What Is Demand Gen?
Google Ads Demand Gen campaigns represent a powerful way to reach new customers across YouTube, Discover, and Gmail. This campaign type is specifically designed for reaching cold audiences--people who probably do not know about your business yet but are actively consuming visual content across Google's premium inventory. Before making a purchase decision, more than 50% of users regularly watch videos on YouTube researching products and services, and 39% do so occasionally. According to Google's official blog, more than 90% of users trust the platform, making it a powerful tool to capture interest and encourage action.
Key differentiators from other Google Ads campaigns:
- Unique set of placements across YouTube Shorts, in-stream, feeds, Discover, and Gmail
- Combination of Shopping and Display campaign capabilities in a single campaign type
- Updated lookalike audience functionality with customizable reach settings for precise targeting
Demand Gen campaigns bridge the gap between awareness and consideration, allowing advertisers to showcase their products and services to users who are in discovery mode but haven't yet started actively searching for solutions. This makes them particularly valuable for businesses introducing new products, entering new markets, or looking to build brand awareness among targeted audience segments.
Where Demand Gen Ads Appear
Understanding the five key placement options helps you design creative assets that work effectively across each surface. Each placement serves a different purpose in the customer journey and reaches users in distinct contexts.
YouTube Shorts
Ads within short-form vertical videos that appear between creator content, reaching users engaged in quick, digestible content consumption
YouTube In-Stream
Ads that play before, during, or after other videos with skip and non-skip options, capturing users during their viewing sessions
YouTube Feed
Ads appearing in the main YouTube feed alongside organic content recommendations, integrated naturally into the browsing experience
Discover Feed
Ads shown in Google's discovery feed that aggregates content based on user interests, reaching people when they're exploring new topics
Gmail
Ads that appear in the Promotions and Social tabs, styled to look like emails and blend with the inbox experience
Creating Your First Demand Gen Campaign
The campaign creation workflow guides you through each decision point, from initial setup to final configuration. Understanding this flow ensures you make informed choices at every stage.
Step 1: Access Campaign Creation
To start, navigate to your Google Ads account and click "New Campaign" on the Review or Campaigns page. You'll be presented with goal selection options--you can choose from suggested goals or skip this step to create a campaign without a specific goal. For pure brand awareness and demand generation, skipping the goal selection often provides more flexibility in campaign configuration.
The goal selection screen provides templates based on common advertising objectives, but Demand Gen campaigns can support various business goals beyond these presets. Consider your primary objective--whether it's driving website visits, increasing app installations, or building brand awareness--when deciding whether to select a goal or proceed without one.
Start by clicking 'New Campaign' on your Google Ads dashboard
Select 'Creating demand' as your campaign type
Step 2: Select Campaign Type
Choose "Creating demand" as your campaign type from the available options. This selection unlocks the Demand Gen-specific features, including the full range of ad formats and placement options. After selecting the campaign type, click Next to proceed to campaign configuration.
The campaign type selection is a critical decision that determines which features and targeting options will be available. Selecting "Creating demand" provides access to the visual-first placements across YouTube, Discover, and Gmail, along with the audience targeting options specifically designed for reaching cold and warm audiences who are not actively searching for solutions.
Step 3: Campaign Name and Settings
Enter a descriptive campaign name that will help you identify it later. Consider using a naming convention that includes the campaign objective, audience, or time period for easy organization as your account grows. Google will prompt you to decide whether to include a product feed from Google Merchant Center. This decision matters--once made, it cannot be changed later without creating a new campaign. Select "Yes" if you're a retailer wanting to display product cards, or "No" for standard image, video, or carousel ads.
The campaign name appears in all reporting and analysis views, so choose something that will remain meaningful as you add more campaigns over time. Include relevant details like the target audience segment, geographic focus, or seasonal timing to make performance analysis more intuitive.
Budget Settings
You can choose between daily budgets or shared budgets across multiple campaigns. For Demand Gen campaigns, Google recommends a daily budget of at least $100 per campaign to ensure enough budget for capturing conversions and achieving optimal performance. The daily budget represents the average amount you're willing to spend each day--actual daily spend may vary by up to 20% above the daily budget.
