Demand Gen Campaigns: The Practical Guide 2026

Search campaigns capture demand that already exists: someone searches for "dentist Munich" and you bid on it. Demand Gen campaigns do the opposite – they show your ad to people who aren't searching at all, but scrolling through YouTube, Discover, or Gmail, or – since 2025 – browsing websites on the Google Display Network. Their job is to create demand, not harvest it.

That's a fundamentally different game from search – with different creatives, different audiences, different KPIs, and different expectations. This guide gives you the complete practical overview: what Demand Gen is good for (and, honestly, what it isn't), how to set up assets, audiences, and bidding, and how to measure the results properly.

What Are Demand Gen Campaigns?

Demand Gen campaigns are Google's visual campaign type for the feed environments of the Google ecosystem:

• YouTube: in-stream ads, in-feed ads, and YouTube Shorts
• Google Discover: the personalized feed on smartphones (Google app, mobile Chrome homepage)
• Gmail: ads in the "Promotions" and "Social" tabs
• Google Display Network: since 2025, ads on websites and in apps across the Display Network

Demand Gen replaced the former Discovery campaigns in 2023/2024 and added video formats. In 2025, Google also migrated Video Action Campaigns into Demand Gen – so anyone who wants to run performance-oriented video and feed ads today ends up with this campaign type. Since then there are also channel controls: you can decide whether your ads run across all surfaces (YouTube, Discover, Gmail, and – since 2025 – the Google Display Network) or, say, on YouTube only.

The basic principle: you provide images, videos, and copy, define audiences – and Google assembles ads for each surface. Unlike search campaigns, there are no keywords to bid on. Users aren't in search mode; they're in discovery mode.

What Demand Gen Is Good For – and What It Isn't

This is where sensible spending separates from burned budget. The honest assessment:

A good fit

• Visually compelling offers: e-commerce, D2C brands, travel, interior, food, courses and coaching – anything that creates desire through image and video
• New products or categories without search volume: if nobody searches for your offer, search can't help you – Demand Gen can
• Remarketing with fresh formats: reaching cart abandoners and website visitors again on YouTube and Discover
• Scaling beyond the search funnel: when your search campaigns are maxed out and you want to grow without simply buying more expensive clicks

Not a good fit

• As a replacement for search campaigns where demand already exists: someone actively searching for "tax advisor Cologne" should find you in search. Using Demand Gen where search already captures the demand is the most expensive route to the same customer
• Emergency and immediate-need services: burst pipes, locksmiths, towing – there's no demand to "create" here
• Accounts without clean conversion tracking: without reliable conversion data, the algorithm can't learn and you can't judge success
• Expecting search-level CPAs from day one: users in a feed are at an earlier decision stage. If you measure Demand Gen against your brand search campaign's KPIs, you'll switch it off in frustration after two weeks

From my own practice: the most common mistake isn't a bad Demand Gen setup – it's the wrong order. Build clean search campaigns and tracking first, then layer demand creation on top.

How It Differs from Performance Max and Search

The three campaign types often get confused because they share surfaces. The short version:

| | Demand Gen | Performance Max | Search | |---|---|---|---| | Surfaces | YouTube, Discover, Gmail, Google Display Network (since 2025) | All Google channels (incl. Search, Shopping, Maps) | Search network only | | Purpose | Create demand (upper/mid-funnel) | Maximize conversions across all channels | Capture existing demand | | Audience control | Real targeting: you decide who sees the ads | Signals only, Google decides | Keywords as the steering wheel | | Creative control | High (you see which ad runs where) | Low (asset combinations are automated) | High |

The most important difference versus Performance Max: in Demand Gen, audience targeting is a real control, while in PMax, audience signals are just a starting point that Google expands on its own. If you want to reach a specific audience with specific creatives, Demand Gen gives you considerably more control. You'll find the detailed head-to-head in the comparison Demand Gen vs. Performance Max.

Assets & Creatives: Requirements and What Works

Demand Gen lives or dies with its creatives. Your audience didn't search for you – your creative has to stop the scroll.

