Google’s latest Demand Gen upgrade has shaken up the digital advertising landscape. It comes with new features that will bring your campaign to the next level on YouTube, Discover, and Gmail. For all marketers, knowing these efficient features to connect with high-intent audiences has become no longer an option but an essential thing. So keep reading this blog to be informed about the Google Demand Gen changes and how you can optimize your Demand Gen campaigns properly.
What Are Demand Gen Campaigns?
Demand Gen campaigns, previously known as Discovery campaigns, allow advertisers to display ads on various Google platforms, including YouTube Shorts, YouTube In-Stream and In-Feed, Discovery feeds, Gmail, and Google Video partners.
Here, Google gives you different types of options in ads to choose from. You can select the ideal ad format based on your goal, whether you want to sell a product online or want to get leads.
For E-commerce (Online Shopping)
- Image + Product Ads
- Video + Product Ads
- Products-Only Ads
This ad format showcases your product in an amazing visual format so that potential viewers can think about buying.
For Lead Generation
- Single image ads
- Video ads
- Carousel image ads
These formats are mainly perfect if you want that viewer to sign up, download something, or show interest in your services.
You can also read: Facebook Ads vs. Google Ads
Major Changes of Demand Gen
- Google is continually bringing changes in demand generation to enhance the user experience. Here are some of the latest upgrades:
- You can get more control over ad placement on YouTube, Gmail, and Discover.
- The vertical 9:16 video ads format is available, mainly designed for YouTube Shorts.
- Strengthens online sales and in-store visits with omnichannel optimization.
How to Start with Demand Gen Campaigns
Google’s new tools for demand gen campaigns are designed to increase the success rate of your campaign. So, let us look at two powerful approaches for efficiently running the ads.
Remarketing
Remarketing means targeting those people who have already interacted with your website/app prior but did not take any action. Here, you boost them to perform actions such as facilitating purchases.
Tips for Remarketing Success
- Start simple: Start setting up with only one simple marketing campaign. Target the users who visited your site in the last 1 to 3 months.
- Keep remarketing and prospecting separate: Both remarketing and prospecting have different behaviors and require different planning, so try not to put them together.
- Divide smartly: Segment the audiences by their behavior, like cart abandoners and window shoppers need different messages.
- Combine with display ads: Expand your reach effectively by adding demand gen with your existing running display ads.
- Prospecting: Prospecting means targeting those people who have not interacted with your brand before but they may have an interest in your products or services.
Tips for Prospecting Success
- Use what worked before: Get insights from your past run campaign and apply well-working strategies in the upcoming campaign.
- Study your data: Analyze the data of all your campaigns to find the audiences that show high interest or mostly show the conversation intent easily.
- Begin with general, then focus on specifics: Start by targeting a wide range of audiences. After that, step by step, narrow down them based on performance.
- Prove your success: Use tools such as multi-touch attribution or brand lift studies to learn more about the data behind how prospecting leads to conversions.
Transitioning from VACs to Demand Gen
By July 2025, Google will naturally convert all video action campaigns into demand gens. So, prepare with these strategies:
- Build video-only demand gen campaigns: Follow this strategy if you want more command over YouTube ad placements.
- Use mixed media: If you are not more specific to YouTube ads only, then combine image and video ads for maximum reach.
Best Practices to Run Successful Demand Gen Campaigns
Once you know the basics of demand gen campaigns, then implement these key strategies at the running time:
- Create a strategy around your business goals: Decide on the primary objective to run your campaign. Whether you want to focus on e-commerce or lead generation, design the strategy suitably.
- Utilize product feeds in online sales: Product feeds can improve ad relevance and contribute to increasing conversations, so display the product pictures parallel with traditional ads.
- Switch to prospecting if remarketing does not work: In demand gen, sometimes prospecting delivers better results than remarketing. So, it is advisable to switch a procedure if one does not work in your favor.
- Spend time on the campaign: Give enough time after launching the demand gen campaign because it takes time for algorithm optimization.
- Using video ads: Leverage YouTube Shorts and In-Stream ads to attract the mobile audience.
- Evaluating campaign success: Use different indicators like engagement rate, video views & watch time, searches after watching your ads, and geo-testing to measure the success of a campaign.
Conclusion
Google’s demand gen campaigns launch a new chapter of advertising with some major improvements. This feature is a perfect blend of creativity and precision that can help you create ads of different formats based on your marketing goal. With this, you can get the power to convert impressions into desirable actions. It builds a strong brand presence across platforms like YouTube, Gmail, and Discover and creates a lasting impression.
So, turn clicks into loyal customers by making Thanksweb your trusted partner in running campaigns and accelerating your sales pipeline.
FAQ for Google Demand Gen
Q. Where can we see the demand gen ads?
Ans. You can see the demand gen ads on platforms like YouTube, Google’s Discovery Feed, and Gmail.
Q. Can I need a large budget to run a demand gen campaign?
Ans. While it is not necessary to add a large budget for running a demand gen campaign. You can also run it with a limited budget by making a meaningful strategy and doing focused targeting. This will help you in bringing the best leads from the campaign.
Q. How to identify a specific audience for any campaign?
Ans. To identify a specific audience for your campaign, you should conduct market research and analyze competitor strategies. Plus, focus on understanding their demographics, interests, online behavior, and pain points to run an effective campaign.
Q. Will Google voluntarily convert my VAC campaigns to Demand Gen?
Ans. Yes, before the end of July 2025, Google will automatically upgrade all Video Action Campaigns (VACs) to demand gen. The choice to generate new VACs has already been removed by Google in April 2025.
Q. How can I track the conversion rate in demand gen ads?
Ans. You can track conversation rates in demand gen ads by setting up conversion tracking in your Google Ads account. For this, you have to create conversion actions and install a Google tag. After that, you can see conversion-related data in your Google Ads account.