Daily Marketing News, October 23, 2026: Google Ads now multiplies the value of new customers
On October 22, 2026, Google Ads gave stores a multiplier of up to 5x on the value of a new customer, and that is the day's most money-relevant story heading into the holiday season. Next to it, a $25 billion penalty for Meta in the US and a regulator in India going after a sponsored Instagram Reel. Plus 2 tests in Google Search that affect Shopping ads and business panels.
Story of the day: Google Ads lets you value a new customer up to 5 times higher than a regular one
On October 22, 2026, Google Ads released 3 updates to customer lifecycle goals. These are bidding settings that let Google's automation value a purchase from a new or returning buyer higher than a regular one. Before, you could only add a fixed amount to the value of such a purchase, for example $20. Now there are percentage multipliers: at 5x, a $100 purchase from a new customer counts as $500 for bidding, and the lowest multiplier, 1.1x, adds 10%. The changes were announced by AdsLiaison, the account of Ginny Marvin, Google's ads product liaison, in a thread of 3 posts on X.
The first update concerns New Customer High Value Mode. It doesn't just look for new buyers, it looks for the ones who will bring in more money. Until October 22, the mode worked in Search campaigns and in Performance Max, Google's automated campaigns that spread impressions across all of its placements on their own. Now it's being extended to Shopping, the campaigns with product listings in search. Percentage multipliers roll out in October 2026 in Search, Shopping, Performance Max and Demand Gen, and are available in 2 interfaces: Google Ads itself and SA360, Google's platform for agencies and large advertisers.
The second update concerns retention goals, which now have 3 modes. Re-engagement Mode prioritizes people who haven't bought in a while while still showing ads to your core audience. Loyalty Mode works with loyalty program members: you can show them separate ad copy or members-only prices. Retention Only Mode runs campaigns exclusively to defined segments of existing customers, and that kind of campaign doesn't look for new people.
Everything depends on segments. They're usually built from Customer Match, your customer lists uploaded to Google Ads (emails and phone numbers), or from remarketing lists, meaning people who have already visited your site. If no segments are set, Google decides on its own who counts as a returning customer and treats anyone who bought within the last 540 days as one. There's a caveat Search Engine Land spotted: all of Google's multiplier examples are about acquiring new customers, and there are no examples for retention.
For an online store the point is simple. Before the holidays you can raise bids on new buyers with big baskets and on returning customers without switching off ads for everyone else. The risk is just as clear: a 5x multiplier means the automation will be willing to pay many times more for that customer, and whether they're really worth 5 times more is something you'll have to check against your own revenue. I'd start at 1.2x and watch what happens to cost per purchase after 1 to 2 weeks.
More news, October 23, 2026
This is about the Sponsored Products block, the ad listings for products in Google Search, which pull their data from the Merchant Center feed, the file with a store's products. Merchant Center is Google's interface where stores upload their products for ads and free listings. Before the test, a listing showed a photo, title, price and store. In the test version, the block expands dynamically and attributes appear at the bottom of the ad on a gray background: size, material, color. Google hasn't given a launch date or the share of users in the test. The takeaway for stores is practical: filled-in attributes in your feed can go straight into the ad listing and set your product apart from the ones next to it. Empty size, material and color fields are better filled in before the test becomes the norm.
This panel is called the local knowledge panel, and its data comes from Google Business Profile, the free business profile in Google Search and Maps. Until now, on desktop, photos came first, with the name, rating, description and action button below. In the test these blocks swap places: the name, rating, description and button move above the photos. It's a small change that brings the panel closer to the current mobile search design. For a cafe, salon or service business, it means the rating and the call or directions button will catch the eye first, and photos will take a back seat. It's worth checking that your profile description is to the point, because people will now see it before the pictures.
YouTube Culture and Trends is YouTube's regular report on video trends and viewer behavior, and the AI research was commissioned by the platform itself. "Inserting themselves" means the creator appearing on screen through AI: an avatar, generated scenes featuring them, a digital double instead of filming. If most surveyed creators want this, videos with an AI version of the host will become ordinary, and standing out with them will be hard. For anyone growing a channel, the simple takeaway is that a real face, your own voice and a recognizable style are starting to be worth more than before. AI is best kept for routine work, not for the things that make the channel yours.
The case grew out of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, involving a consulting firm that in the 2010s obtained data on millions of Facebook users and used it for political advertising, and out of Facebook's statements about how it handles data. It's one of the largest monetary penalties in US history. On October 22, 2026, the case was covered by the Indian trade publication Storyboard18. For advertisers this isn't some abstract court case: targeting and measurement in Meta ads rely precisely on user data. The more pressure the company faces on this issue, the higher the chance that targeting and data collection settings will keep getting cut back, so your own customer lists and on-site analytics become your insurance.
Adfury released an AI tool for brands on Walmart, the largest US retail chain with its own marketplace: it generates interactive blocks for the lower part of a product page, designs listings and syncs brand assets across ad placements. Wondershare, a developer of video and graphics software, launched a similar tool for product listings: it creates 3D product views, generates interactive blocks and updates brand storefronts. TransUnion, the credit bureau, introduced Transaction Matching: the service links digital purchase logs to real buyers, verifies the profile at checkout and flags suspicious purchases. Prices and terms weren't disclosed. For marketplace sellers the trend is clear: listing design is increasingly moving to automatic generation.
MIPCOM is an annual international market where studios and platforms buy and sell TV content. According to Papirowski, Hollywood studios spent 10 years using TikTok to promote finished films and series, and now he wants creators to get involved earlier, when studios are still deciding what to make. At the same time, TikTok itself co-produces series for its microdrama app, short vertical series with episodes of 1 or 2 minutes, so it both buys content and hosts it. For creators with a large TikTok audience, this is a new kind of work: not promoting a finished film, but taking part in it at the idea stage.
FSSAI is India's government agency for food safety and standards. It asked Complan and Nestlé for scientific evidence behind their claims about growth, immunity and digestibility, and also sent notices over an Instagram Reel that recommended infant formula. The story was reported by BestMediaInfo, a trade publication covering advertising and media in India. Previously, scrutiny fell mainly on the brands' own ads; now the regulator is also looking at integrations in short videos. Creators who take sponsorships in sensitive categories like baby food, medicine and supplements should ask the brand to back up every claim before posting, because the person who published the video can also be held responsible.
What to do about it: for stores, advertisers and creators
- If you run Shopping or Performance Max for a store, check before the holidays whether your customer lists are uploaded to Customer Match and your remarketing lists are built. Without segments, retention modes rely only on Google's automatic detection with its 540 day window.
- Start the new customer value multiplier at 1.2x, not 5x, and after 1 to 2 weeks compare cost per purchase and revenue with what you had before turning it on.
- Fill in size, material and color for every product in your Merchant Center feed: Google is testing showing these attributes right inside Sponsored Products ad listings.
- Creators: before publishing a sponsored video in baby food, medicine or supplements, get written proof from the brand for every claim in it, since regulators like FSSAI are now looking at short video integrations too.
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