Google announced three updates to customer lifecycle goals in Google Ads on October 22, 2026, all rolling out this month. The changes give advertisers more ways to bid differently for new, high-value, lapsed and loyal customers across Search, Shopping and Performance Max, timed for holiday campaigns.

What’s new

  • New Customer High Value Mode reaches Shopping. It was already available in Search and Performance Max. It lets you bid harder for new customers likely to be worth more, without cutting your regular reach.
  • Retention goals are broadly available after beta. Google listed three modes for Performance Max, Search and Shopping: one for winning back lapsed customers, Loyalty Mode for reaching loyalty members with member pricing or messages, and Retention Only Mode, which limits a campaign to customer segments you specify.
  • Percentage multipliers leave beta. Bid boosts can now scale with cart value in place of a flat amount. Google’s example is a 20% boost. It works in Search, Shopping, Performance Max and Demand Gen, in Google Ads and Search Ads 360.

Who it affects

Mostly online stores and any business with a clean customer list. Google’s help page on customer lifecycle goals says most of these goals need at least one purchase conversion goal, and the customer segments come from your own first-party lists, usually uploaded through Customer Match. That help page still lists narrower campaign support for some modes than the announcement does, so check what your own account offers.

If your conversion tracking is patchy or your customer list lives in five spreadsheets, these settings won’t do much yet.

Our take

Before switching anything on, export your customers from your CRM or store platform in three groups: active buyers, lapsed buyers (pick a cutoff, such as no order in 180 days) and loyalty members, then upload them through Customer Match. For stores with very different cart sizes, percentage multipliers on new customers are the first thing we’d test. Make goal changes now so bidding has time to settle before Black Friday week.

Need help setting this up? Our PPC management team works with ecommerce brands on exactly this, and we can build the CRM sync that keeps your lists current.