When & How To Use Demand Gen Campaign? (2025 Google Updates)
We’ve talked about Performance Max Campaigns and their advantages. Now, we will share more about another campaign type called Demand Generation, or Demand Gen for short, (not to be confused with Display or Search). Demand Gen campaigns serve immersive image, video, and carousel assets on YouTube, Gmail, and Discover, and will soon have the option to serve on Google Video Partners.
According to Google, this campaign type is ideal for those who want to serve visually appealing, multi-format ads on Google’s most impactful surfaces. This campaign typically attracts customers in the awareness and consideration funnel, but for D4S, we’ve also seen it be a great converter as well. In this blog post, the Digital4Startups team will explain when to use a Demand Gen campaign and how to use it to your advantage.
What do you need to know before starting a Demand Gen campaign?
Before starting a Demand Gen campaign, you should always first consider the goal of your campaign. Ask yourself how you might want to build brand awareness or generate leads and at the same time you want to know what audience you’re targeting.
If your ideal target is going to find you on Google-owned properties like YouTube, Gmail, and Google Discover feed, Demand Gen is a great campaign. Unlike most Google Ads campaigns, Demand Gen ads are not displayed on the search engine results page (SERP) or within the Google Display Network.
According to Reva Minkoff, founder and president of D4S, Demand Gen is Google’s “social” campaign, “It’s best practice to try to reach users browsing for some other information or looking for a story, and it’s trying to be more like Meta, Instagram, X, and TikTok.” Unlike PMax, Demand Gen allows for more control over audience selection and ad placements and isn’t fully automated.
Why choose Demand Gen over other campaign types? What are the advantages of using a Demand Gen campaign (any specifics)
The advantage of using a Demand Gen campaign is generating interest and consideration at the top and middle of the funnel. These campaign types are specifically designed to reach your target audience before they would even think to actively search for your brand or service.
This campaign is also the only type in which you can run a carousel asset, which is a selection of static images potential customers can scroll through. According to Google, a Demand Gen campaign can reach up to three billion monthly active users as they scroll through Google’s Gmail and Discover feeds and YouTube.
Plus YouTube now includes YouTube Shorts which according to Google, averages over 50 billion daily views. Across Demand Gen campaigns, one in three consumers purchase something that they were not originally shopping for because the Demand Gen ads showed on Google’s feed.
Google also has found that more than 50% of consumers discover new products or brands on Google, and among those, 91% took action immediately. According to Minkoff, D4S has also seen a lot of success with Demand Gen campaigns accordingly.
“D4S has been running campaigns on Demand Gen since it was first introduced as Discovery several years ago. We’ve seen a lot of success on Demand Gen by using carousel ads, for example, which were a part of the original format. While Google talks about Demand Gen as being middle and high funnel, we have seen it convert very well and be one of the most efficient CPA channels in our arsenal.”
How to drive results with Demand Gen?
According to Google, Demand Gen campaigns allow you to optimize for website traffic, convert high-value users, and bid against efficient metrics, which can help you drive results. “With the right audience set up and ad assets, Demand Gen is set up to convert users from some pretty unique placements if the advertiser can get their attention as the person browses.
And it’s a great way to tell a story in one ad placement,” Minkoff said. In a Demand Gen campaign, you can use audience-first tailored ad experiences that drive demand, including lookalike segments. Lookalike segments can help you reach new and quality audiences outside of your existing customer base. Demand Gen also allows for A/B experiments to test different image and video creatives in a campaign. This is useful because you can find out which of your assets perform better for your ideal target audience.
What is being updated with Demand Gen & How will it affect your business?
In March 2025, the option to create new Video Action Campaigns will be removed from Google Ads, and existing Video Action Campaigns will begin to be upgraded to Demand Gen campaigns automatically.
This has come about as on average, Google has found Demand Gen campaigns see similar conversions to their Video Action campaigns (VAC) at a similar cost per action. Therefore, by adopting a multi-format strategy, you’ll drive even better performance. According to Google, those who uploaded video and image assets to Demand Gen also saw 20% more conversions at the same cost per action than those who uploaded video assets only.
That’s why it’s best practice to start experimenting with Demand Gen well ahead of the auto-migration, which will start in Q2 2025. Additionally, a new copy-and-paste tool will be available in the coming months that will duplicate your VAC settings into new Demand Gen campaigns.
Conclusion
If you’re thinking about starting a Demand Gen campaign, it’s a great option if you are seeking to enhance brand visibility and engagement through a creative, multi-format approach. With the ability to deploy engaging visual assets across high-traffic platforms like YouTube, Gmail, and Discover, these campaigns are designed to capture audience interest at the earliest stages of their journey.
As the transition from Video Action Campaigns to Demand Gen takes effect in March 2025, switching early to Demand Gen will help you maximize your campaign performance and drive superior results. If you have any questions about Google Ads or want to schedule a consultation, please email info@digital4startups.com.