involves implementing specific code on your website using the global site tag method or Google Tag Manager. Properly implementing this tracking is crucial for NCA to identify new customers accurately and optimise spending accordingly. Here are some steps to follow:
1. Set Up Google Ads and Google Analytics Accounts
To begin using NCA and track new customers, you must first set up a Google Ads account and link it to a Google Analytics account.
2. Install Google’s Global Site Tag (gtag.js) on Your Website
Google’s Global Site Tag is a code that tracks user behaviour on your website. Installing this code on your website is essential for ensuring that NCA identifies new customers accurately.
3. Configure the gtag.js Code to Track New Customers
Once the global site tag is installed, you’ll need to configure it to track new customers accurately. This involves using custom dimensions and metrics to differentiate between new and existing customers.
Customising NCA for Your Unique Business Goals
Google provides a default 540-day window for classifying new vs. existing customers. However, this may not align with the specific business needs of each industry. Therefore, individual businesses can customise the definition of a new customer based on their unique industry and needs, allowing for advanced segmentation within NCA campaigns to target valuable new audiences effectively.
How White-Label PPC Companies Can Help
White-label PPC services can be a game-changer for digital marketing agencies looking to implement current PPC tactics and enhance client results without extensive in-house expertise and training.
By partnering with a white-label PPC provider, you can leverage innovative tools, such as Google’s new customer acquisition goal, to manage and optimise your campaigns. Collaboration enables offering high-quality PPC services under your brand, ensuring your clients receive exceptional results while you enjoy increased efficiency, more in-demand services in your service suite, and scalability.
White-label PPC services can be the key to helping your agency channel the latest PPC marketing trends and best practices to gain a competitive edge in delivering successful customer acquisition strategies.
Final Thoughts
As the competition among businesses in the digital space continues to grow, effective customer acquisition strategies have never been more essential. Luckily, you can leverage Google Ads’ NCA feature as a viable solution for targeting and converting new prospects automatically. Implementing a strategic approach that combines effective audience segmentation, meticulous tracking setup, customisation based on business goals, and staying current with industry changes can help you unlock the full potential of this feature and drive impactful results in your customer acquisition strategies.
If you’re ready to elevate your marketing strategies with the right tools and white-label PPC agency support, we invite you to book a strategy call with our PPC specialists. As a special offer, claim a $1000 voucher to try our white-label PPC services for free – no strings attached!
Book your 30-minute free strategy call and claim your $1000 voucher to try our leading white-label PPC management service agency today.