Daily budgets provide flexibility for campaigns that may perform differently on various days of the week, while shared budgets allow you to allocate a total amount across multiple campaigns and let Google optimize distribution based on performance. Consider starting with individual daily budgets for new campaigns to clearly measure individual performance before consolidating into shared budgets as you identify your top performers.
Configure daily budget in the campaign settings
Bidding Strategy Selection
The bidding strategy you choose should align with your primary campaign objective. Google offers several options optimized for different goals, and understanding each helps you make the right selection.
For Conversions:
- Maximize Conversions - Focuses on getting the most conversions within budget
- Target CPA (tCPA) - Optimizes for cost per acquisition based on your desired ROI
For Conversion Value:
- Maximize Conversion Value - Ensures you get the most value from conversions
- Target ROAS (tROAS) - Achieves specific return on ad spend targets
For Clicks/Traffic:
- Maximize Clicks - Generates the highest number of clicks within budget
- Target CPC - For specific cost-per-click control on individual keywords
The bidding screen shows recommended strategies based on your campaign goal selection, with clear explanations of how each strategy operates. For new campaigns without conversion history, starting with Maximize Conversions allows the system to gather data before transitioning to target-based bidding.
| Goal | Recommended Strategy | Alternative Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| Conversions | Maximize Conversions | Target CPA |
| Conversion Value | Maximize Conversion Value | Target ROAS |
| Clicks/Traffic | Maximize Clicks | Target CPC |
Ad Schedule and Advanced Settings
You can set a campaign schedule with specific start and end dates, though this is optional--many advertisers run continuous campaigns and manually adjust as needed. Advanced settings allow you to refine who sees your ads and when, providing control over campaign delivery. For businesses focused on landing page optimization, proper targeting ensures your ads reach users most likely to convert.
Geotargeting - Set at campaign or ad group level. Default is campaign-level targeting with ability to refine at ad group level. This determines where your ads can appear based on user location signals.
Language targeting - Choose the languages your target audience speaks. Ads will show to users whose language settings match your selection, ensuring your message reaches people who can understand it.
Device targeting - Control which devices your ads appear on. You can prioritize mobile, tablet, or desktop based on where your audience engages most effectively.
Ad schedule - Set specific hours or days when ads should run. This is particularly useful for businesses with specific operating hours or when targeting audiences in different time zones.
These advanced settings work together to ensure your budget is spent reaching the most relevant audiences at the most appropriate times for your business objectives. Combined with proper conversion tracking setup, these controls help maximize return on ad spend.
Audience Targeting Configuration
One of Demand Gen's strongest features is its audience targeting capabilities. Understanding the four audience types and how they work together helps you build campaigns that reach the right people with the right message.
In-Market Audiences
Users actively researching and comparing products or services like yours, demonstrating purchase intent through their browsing behavior
Your Data Segments
Remarketing lists, customer lists, and engaged user segments from your own first-party data sources
Similar Segments (Lookalikes)
Find users who share characteristics with your best customers, with customizable reach settings for precision vs. scale
Interests & Detailed Demographics
Broad interest categories and demographic targeting for reaching users based on lifestyle and personal characteristics
Google offers four types of audiences that can be combined for expanded reach
Creating Custom Segments
Custom segments allow you to reach users based on their specific interests, behaviors, and interactions. This targeting method builds audience segments from the ground up using signals that matter to your business.
For custom segments, you can target users based on:
- Specific interests and topics they engage with across Google's network
- Search queries they've entered when looking for related solutions
- Websites they frequently visit within your competitive or related spaces
- Apps they commonly use that indicate relevant intent or lifestyle
Enter relevant keywords, URLs, and app names to create highly targeted segments. According to 360 OM Agency's best practices guide, Google recommends using 10-15 of your highest-converting keywords for precision targeting. This balances reach with relevance, ensuring your ads appear before users most likely to convert. When combined with remarketing strategies, custom segments help create a comprehensive targeting approach.
Lookalike Segment Configuration
The lookalike segment feature in Demand Gen is distinctive because you can control the reach level, balancing audience quality against campaign scale. Unlike traditional similar audiences, Demand Gen lookalikes give you explicit control through a percentage-based slider.
