Ep 534: Google’s 90% “New Customer” Illusion: How To See What Your Ads Are Really Doing | AKNF

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupIf Google Ads tells you 90% of your conversions are from new customers—you’re probably being misled.In this episode, Eric sits down with Pilothouse’s Dougie, who exposes one of the biggest attribution errors in digital marketing: Google’s cookie‑based misreporting that makes you believe you’re crushing new customer acquisition when you're actually…not.This episode is a must‑listen if you're spending on Google Ads and think you're scaling. You may just be paying full price to reacquire your own customers.What we expose in this episode:Why Google thinks nearly everyone is a new customer—and why that’s falseHow cookie-based tracking is sabotaging your incrementalityWhy server‑side tracking (via Elevar) is the fix—and how to set it upThe real cost of bad data: wasted CAC, poor ROAS, and misaligned goalsHow to audit your own account to uncover the truthIf you're not feeding the right data to Google, you're training the algorithm to do the wrong thing. This is the fix—revealed.Timestamps:00:00 – Why Google's new customer data is misleading02:00 – The impact of server-side tracking on attribution04:00 – How Google misidentifies returning customers as new06:00 – Training the Google Ads algorithm with quality data08:00 – Using Elevar for accurate net new conversion tracking10:00 – Aligning campaign goals with business outcomes12:00 – Auditing new vs returning customer data14:00 – LTV, cookie policies, and the future of tracking16:00 – Why server-side tracking improves data fidelity18:00 – The rise of AI summaries and their SEO impact20:00 – Optimizing for ChatGPT and the future of AI searchHashtags:#GoogleAds #CustomerAcquisition #ConversionTracking #ServerSideTracking #Elevar #DigitalMarketing #DTCMarketing #PerformanceMarketing #AIsearch #EcommerceGrowth Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupAdvertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertiseWork with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouseFollow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletterWatch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video