What Demand Gen is and where it replaced older campaign types
Demand Gen is Google’s feed-based campaign type. One campaign places image, carousel and video ads across YouTube in-stream and in-feed, YouTube Shorts, the Discover feed and the Gmail promotions tab, and it took over from Video Action campaigns as the home for video ads that are meant to drive a conversion rather than a view. Targeting is built from audiences rather than keywords: your own customer and visitor lists, lookalike segments modelled from them, in-market and affinity segments, and custom segments built from search terms and URLs. Bidding can be set to conversions, conversion value or clicks, with Target CPA and Target ROAS available once there is data.
Who this is for
- Businesses already running profitable Search campaigns whose search volume is now the ceiling: study-abroad consultancies, clinics, hotels, tour operators, fintech apps, online stores.
- Brands with a product feed, since Demand Gen can show product cards from Merchant Center to shoppers in feeds.
- Anyone launching something people are not yet searching for: a new clinic service, a new course intake, a new destination or a new app.
It is not for accounts with no conversion history. Demand Gen learns from conversions, and with nothing to learn from it buys cheap engagement instead. Tracking comes first, always.
What Demand Gen management includes
Audience design
Campaigns start from the audiences closest to money: website visitors and customer lists from remarketing and Customer Match, then lookalike segments seeded from converters, then in-market and custom segments. Each audience sits in its own ad group so its cost per conversion is visible and budget can move toward what works.
Creative
Feeds reward creative that looks like content: vertical video for Shorts, square and landscape images for Discover and Gmail, a first line that states the offer, and a clear reason to act now. I brief and review the assets, test at least three concepts per audience, and rotate the losers out fortnightly. Production is yours or a partner’s; the creative brief and the test plan are mine.
Product feed integration
For stores, the Merchant Center feed is attached so ads show real products with prices, and the feed quality work under Merchant Center and feed management pays off a second time.
Bidding and budgets
Maximize Conversions with a daily budget sized for learning first, then Target CPA or Target ROAS set from the account’s Search benchmarks and loosened by a margin, because upper-funnel conversions cost more than search conversions and should be judged against the revenue they add, not the Search CPA.
Measurement
Demand Gen reports view-through as well as click conversions. I separate the two in reporting, set a conservative view-through window, and compare account-level conversions before and after the campaign so the incremental effect is visible rather than assumed.
How I build a Demand Gen campaign
- Verify conversion tracking and confirm the account has enough conversion history to seed lookalikes.
- Upload customer lists and build the audience hierarchy: owned, lookalike, interest.
- Creative brief per audience: message, format, hook, offer; assets produced and checked against placement specs.
- Campaign built with one ad group per audience, feed attached where relevant, placements and content exclusions set.
- Launch on Maximize Conversions; first two weeks left to learn with only creative and exclusion changes.
- Move to Target CPA or ROAS; shift budget between audiences on cost per conversion.
- Monthly incrementality read: what changed in total conversions and in branded search volume since launch.
What you receive
- An audience map with the list sources and lookalike seeds documented.
- Creative briefs and a test log showing which concepts won and why.
- A monthly report separating click and view-through conversions and comparing cost per conversion with Search.
Where Demand Gen fits with the rest of the account
Search stays the base. Performance Max and Demand Gen overlap on YouTube, Discover and Gmail, so I run one or the other for a given goal rather than both competing for the same people, and I keep YouTube Ads for reach and view goals where a view, not a conversion, is the point.
Pricing and next step
Demand Gen is managed within the monthly PPC management fee; the ranges are on the packages and pricing page. If you are not sure whether your account is ready for it, a free Google Ads audit tells you whether the tracking and conversion volume will support it.