Lower percentages (1-5%) create tighter audiences more similar to your seed audience, producing higher-quality traffic but potentially limiting reach. Higher percentages (10-20%) expand reach but may include users with less similarity to your best customers. This slider allows you to find the optimal balance between audience quality and campaign scale based on your specific goals and budget.
Consider creating multiple lookalike segments at different reach levels to test performance and find the sweet spot for your business. Segments with tighter reach often deliver better conversion rates, while broader reach segments can help scale successful campaigns.
Control reach level to balance audience quality and scale
Ad Format Screens
Demand Gen supports multiple ad formats, each designed to capture attention in different ways across YouTube, Discover, and Gmail. Understanding the asset requirements and capabilities of each format helps you create compelling creative that resonates with your target audience.
Image Ads Configuration
Image ads are the foundation of most Demand Gen campaigns, offering flexibility and broad placement coverage. For image ads, you can upload:
- Up to 20 images in various aspect ratios to maximize creative flexibility
- Up to 5 logos for brand identification across placements
- Up to 5 headlines and 5 descriptions for varied messaging options
- Call-to-action button selection from Google's standard options
- URL tracking parameters if needed for campaign measurement
Google will automatically generate ad variations and prioritize combinations that perform best based on historical data. The preview panel on the right shows how your ads will appear across different placements, allowing you to validate your creative before launching. According to Netpeak US's campaign guide, providing multiple asset variations significantly improves campaign performance by allowing the system to optimize toward the best-performing combinations.
Image ad setup with asset limits and live preview
Video Ads Configuration
Video ads leverage the visual nature of YouTube and Discover to create engaging experiences that capture attention and communicate your message dynamically. Video ads support:
- Up to 5 videos per ad group for testing and optimization
- 1 logo for consistent brand identification
- 5 headlines, 5 long headlines, and 5 descriptions for varied messaging
- Call-to-action selection to drive the desired user behavior
- URL tracking parameters for detailed performance measurement
For video content, apply the ABCD framework: Audience (hook viewers immediately), Branding (establish brand identity early), Connection (create emotional resonance), and Direction (guide viewers toward your CTA). Repeat your call-to-action in both the voiceover and on-screen graphics for maximum impact and recall. High-quality video assets paired with compelling web development landing pages create seamless user experiences that drive conversions.
Carousel Ads Configuration
Carousel ads offer a unique opportunity to tell a sequential story or showcase multiple products in a single ad unit. Carousel ads allow up to 10 cards per ad, with each card containing:
- Individual image for each point in your story or product in your lineup
- Unique headline and description to customize messaging per card
- Separate CTA and destination URL for each card's specific offer
- Product-specific details when showcasing multiple items
This format works particularly well for showcasing multiple products, highlighting different features of a single product, or telling a sequential brand story that guides viewers through a journey. Each card can link to a different landing page, allowing you to personalize the user experience based on which element resonates most.
Product Cards (With Merchant Center Feed)
If you connected a Google Merchant Center feed during campaign setup, you can create product-focused ads that leverage your existing product catalog. Product cards automatically pull from your feed, eliminating the need to manually upload individual product images and details.
Google generates three ad types from your product feed: feed + images (combines product data with uploaded creative), feed + video (integrates product information with video content), or feed-only (displays products directly from the catalog). You can select which specific products to include from your feed or show all products for maximum coverage.
Customize headlines and descriptions to supplement product data with compelling marketing messaging that drives engagement and clicks. This format is particularly powerful for retailers looking to showcase inventory across YouTube, Discover, and Gmail without creating individual ads for each product.
Select which products from your Merchant Center feed to include
Placement and Performance Views
Once your campaign is running, monitoring performance across different dimensions helps you optimize for better results. Demand Gen provides specialized reports that give insights into where your ads are performing well and where adjustments may be needed.
Placement Report
The Placements report shows where your ads are appearing across YouTube, Discover, and Gmail. This data helps you understand which channels, content categories, or contexts are delivering the best results for your campaign objectives.
