Google has added customer retention and acquisition settings to Performance Max campaigns:

Customer Acquisition Feature:

• Located in campaign settings
• Option to "Only bid for new customers"
• Requires providing your customer email list (can be synchronized with platforms like Klaviyo)

Verification Process: To check if the setting is working:

1. Go to "Segment" → "Conversions" → "New versus returning customers"
2. You may notice that even with "new customers only" selected, returning customers still convert (the feature isn't foolproof)
3. For more accurate data, check platform analytics (e.g., Shopify marketing campaigns report)

Alternative Approach: Rather than relying solely on Google's customer acquisition setting, focus on excluding brand searches from your Performance Max campaigns. This naturally results in reaching mostly new customers without limiting potential reach.

Note the acquisition/retention feature can be "somewhat of a smoke screen" and may not work perfectly, so combining it with brand exclusion strategies is recommended.

Google provides valuable insights into asset performance within Performance Max campaigns:

To access performance data:

1. Select your Performance Max campaign
2. Go to "Asset groups"
3. View the "Summary" tab for performance overviews
4. Switch to "Table" view for detailed asset group performance

Available Performance Views:

• Assets tab: Shows individual asset performance with ratings (Best, Pass, or Low)
• Combinations tab: Reveals how assets perform together across different networks (Search, Discovery, YouTube)