How to Get New Customers With Google Ads in 2026

Your Google Ads account is probably broken. Not because your ads are bad, but because you're advertising to people who already know you exist.

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That should never be your main focus, because new customer acquisition is where the growth actually is. At Echelonn, we manage more than $15 million a month in ad spend. Below is exactly how we structure Google Ads to acquire new customers profitably, so it becomes a genuine acquisition channel instead of a channel that just quietly collects credit for sales you were always going to make.

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Watch the full framework breakdown:

Why High ROAS Doesn't Always Mean Customer Growth

Here's the problem with most Google Ads accounts: retargeting and branded campaigns are easy wins. Low cost per click, high conversion rates. Google loves them because they perform well on paper, so the account gets addicted to easy traffic. Prospecting campaigns barely spend, because Google's algorithm keeps pushing budget towards whatever converts the cheapest.

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This is especially true with Performance Max. PMax automatically seeks the cheapest conversions, which are almost always branded searches. Without a proper brand exclusion in place, it will take the easy route every time, which means you're advertising to the same circle of people on the internet who already know your brand.

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We saw this play out on an account we took over. Overall, the account was sitting on a 7.52 ROAS, and one specific campaign was running at 6.28. Across the board, that looks great. But once you open Insights and Reports and pull the search terms report, you see what's actually happening at a search term level. It was almost entirely branded. Sort that report by cost, and the branded terms are the ones carrying huge ROAS numbers, skewing the blended figure for the entire campaign.

‍“A blended ROAS number tells you nothing about where the credit is actually coming from. Until you break a campaign's search terms report down by branded versus non-branded spend, you don't know if you're acquiring new customers or just getting billed for people who were going to buy anyway.”

What Inflated ROAS Actually Costs You

That blended number isn't just misleading, it's also expensive. Three things happen when branded traffic hides inside a prospecting campaign:

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1. It inflates your prospecting metrics. You end up thinking the account is doing great with new customer acquisition when it isn't. You're paying premium PMax rates for people who were already going to buy, often at three to ten times the cost per click you should be paying for branded traffic.
2. It drives branded CPCs up. When branded searches get picked up by campaigns built for prospecting, Google applies the aggressive bidding strategy meant for non-branded traffic to a cheap branded click. We've seen branded CPCs sitting at $6 plus, sometimes $10, when they should be sitting at $0.30 to $0.40.
3. It prevents you from scaling. You can't see real prospecting performance data, so every decision you make about budget and bids is based on numbers that don't reflect what's actually driving new customers to the business.

The Prospecting Stack: How We Structure Google Ads for New Customer Growth

Once we identified that problem on the account above, we rebuilt the structure around what we call the Prospecting Stack. It's the framework we use for every client: multiple campaign types working together to find new customers, organised in a specific structure. Each layer reaches people in a different mindset, at a different point in the buying journey. Together, they create a stack where new customers can find you no matter how they're searching or browsing.

Layer 1: Shopping and PMax Prospecting

If you sell physical products online, Shopping will likely drive most of your Google Ads revenue. Performance Max builds on the same product feed from Google Merchant Center, but serves ads across Google's entire inventory, from Search to YouTube and Maps. That's why keeping your Merchant Center feed in good shape is so important.

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The problem is that PMax, left on its default settings, takes the path of least resistance. It prioritises the cheapest conversions, which are often branded searches. Without proper brand exclusions, it ends up taking credit for those conversions instead of finding new customers.

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PMax also doesn't capture every non-branded search. That's why we place a standard Shopping "wall" campaign between PMax and the brand campaign:

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• PMax prospecting handles most non-branded traffic.
• The Shopping wall campaign catches eligible non-branded searches PMax doesn't pick up.
• The brand campaign only serves genuine branded searches.

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Because both PMax and the wall campaign exclude brand terms, non-branded traffic never spills into your branded campaigns.

Layer 2: Search Prospecting and the Two Keyword Levels Most Brands Miss

Shopping captures people searching for products. Search prospecting reaches people earlier in the buying journey – when they're comparing options or researching a problem your product solves. For prospecting, we focus on two types of keywords.

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Solution-aware keywords come from people who know what they need but haven't chosen a brand yet. Searches like "best tasting protein powder" or "collagen supplements for skin" have strong purchase intent and are often some of the highest-converting non-branded keywords.

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Informational keywords target people who are still researching. Queries like "benefits of creatine" or "do grounding sheets actually work" usually have much lower CPCs because most competitors ignore them. While these users aren't ready to buy immediately, they're often open to the right educational content.

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That's where comparison pages and advertorial-style landing pages come in. Instead of sending someone straight to a product page, send them to content that answers their question or compares the available options. We've seen this approach reduce CPCs by almost three times while improving conversion rates because it builds trust before asking for the sale.

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The structure is simple: one landing page, one ad group, one keyword theme. Solution-aware keywords, informational content, and comparison pages should each have their own dedicated campaigns or ad groups. And just like Shopping, every prospecting campaign should exclude branded keywords using a shared negative keyword list.

