Optimising paid search campaigns for new customers

Written by

Sam Wright

February 27, 2025

4 min read

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When it comes to reporting sales from paid search campaigns, things can get messy. Take Meta or Google Ads, for example. Campaigns often end up being optimised for metrics like "view-through" rather than actual clicks or conversions. This means the focus is on who saw the campaign, not who engaged with it.

To make matters worse, many campaigns don’t have the right exclusions in place—like filtering out existing customers—and that skews the data. Without proper segmentation, tracking becomes less reliable, and businesses often fall back on in-platform reporting, which isn’t always focused on what matters most: acquiring new customers.

This can lead to problems like cannibalising organic traffic (paying for clicks that might have come for free) or wasting ad spend on audiences who are already familiar with your brand.

Sound familiar? Don’t worry. We’ve put together a practical checklist to help you optimise your campaigns for new customer acquisition and make sure your budget is working harder than ever.

The problem: Are you reaching new customers?

One of the biggest pitfalls of paid search is focusing on metrics that look good on paper but don’t actually grow your customer base. Here’s what typically goes wrong:

• Optimising for the wrong metrics: Focusing on views or impressions rather than clicks or conversions.
• Poor audience exclusions: Forgetting to filter out existing customers, loyalty members, or recent buyers.
• Overlapping with organic traffic: Spending on paid ads to capture users who would have converted organically anyway

The result? Your ad spend isn’t driving the growth you need, and your performance metrics aren’t giving you a true picture of success.

Your checklist for optimising paid search campaigns

Here’s a practical checklist to help you ensure your campaigns are laser-focused on attracting new customers:

1. Campaign structure and targeting

• Exclude brand terms from performance max (PMax): Unless brand bidding is part of your strategy, exclude these to avoid wasting budget on organic traffic.
• Separate prospecting and re-marketing campaigns: Create dedicated campaigns for attracting new customers versus re-engaging existing ones.
• Use Audience Exclusions: Exclude existing customers, high-frequency purchasers, or loyalty members using first-party data or CRM integrations.

2. Smarter targeting

• Enable “new customer acquisition” in PMax: Activate this setting in Google Ads to focus your campaigns on finding new buyers.
• Leverage lookalike audiences: On Meta, build lookalike audiences based on your best-performing new customers to reach similar users.
• Expand geographies and demographics: Explore untapped regions or demographics to grow your reach effectively.

3. Bidding and attribution

• Switch to first-click attribution: This model credits campaigns for driving initial traffic, helping you track efforts to reach new audiences.
• Lower bids for existing audiences: Use bid modifiers to deprioritise existing customers and allocate spend toward potential new ones.
• Focus on high-intent keywords: Prioritise non-branded keywords with strong intent to capture new customers actively searching for solutions.

4. Tailored messaging

• Create ads for new customers: Use offers like “Welcome Discounts” or “First-Time Buyer Perks” to appeal to new audiences.
• Highlight your unique selling points: Make your brand’s value stand out, especially for people unfamiliar with your product or service.

5. Platform-specific adjustments

• Meta ads: Optimise for conversions (e.g., purchases or leads) rather than impressions or reach.
• Exclude warm audiences: Filter out users who’ve recently visited your site or interacted with your brand.
• Google ads: Regularly review placements and exclude low-value traffic sources (like irrelevant mobile apps) in PMax campaigns.

6. Measure, test, and refine

• Track offline conversions: Upload offline sales data to platforms like Google Ads to better attribute sales from new customers.
• Run incrementality tests: Measure the real lift from your paid campaigns by testing their impact on new customer acquisition.
• Cross-channel attribution: Analyse how your paid search interacts with organic traffic, email campaigns, or other channels to avoid overlap.
  

Why it’s worth the effort

By focusing on new customer acquisition, you’re not just increasing sales—you’re setting your brand up for long-term growth. With the right exclusions, targeting, and messaging, your campaigns will work harder to bring fresh faces to your business.
Remember, paid search isn’t just about getting clicks or views. It’s about creating a strategy that delivers real, measurable results. With this checklist, you’ll be able to optimise your campaigns, make your budget go further, and grow your customer base the smart way.

Further reading

If you’re keen to dive deeper, these resources are worth a look:

• Google Ads Help: Use New Customer Acquisition in Performance Max Campaigns
• WordStream: 10 Proven Google Ads Optimisation Techniques

Sam Wright - Managing Director

Sam is the founder and MD of Blink. He has been working in search engine optimisation since 2007, and is a regular speaker and writer on the subject of eCommerce digital marketing. He is heavily involved in all client projects.