Introduction
Ever noticed a new setting appearing in your account for no good reason? Lately, advertisers are reporting something strange happening-Google Ads quietly trying out a setting for an auto-“New Customer Value.”
At the surface, the sneaky change might look fairly harmless. But with one swipe, your campaigns might be changed: how value is calculated, how bids are optimized, and even how performance is reported. So if you pay no attention to the matter, it might be directly going to affect your ad spend and ROI.
So What Is This Auto-Setting for New Customer Value in Google Ads?
This setting for “New Customer Value” allows the advertiser to inform Google of how much a new customer is worth relative to an existing one. For example, if you think New buyers are more valuable because they will probably buy some more, then you could assign a bit more value to them.
Now, it looks like Google just might be stepping ahead and setting it as the default values in ABSENSE of any value set by the advertisers. Simply put, Google Ads might actually be going with some behind-the-scenes conditional weighting or valuation for new customers so Smart Bidding can prioritize for acquisition.
So, the campaign might be reporting an inflated conversion value when the new customer converted, not because the new customer spent more but just because Google assigned extra value to that new customer.
Why Is It Important for Advertisers?
That slight alteration is huge in consequence:
Inflated numbers: Your campaign data might be showing revenue or ROAS higher than what you really are earning.
Bid misalignment: Smart Bidding could start bidding more aggressively on certain conversions, thinking they are more valuable than they really are.
Reduced control: You may not even realize the system has automatically applied a `new customer value`, leaving you with less transparency.
So, what is going on here would contribute to confusion and inefficiency for people who generate reports and attribute value manually.
How Does It Affect the Goal of NCA?
If you have used the New Customer Acquisition goal, then you will know that it targets first-time customers. Typically, an advertiser will test some form of:
New Customer Only, which focuses strictly on those that have never bought before.
New Customer Value, which lets you assign a higher value to new customers so that new customers in Google Ads are recognized more than worth it.
Apparently, with this concept, this alabaster line is about to become a little cloudy since, suddenly, the values will not be set manually by you but will be given automatically by the Google systems. So, in essence, therefore, they can change the way conversion values are applied in a given campaign without your input.
This will surely have a say in where your ads compete for placements and spends specifically for Performance Max or Search campaigns.
A Reason To Worry In Case You Manage Your Data Badly?
If you are the kind of advertiser who follows actual revenue and LTV reporting with interest, what has been introduced with the change can either inflate some of the reports or render some trends inconsistent with each other.
For small business trying to get some value out of customer lifetime value, this automation may actually be helping, because it grants some flexibility to the Google conversion system to optimize for growth.
On the other hand, lack of transparency still remains the bone of contention. Most marketers still feel that this kind of conversion modification should be an option rather than a default setting.
What Can You Do Now?
Check Your Account Settings: Have a look at your conversion section in the Google Ads dashboard and check if “New Customer Value” has been set automatically.
Audit Your Data: Check against your actual purchase revenue if conversion values reported are actually the same; if they are not the same, auto-value might be guilty of this.
Adjust Your Bidding Strategy: If you want to run Target ROAS or Maximize Conversion Value, keep in mind that you may wish to ask for a little less until you see how these new values play out in performance.
Segment New vs. Returning Customers: Run a small test campaign with which you manually assign a realistic new customer value and compare it to how your auto value campaigns work.
Stay Informed: Google Ads experiments tend to roll in under the radar like an unexpected wave coming in until that wave is actually announced. Constantly checking back on your campaign settings could keep you safe from surprises.
Expert Insight
A senior PPC strategist once expressed this: “Automation in Google Ads can save time but when it changes value metrics without notice, it risks misleading even experienced advertisers.”
That is precisely the kind of situation we have here: a test that might help Google’s algorithms at the expense of confusing data unless marketers stay very vigilant.
Effect on Smart Bidding and ROAS
Target ROAS Smart Bidding operates on the basis of exact conversion values. When Google acts on its own to add some value, it might result in the inflation of the value assigned to certain conversions.
When this happens, bids rise and campaigns in turn become costlier. It can increase the acquisition of new customers, but if you are not tracking your cost per acquisition, you could be spending heavily for results that might just be short-term.
If you are bidding based on value, then value must be aligned with the real business value rather than what Google Ads determines in their own obscure way.
FAQ’s
1. What is the New Customer Value in Google Ads?
It is an extra value you assign, or Google assigns by default, to new customers, so Smart Bidding treats them as having higher conversion value.
2. Why is Google testing this automatically?
The idea is to relieve advertisers who do not manually set customer values. Still, this comes at the cost of a lack of control and transparency.
3. Can I turn off or edit this auto-value?
In most cases, you should be able to override setting this manually within your account via conversion settings, whereas some accounts might still not have this option if they’re in the test group.
4. Does it affect my actual revenue?
No, only reported conversion values are affected; not the money earned. One will therefore still have to consult analytics or CRM data for drawing actual ROI.
5. Should I keep running New Customer Acquisition campaigns?
Yes, as this is still driving growth; just be certain that you understand how “value” is being computed on your reports.
Conclusion
The setting of “New Customer Value” by Google brings us back to the fact that any little experiment with their platform can have real implications on marketing performance, whether it is good or bad depends on how one treats data transparency and optimization.
At least for now, keep watching, keep tracking your conversion values, and make sure your reports portray actual business performance, not some inflated number system.
If you want to know how to adapt your PPC strategy with the increased automation by Google, keep an eye on our pertinent article on How to Know if Your GEO Is Working and an in-depth post on The Latest Jobs in Search Marketing, both of which address the trends digital marketers expect in 2025.