Key metrics to review:
- Impressions by placement - Understand reach distribution across surfaces
- Click-through rates by placement type - Identify which surfaces drive engagement
- Conversion rates across surfaces - Measure effectiveness of each placement
- Cost per action variations - Compare efficiency across different contexts
Reviewing placement data regularly helps you identify high-performing contexts for scaling and low-performing placements for exclusion, ensuring your budget works harder over time. Leveraging AI-powered automation can help analyze these patterns and optimize campaigns at scale.
Creative Performance Report
Demand Gen campaigns include a dedicated Creative Performance report that shows how individual assets are performing across your campaigns. This granular view allows you to identify your top-performing images, videos, headlines, and descriptions to inform future creative development.
The report highlights which combinations are driving the most engagement and conversions, enabling you to double down on what's working and retire underperforming assets. Use these insights to guide your creative team's efforts, focusing production resources on formats and messages that resonate with your target audience. Testing and optimization becomes more efficient when you have clear data on which elements drive results.
Comparing Demand Gen and Performance Max
Both Demand Gen and Performance Max campaigns help advertisers reach goals across Google's inventory, but they serve different purposes and offer different levels of control. Understanding when to use each campaign type helps you build a more effective overall strategy.
| Feature | Demand Gen | Performance Max |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Goal | Reach cold audiences, build awareness | Drive conversions across all Google inventory |
| Ad Formats | Image, Video, Carousel, Product | Automated across Search, Display, YouTube, Discovery |
| Control | Manual audience targeting | AI-driven automated targeting |
| Placements | YouTube, Discover, Gmail only | Full Google inventory |
| Creative Control | Manual asset upload and testing | AI-generated variations |
Use Demand Gen when you want precise control over who sees your ads and specifically want to reach audiences on visual platforms like YouTube, Discover, and Gmail. Demand Gen is ideal when you have specific audience segments you want to target and want to maintain creative control over your messaging.
Use Performance Max when your primary goal is conversion optimization and you're comfortable letting Google's AI optimize across the full inventory mix. Performance Max is valuable when you want maximum reach and are okay trading some control for potentially higher conversion volume.
Many advertisers use both campaign types together, letting Demand Gen handle awareness and consideration goals while Performance Max focuses on conversion generation. This complementary approach ensures you're reaching potential customers at every stage of their journey.
Best Practices for Demand Gen Campaigns
Creative Best Practices:
-
Use Both Image and Video Together - Craft a unified story across formats to reinforce your message and increase engagement across different user preferences.
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Mobile-First Approach - Design for vertical and square formats since most YouTube and Discover consumption happens on mobile devices.
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Test Multiple Aspect Ratios - Include horizontal, vertical, and square assets to maximize performance across all placement options.
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Apply ABCD Framework to Video - Structure video content around Audience, Branding, Connection, and Direction for maximum impact.
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Repeat CTA in Voiceover and Graphics - Ensure consistency across elements so users clearly understand the desired action.
Conclusion
Successfully managing Demand Gen campaigns requires understanding each screen in the Google Ads interface and making informed decisions about audience targeting, creative formats, bidding strategies, and budget allocation. The screenshots and explanations in this guide provide the foundation for creating campaigns that effectively reach cold audiences on YouTube, Discover, and Gmail.
Remember that Demand Gen campaigns work best when:
- You provide diverse creative assets in multiple formats and aspect ratios to maximize placement coverage
- You leverage first-party data for audience targeting through Customer Match, remarketing, and custom segments
- You set budgets that allow proper machine learning optimization--at least $100 daily for most campaigns
- You monitor performance through placement and creative reports, refining based on data-driven insights
By following the visual workflow and best practices outlined here, you can build Demand Gen campaigns that generate meaningful awareness and drive measurable business results. The key is starting with a solid foundation of creative assets and audience targeting, then iterating based on performance data to continuously improve outcomes.
For businesses looking to expand their paid advertising strategy, Demand Gen offers a powerful tool for reaching audiences who are discovering new products and services across Google's premium visual inventory. Combined with other campaign types like Search and Performance Max, Demand Gen helps create a comprehensive approach to reaching customers at every stage of their journey.