How to force your ads to hunt for net-new buyers

AI-driven ad platforms operate like water: they will always find the path of least resistance.

When you launch a broad prospecting campaign, the algorithm quickly realises that serving ads to cold audiences is expensive. To maintain a high ROAS, the system quietly drifts toward your warm audiences. Before long, your acquisition budget becomes a wildly expensive retention channel.

Here are some steps to fix that:

Google PMax

1. Block active buyers using strict Data Exclusions

Until recently, adding a Customer Match list to PMax only acted as an audience signal (a suggestion), not a hard rule. But you can now tell Google to entirely block specific customer lists from seeing your PMax campaigns.

Go to your PMax campaign Settings, and look for "Your data exclusions" (under demographics). Upload a dynamic, segmented list of "Active Customers" or "Buyers in the last 90 days." If a customer is actively engaged in your email nurture flows, you should not pay Google to retarget them.

2. Assign artificial monetary value to net-new buyers

Selecting "Only bid for new customers" in Google often throttles campaign delivery because it removes too much low-hanging fruit for the AI to function. Instead, select "Bid higher for new customers."

You must then assign a clear monetary value to the first purchase. If a new customer adds an extra £30 to your lifetime value (LTV) compared to a returning customer, tell Google to add £30 of artificial value to that conversion. This forces the algorithm to prioritise harder, colder conversions without breaking its learning phase.

Meta Advantage+ Shopping

3. Force pure prospecting with a 0% Existing Customer Budget Cap

Meta's ASC intentionally merges prospecting and retargeting into a single budget, which makes the platform look fantastic on paper (high blended ROAS) but obscures your actual acquisition costs.

When setting up an ASC campaign, define your existing customers in your Ad Account Settings, and then set an "Existing Customer Budget Cap." If you want a campaign to act as a pure top-of-funnel prospector, set the cap to 0%. This explicitly tells Meta not to spend a single penny on anyone who has bought from you before.

4. Build a double-exclusion wall to catch invisible shoppers

Because ASC can be aggressive, media buyers build a double wall in standard Advantage+ sales campaigns.

Create a Custom Audience based on Pixel Purchase data (last 180 days) AND a Custom Audience of your entire CRM list, and exclude both of these lists manually.

The Pixel catches the impulse buyers who haven't made it to your CRM yet, and the CRM catches the buyers who are browsing on a new device where the Pixel doesn't recognise them.

Brace for the ROAS crash

When you build these walls, your campaign ROAS will drop. Do not panic. Your campaigns were not suddenly broken; they were finally forced to do the hard work of finding new people.

A blended ROAS of 4.0 that consists mostly of repeat buyers is far worse for your business growth than a strict prospecting ROAS of 1.5 that brings in 100% net-new customers.

If your EU packaging wasn't reviewed by today, you are exposed

If you sell into the EU, a massive new regulation went into effect today (August 12th, 2026), and it could cause major disruptions for your cross-border sales if you aren't prepared.

The EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) is officially live. This isn't just about the cardboard box your 3PL uses for delivery. It applies to the primary packaging your manufacturer supplies.

Here is what you need to know to avoid getting your listings pulled:

• The PFAS Ban: If you sell food-contact products, there is a strict new ban on PFAS chemicals (above 25ppb) in your packaging.
• The Paperwork: You now need a mandatory 'Declaration of Conformity' for every single packaging format you sell into the EU.
• The Marketplace Risk: The risk isn't just getting fined by regulators. Online marketplaces now carry a strict legal duty to verify seller compliance. If your documentation isn't ready, marketplaces can (and will) block your products.
  

How to fix it:

Reviewing this technical documentation is entirely the manufacturer's responsibility. If your packaging technical documentation hasn't been reviewed against PPWR, that's yours to close as the manufacturer, and it is worth doing before enforcement catches you out. Read Expandly's full breakdown of what the new PPWR law requires here.

Our partners at Expandly handle PPWR compliance, reviewing packaging documentation and helping with Declarations of Conformity, as part of standard EU market entry onboarding, alongside VAT and EPR compliance for over 2,000 brands. Get expert help now.

Talk to an expert.

Deep Dive MCR: Prompt to Profit

1st October 2026 | Manchester | 9AM - 3PM

AI is no longer just a tool for writing faster emails; it is an effective lever for protecting your margins.

On October 1st, we are hosting an intimate, highly collaborative workshop in Manchester designed specifically to help brands scale smarter. This is a hands-on, tactical day. We are capping the room at just 20 eCommerce brands. With breakfast and lunch, we will get straight to working on how to scale sustainably, from team structure and tech stacks to marketing efficiency and margin-first decision-making.

No massive crowds, no high-level theory. Just real operators solving complex operational bottlenecks. It is completely free for eCommerce brands to attend, but because of the collaborative format, seats are capped.

Register your interest.

In Other News…

UK Exporters Warned Over EU Pallet Rules as PPWR Takes Effect: By 2030, businesses using pallets, crates, and bulk containers within the EU will need to ensure at least 40% are reusable within a tracked system.

What this means for you: If you export to the EU, you need to urgently review your supply chain data to track exactly where your pallets and containers go, who is repairing them, and whether you can prove they operate within a genuine reuse system.

Google Explains Upcoming Smart Bidding Changes: Starting August 17th, bid targets (Target CPA and Target ROAS) will become the primary lever for controlling efficiency, meaning campaigns that have been consistently outperforming their set targets will begin optimising toward the actual target set in the campaign, rather than exceeding it.

What this means for you: Audit your campaign settings right now to ensure your bid targets actually reflect your current business goals before the August 17th rollout forces a change in your efficiency.