Google Ads Prospects Mode: Stop Paying for Existing Customers

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Zara Imrie, Google Ads & AI Marketing Specialist, Bizi Digital

This post was drafted with AI assistance and reviewed by Zara Imrie.

The cost problem

Google Ads new prospects mode is a new customer acquisition setting in Performance Max that automatically excludes past buyers, brand searchers, site visitors, and anyone who has previously engaged with your ads, so your budget reaches only cold, brand-unaware audiences. It is currently in global beta and it solves a real problem.

If you run Performance Max without new customer acquisition settings switched on, a real share of your budget is going to people who already know you, already bought from you, and were already coming back. Google’s machine just finds the easiest conversions. And repeat buyers are easy. Take an e-commerce client with a 30% repeat purchase rate. On a £10,000/month PMax budget, you could be spending £3,000 a month to re-acquire customers you never lost. That is not growth spend. That is waste. The new prospects mode, announced at Google Marketing Live 2026, is Google’s answer to that problem.

The three acquisition modes explained

Google now offers three distinct new customer acquisition modes. They are not interchangeable.

Value mode

This is the lightest touch. Your campaign still reaches everyone, existing customers included. But Google applies a bonus value to new customer conversions during bidding. Set that bonus value at 2x your average order value and Google’s own data suggests you can see ROAS improve by around 9%. The algorithm shifts spend toward new customers without completely cutting off existing ones.

Good for: brands where retention is still commercially valuable, or where first-party data coverage is incomplete.

New customers only mode

This is the harder cut. Budget goes exclusively to users who have never bought from you before, based on Customer Match lists and conversion tags. Google reports an 11.5% improvement in new customer ratio and a 3% reduction in acquisition cost when this mode is active.

Good for: acquisition-first campaigns where re-marketing is handled separately.

New prospects mode (beta)

This is the new one. It goes further than “new customers only” and targets people who are completely cold to your brand. Not just never-bought. Never searched for you, never visited your site, never watched your videos, never clicked your ads on YouTube or Google.

Genuinely brand-unaware audiences.

It is currently in global beta across all languages.

How prospects mode works

Prospects mode uses automated exclusions to wall off anyone who has already had contact with your brand. Specifically, it excludes users who have:

• Purchased from you (matched via Customer Match lists and conversion tags)
• Searched for your brand terms
• Visited your website or used your app
• Engaged with your content or ads across Google and YouTube

These exclusions are automated. Google builds the audience boundary from your first-party signals and its own logged behaviour data. Your job is to feed it clean signals. If your Customer Match list is stale or your tagging is broken, the exclusions are unreliable and the mode falls apart.

Available placements for prospects mode are currently Performance Max (beta). New Customer Only and Value modes are generally available across Search, Shopping, and Demand Gen.

When to use it (and the catch)

Prospects mode is genuinely useful if you are in one of these situations.

High repeat purchase rate. If 25% or more of your conversions come from existing customers, you are probably funding a lot of easy wins that inflate your conversion volume but do not move new customer acquisition forward. Prospects mode forces the budget to work harder.

Separate re-marketing campaigns already running. If you have dedicated campaigns for existing customers and lapsed buyers, you do not want PMax cannibalising that audience. Prospects mode creates a clean split.

Aggressive growth targets. If the brief is new customer volume and CAC, not blended ROAS, this is the right tool.

The catch is first-party data quality. I ran Customer Match on a client account last year and their list had not been refreshed in eight months. Old email addresses, wrong domains, duplicates. The system thought half their existing customers were new. Prospecting spend went to the wrong people for six weeks before we caught it. The mode is only as clean as the data you pipe into it.

You also need conversion tagging that distinguishes new vs returning customers. Without that signal, the smart bidding system cannot learn properly and the acquisition cost improvements Google cites will not materialise.

Setup checklist

Work through this before switching prospects mode on.

Customer Match

• [ ] Upload a current customer list (exported in the last 30 days)
• [ ] Include email, phone, and postal address where available. More match fields, better match rate.
• [ ] Minimum 1,000 matched users for the list to be active in the auction

Conversion tagging

• [ ] Confirm your purchase tag fires on the confirmation/thank-you page
• [ ] Enable the “new customer” parameter in your Google tag (new_customer: true)
• [ ] Verify in GA4 or Tag Assistant that the parameter is passing correctly

Campaign settings

• [ ] In PMax campaign settings, open “Customer acquisition”
• [ ] Select “New prospects mode” (if available in your account)
• [ ] Set your new customer acquisition value (start at 1.5x to 2x AOV)
• [ ] Confirm your Customer Match list is linked to the campaign

Ongoing

• [ ] Refresh Customer Match list monthly or set up automated uploads via the API
• [ ] Monitor new-vs-returning split in the Insights tab weekly for the first 4 weeks
• [ ] Compare CAC and new customer volume against your pre-mode baseline

FAQ

What is Google Ads prospects mode?

Prospects mode is a new customer acquisition setting in Google Ads, currently in global beta for Performance Max campaigns. It automatically excludes users who have previously purchased from you, searched for your brand, visited your site, or engaged with your ads, so your budget reaches only cold, brand-unaware audiences.

How is prospects mode different from new customers only mode?

New customers only mode excludes people who have previously purchased. Prospects mode goes further and also excludes brand searchers, site visitors, and anyone who has engaged with your content or ads on Google or YouTube. The exclusion layer is wider.

Does prospects mode work for all campaign types?

As of May 2026, prospects mode is in beta for Performance Max only. New Customer Only mode and Value mode are generally available across Search, Shopping, and Demand Gen campaigns.

What first-party data do I need for prospects mode to work properly?

You need a current Customer Match list (refreshed at least monthly) and a purchase conversion tag with the new_customer parameter enabled. Without both, the automated exclusions are unreliable and you will not see the cost improvements Google reports.

What acquisition cost improvements can I expect?

Google’s data shows New Customer Only mode improves new customer ratio by 11.5% with a 3% reduction in acquisition cost. Prospects mode is in beta so verified benchmarks are not yet published. Value mode at 2x AOV has shown 9% ROAS improvement in Google’s testing. Results will vary based on your data quality, category, and baseline customer mix.

Work with Bizi Digital

If you want help setting up new customer acquisition modes properly, auditing your Customer Match lists, or restructuring PMax for actual growth rather than recycled spend, get in touch. We work with e-commerce and lead gen brands running Google Ads at scale.

Last updated: 2026-05-21

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