Liam Walsh
Liam is a Co-Director at Intelligency and heads up the agency's Digital Intelligence & Paid Social activity. Over the last decade, he has worked with brands from the world of sports such as Premier League clubs to entertainment such as Channel 4 and Disney.
Google Ads is quietly experimenting with a new feature that automatically assigns a “New Customer Value” within its New Customer Acquisition (NCA) campaigns. According to user reports, some advertisers discovered this change had been applied without prior notice and, importantly, without appearing in change logs.
Why does this matter?
For marketers running acquisition campaigns, accurate “New Customer Value” is a key metric. It guides algorithmic learning and bid strategies that aim to attract high-value first-time buyers. If the value is artificially set or inflated, campaign reporting can become skewed, making it difficult to evaluate performance and optimise effectively.
There are three main issues with these changes:
- Google does not know the true lifetime value of each new customer.
- Automatically assigned values can inflate reported revenue.
- Many conversions remain classified as “unknown,” further clouding the data.
In response, Google confirmed the change is part of an experiment. A spokesperson explained the intent is to assist advertisers in optimising settings to improve results, particularly to increase the ratio of new customers. They also noted that when the New Customer Value is missing or set too low, campaign optimisation can suffer.
What to do?
If you are using Google Ads NCA campaigns, it is a good idea to:
- Audit your account to check if a New Customer Value has been auto-set by Google.
- Evaluate whether the value is realistic given your business model (for example, lifetime revenue per new customer).
- Monitor reporting changes closely, especially revenue attribution and new versus returning customer splits.
- Reach out to your Google support contact if you notice unusual shifts or a lack of transparency around these auto-assigned values.
In short
While the feature could help simplify campaign setup, the lack of explicit consent or visibility is raising red flags among advertisers. Automated settings that impact core performance metrics without full transparency can undermine trust and reporting integrity. As this experiment rolls out and as Google prepares to expand new customer reporting in the coming months, staying vigilant is essential.
