Google Ads is rolling out a new customer acquisition option called "Report on new customers acquired", described in-product as letting advertisers "Drive purchases from new and existing customers without changing bidding." The setting was spotted by Vasant Chaudhary and posted publicly by Thomas Eccel on LinkedIn, who credited Chaudhary. Search Engine Roundtable reported it on 7 August 2026. Google has not published a separate announcement or a rollout timetable.
The 0.01 workaround it replaces
Until now, an advertiser who wanted a new-versus-existing customer split in reporting, without altering how the campaign bid, had one route: select "Bid higher for new customers" and set the value to 0.01. The bid modifier was small enough to be meaningless and large enough to unlock the reporting columns.
Eccel's summary of that arrangement was blunt. "Technically it changed bidding. Practically it changed nothing," he wrote, adding that everyone not using a third-party tool with a native new-versus-existing split had to use it. So a measurement question was answered by editing a bidding setting, which is the kind of thing that survives in an ad platform for years because it works well enough that nobody escalates it.
What the new setting gives advertisers
According to Eccel, "Report on new customers acquired = just measurement, no bidding algo impact. You get the New customers and New customer value columns. This is new new and will replace the 0.01 workaround."
Two columns, no algorithmic side effects. For accounts running Google Ads campaigns on a tuned Smart Bidding strategy, the appeal is that the reporting question stops touching the bidding configuration at all. Anyone auditing an account and finding a 0.01 new-customer value sitting in the settings now has a cleaner replacement to point at, and a reason to check whether that value was ever deliberate.
What Google has not said
Quite a lot, as it happens. There is no Google blog post, no help centre entry cited in the report, and no rollout timetable. The setting was found in the interface rather than announced, which usually means visibility varies by account while the rollout progresses. Search Engine Roundtable's write-up is the record of it, published at Search Engine Roundtable.
The three ways to get a new-customer split
The table below compares the options as described in the source, including the workaround the new setting is expected to retire.
| Option | Effect on bidding | Reporting output |
|---|---|---|
| "Bid higher for new customers" set to 0.01 | Technically changed bidding, practically nothing, per Eccel | New versus existing customer split |
| "Report on new customers acquired" (new) | No bidding algorithm impact | New customers and New customer value columns |
| Third-party tool with a native split | None, the split sits outside Google Ads | New versus existing split from the vendor |
What this means for Thai marketers
The source says nothing about Thailand or about regional availability, so what follows is a reading of the change rather than a country claim.
Thai e-commerce accounts with a strong repeat-purchase base carry a familiar reporting problem: a healthy blended ROAS that is partly returning buyers finding the brand again through paid search. Without a clean new-versus-existing split, that number reads as acquisition performance when some of it is repeat revenue being re-bought. A measurement-only setting makes the split visible without the risk that a bid modifier, however small, nudges a Smart Bidding strategy that took weeks to settle.
- Check whether the account currently has "Bid higher for new customers" set to 0.01, and note it before changing anything.
- Decide in advance what the New customer value column will be used for, because a split you do not act on is just another column.
- Teams running e-commerce marketing with subscription or refill products will see the widest gap between blended and new-customer performance.
- Pair the Google Ads view with your GA4 measurement setup so new-customer definitions across platforms do not quietly disagree.
FAQ
Does this change my bidding strategy?
No. Eccel described the setting as measurement only with no bidding algorithm impact, which is the entire reason it exists. The older method, "Bid higher for new customers" at 0.01, did technically alter bidding.
What happens to the 0.01 workaround?
Eccel said the new setting will replace it. The source does not say whether Google will remove the 0.01 approach, migrate existing accounts automatically, or simply leave it in place alongside the new option.
When is it rolling out, and is it in my account?
The source does not say. Google published no announcement and no rollout timetable, and the setting was found in-product rather than communicated, so availability may differ between accounts.
Is it available in Thailand?
The source does not say. No regional availability information was published, so the only reliable check is whether the option appears in your own account's customer acquisition settings.
What columns does it add?
Two: New customers and New customer value, according to Eccel's description of the setting.
Where to take this next
If an account has been reporting on new customers through a 0.01 bid modifier, this is the moment to look at the setting and decide whether the reporting it produced was ever used for a decision. A clean acquisition split is only worth having if someone acts on the difference between winning a new buyer and re-buying an existing one.
