New Customer Acquisition: An Essential KPI for Performance Marketing

For brands leveraging performance marketing, success hinges on one key factor: consistently acquiring new customers. While nurturing existing audiences is valuable, your long-term growth will inevitably stall if you’re not actively bringing fresh prospects into the fold. 

That’s why new customer acquisition isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a must-have KPI for every brand that’s serious about growth.

Over-Leveraging MBOF Audiences: A Growth Killer

When brands overly focus their website visitors and repeat customer segments, they risk depleting their core customer base without refreshing the pipeline. You’ll see your audience engagement flatline, costs per acquisition creep up, and your growth come to a grinding halt.

 To avoid this, a balanced strategy that prioritises new customer acquisition is essential. If you want to keep the momentum going, attracting fresh prospects should be top of your agenda.

Here is an example of an 8-figure e-commerce brand where we discovered this exact thing:

8 Proven Strategies to Drive New Customer Acquisition

Here’s how you can build a strategy that brings in new customers and keeps your business on an upward trajectory.

1. Make Sure a minimum of 60% of Your Budget is Focused on New Customers

To push for growth, allocate at least 60% of your paid ad spend to top-of-funnel (TOF) campaigns. These campaigns are all about casting a wide net and bringing new users to your site, giving your middle-of-funnel (MOF) and bottom-of-funnel (BOF) efforts more room to convert those fresh users into loyal customers.

2. Use Audience Exclusions to Sharpen Your Targeting

Audience exclusions are your best friend when it comes to ensuring your funnel performs as expected. By excluding past purchasers or highly engaged users, you’ll ensure that your TOF ads are being shown to the right audience—new prospects. Keep your budget working hard for you by refining your targeting and avoiding wasted ad spend.

3. Let Retention Channels Handle Repeat Orders

There’s no need to use your ad budget to keep chasing the same customers. Leverage retention channels like email, SMS, and loyalty programs to keep your existing customers coming back. These channels can handle the bulk of your retention efforts at a fraction of the cost, leaving your paid ads free to focus on acquisition. 

There is absolutely a place in your paid ads funnel to target your repeat customers, but ensure you don’t go over 10% of the total paid ads budget. 

4. Focus BOF Campaigns on Cross-Sells and Promotions

For BOF campaigns, it’s not just about getting customers to buy again—think about how you can increase the lifetime value (LTV) of your existing customers through cross-sells and promotions. 

Use this as a space to introduce complementary products or exclusive offers while keeping your broader acquisition strategy laser-focused on new leads.

5. Don’t Let Branded Traffic Hog Your Google Ads Budget

Campaigns targeting branded search traffic within Google Ads often deliver easy in-platform wins, but overspending on branded traffic can starve your efforts to capture new customers. 

Make sure you’re not letting branded terms hog your Google Ads budget. Instead, focus on non-branded keywords and channels to engage new prospects who haven’t yet discovered your brand.

6. Exclude Branded Traffic in Performance Max Campaigns

Google’s Performance Max campaigns are a powerhouse for acquisition, but only if you use them wisely. Be sure to exclude branded traffic to prevent overlap with your branded search campaigns. This ensures your Performance Max campaigns are doing what they do best—pulling in new customers by casting a wide net across multiple channels.

Use a standard shopping campaign for brand capture which will help reduce click costs and create clear segmentation between brand and non-brand performance. 

7. Diversify Your Channels to Broaden Your Reach

Don’t rely on a single channel for new customer acquisition. Experiment with new platforms like TikTok, Pinterest, or even influencer marketing to reach fresh audiences and build awareness for your brand. Expanding into untapped markets will give you the opportunity to reach potential customers who would never have found you otherwise.

8. Promote the Right Products to New Customers

Not all products are created equal when it comes to new customer acquisition. Some products are more likely to attract first-time buyers due to their universal appeal, competitive price point, or ease of use. 

Focus your acquisition efforts on products that are known to resonate with new customers—those that are entry-level, easy to understand, or provide a quick win with strong AOVs and marigns. 

These “gateway” products can help convert new customers faster, building trust and encouraging them to explore the rest of your offerings over time.

Focus on Business-Level Metrics, Not Just Ad Platform Performance

It’s easy to get caught up in ad platform metrics, but this is where the problem lies. 

By over-targeting MBOF audiences, you’ll see strong platform performance—CTR, ROAS, CPA and other in-platform KPIs might look great. But these metrics don’t always translate into long-term business growth. 

Instead, you should be tracking business-level metrics like Acquisition Customer Acquisition Cost (aCAC) or Acquisition Marketing Efficiency Ratio (aMER).

These metrics provide a clear picture of how effectively you’re driving new customer acquisition and overall business growth, ensuring you’re focusing on the right behaviours that lead to sustained success.

Balance New Customer Acquisition with Retention for Long-Term Growth

New customer acquisition should always be a core KPI, but that doesn’t mean you ignore retention. In performance marketing, it’s about balance. 

Let your retention channels handle the heavy lifting when it comes to engaging your existing customers, while your paid ad strategy should focus on consistently bringing in new customers. With a balanced approach, your brand will be set up for long-term, scalable growth.