Layer 3: Demand Generation: the Most Underused Prospecting Channel

Unlike Shopping and Search, Demand Generation reaches people before they actively start searching. It serves ads across YouTube, Discover and Gmail, making it one of the strongest Google Ads channels for finding new customers.

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If you're already seeing good results from Meta, Demand Gen is the closest Google equivalent. The mindset is the same: people are scrolling content, not searching for products, so your ads should educate or spark curiosity rather than push an immediate sale. We typically send this traffic to advertorial-style landing pages instead of standard product pages.

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One campaign we launched scaled from $0 to $500/day in just 30 days and became the second-best prospecting campaign by ROAS in an account with 22 active campaigns.

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A few setup principles matter:

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• Separate prospecting and retargeting into different Demand Gen campaigns.
• Leave Optimised Targeting on for prospecting, but turn it off for retargeting.
• Your budget should be at least twice your expected CPA. Start with Maximise Conversions, then move to Target CPA once the campaign has around 30 conversions per month.
• Test both image and video assets instead of assuming video will perform better.

What Order Should You Launch These Campaigns In?

Start with Shopping and PMax prospecting, using proper brand exclusions. That's the foundation, and it's where most eCommerce brands generate the majority of their revenue. Once you have enough conversion data to identify which landing pages perform best, add Search prospecting with solution-aware keywords, then expand into informational keywords and advertorial landing pages. From there, layer in Demand Gen.

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There's no universal budget split between these campaign types. Some brands see stronger results from YouTube because they already have high-quality video assets, while others get better performance from Discover with static creatives. Build the foundation first, then expand based on the assets and data you have.

‍“In Search campaigns, keywords tell Google when to show your ads. In Shopping campaigns, your product titles perform the same role. That's why keyword research should shape both your Search campaigns and your Merchant Centre feed.”

How Keyword Strategy Powers Your Google Ads Prospecting

Keywords don't just determine which Search ads appear. They also influence how Google matches your Shopping products to search queries through your Merchant Center feed.

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That means keyword research should shape both your Search campaigns and your product titles. Use your search terms reports to identify the queries that actually convert, then incorporate those keywords into your feed. Put the primary keyword first, as Google typically displays only around the first 70 characters of a product title. For prospecting campaigns, lead with the search term rather than your brand name.

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Product duplication takes this a step further. Instead of relying on a single product listing, create multiple versions of the same product with different keyword-focused titles. A creatine supplement, for example, could target searches such as "creatine monohydrate," "creatine for muscle growth," or "creatine for women." Each listing gives Google another opportunity to match your product to a relevant search.

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We used this approach, together with informational keyword targeting and branded campaign optimisation, on a supplement brand's hero product. Over 12 months, it contributed to $12.2 million in additional revenue and a 151% increase in new customer acquisition.

How to Do Keyword Research for New Customer Campaigns

Start by identifying solution-aware keywords (e.g. "protein powder for weight loss") alongside informational queries that people search before they're ready to buy. These keywords should shape both your Search campaigns and your Shopping feed.

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Structure each ad group around a single landing page and keyword theme, then review your search terms reports regularly. Add high-performing queries as keywords in Search and incorporate them into your product titles for Shopping. Remove irrelevant searches with negative keywords to keep prospecting focused.

What Audience Targeting Actually Does in Prospecting Campaigns

Keywords tell Google what people are searching for. Audiences help Google understand who those people are. How they're used depends on the campaign type: in Performance Max, audiences act as signals that guide Google's algorithm, while in Demand Gen they behave much more like traditional targeting, especially with Optimised Targeting turned off.

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The main audience types to use are:

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• Custom Segments – audiences you build from URLs your ideal customers visit (competitor sites, review sites, publications in your category) and search terms they use. This is generally the most powerful audience layer for prospecting.
• In-market Audiences – people Google has identified as actively researching products in your category.
• Affinity Audiences – broader groups based on long-term interests and lifestyle, useful for expanding reach at the top of the funnel.
• Customer Match – your existing customer list, which helps Google understand your ideal customers and lets you exclude them from prospecting campaigns.

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Don't overlook search themes in Performance Max. They're keyword-like signals that help Google understand which searches are most relevant to your products and work alongside audience signals to improve targeting.

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Two rules apply to every prospecting account:

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• Exclude existing customers and remarketing audiences from prospecting campaigns.
• Turn Optimised Targeting off for remarketing campaigns, otherwise Google will expand beyond your website visitors.

Final Takeaway: New Customer Growth Is a Structure Problem, Not a Budget Problem

Many Google Ads accounts aren't struggling because they don't spend enough. They're struggling because they're spending in the wrong places. When branded traffic, remarketing and prospecting are all mixed together, it's almost impossible to tell what's actually driving growth.

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Real new customer acquisition starts with the right structure. Separate prospecting from brand, build campaigns around search intent, and give each channel a clear role in the customer journey. Once you can see where new customers are really coming from, you can scale with confidence instead of guesswork.

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