The formal requirements

• Images: landscape 1.91:1 (e.g. 1200×628), square 1:1 (1200×1200), and portrait for mobile feeds. The more formats you supply, the more surfaces Google can serve
• Videos: 16:9, 1:1, and 9:16 – the vertical format is mandatory if you want to appear on YouTube Shorts
• Copy: headlines up to 40 characters, descriptions up to 90 characters (multiple variants each)
• Logo in 1:1 format plus your business name
• Carousel ads: several image cards in one ad – good for product ranges
• Product feed: e-commerce stores can connect their Merchant Center feed and show products directly in the ads

What works in my experience

The following is my practical assessment, not a law of nature – test it in your own account:

• Native beats polished: creatives that look like content (real people, smartphone aesthetics, direct address) frequently outperform classic display banners in feeds
• The first seconds decide: in video, the core message has to land in the first 3 seconds – after that, a large share of viewers is gone
• One idea per creative: one benefit, one message, one CTA. Overloaded ads drown in the feed
• Test variants: several image and video variants per ad group give the system options – you can swap out individual assets later based on performance

If you're getting into video advertising in general, read the YouTube Ads fundamentals first – much of it (hooks, storytelling, formats) applies one-to-one to Demand Gen.

Audiences: Lookalikes, Custom Segments, Remarketing

Targeting is Demand Gen's second big strength. Three layers, sorted by proximity to conversion:

1. Your own data (remarketing & customer lists)

Website visitors, cart abandoners, YouTube channel interactions, and customer lists (Customer Match) are your strongest audiences – these people already know you. The guide to remarketing strategies shows how to build and segment those lists strategically.

2. Lookalike segments

Demand Gen is the campaign type where Google offers lookalike segments: users who resemble your best customers. The source is one of your own lists (e.g. purchasers or qualified leads); Google requires a minimum source list size. You choose between three reach tiers from narrow to broad – the narrower, the closer to your existing customers' profile; the broader, the more reach at declining precision.

3. Custom segments & interests

You build custom segments from search terms ("users who searched for X") or types of websites visited. On top of that come in-market audiences and interests from Google's catalog. These segments are broader and better suited as an entry point into cold audiences.

Practical recommendation: start with the warm layers (remarketing, customer lists), then lookalikes based on your best customers, and only after that cold interest segments. That way you learn with the audiences most likely to convert and scale outward from there.

Bidding & Budget: Plan Realistically

Demand Gen supports several bidding strategies:

• Maximize Conversions – the usual start when you don't have a reliable target CPA yet
• Target CPA (tCPA) – once enough conversion data is available
• Maximize Conversion Value / Target ROAS (tROAS) – for stores with clean conversion values
• Maximize Clicks – only sensible if you deliberately want to buy traffic instead of conversions (e.g. for content tests)

Which strategy fits when is covered in detail in the overview of Google Ads bidding strategies.

On the learning phase: realistically expect 2 to 4 weeks until performance stabilizes – depending on how many conversions accumulate per week. CPAs fluctuate during this time, and that's normal. If you rebuild budget, bids, and audiences simultaneously in week one, you keep resetting the learning phase.

On budget: there's no official minimum. As a rule of thumb from my own practice, your daily budget should be a multiple of your target CPA so the algorithm gets enough conversion signals to learn from. €10/day against a €50 target CPA won't work – in that case, concentrate the budget on remarketing, where conversion probability is highest.

Measurement: Putting View-Through in Its Place

Demand Gen generates conversions in three ways – and you should keep them apart:

1. Click conversions: the user clicks the ad and converts. The hardest signal
2. Engaged-view conversions (EVC): the user watches at least 10 seconds of a skippable video and converts later within the attribution window
3. View-through conversions (VTC): the user only sees the ad (impression, no click) and converts later

The honest assessment: view-through conversions don't prove causality. Some of those users would have bought without ever seeing the ad – and the account won't tell you how many. If you count VTCs exactly like click conversions, the campaign looks better on paper than it really is.

What has proven useful in practice:

• Evaluate click and view conversions separately instead of one combined column
• Watch secondary signals: is brand search volume rising? Are direct visits and brand campaign impressions increasing while Demand Gen runs?
• Compare periods: performance with and without Demand Gen over several weeks – not a perfect incrementality test, but a more honest view than the raw account numbers

Step by Step: Setting Up a Demand Gen Campaign

1. Check the prerequisites: conversion tracking demonstrably works, remarketing lists exist and are populated, assets are ready in all formats
2. Create the campaign: New campaign → choose a goal (e.g. "Sales" or "Leads") → campaign type "Demand Gen"
3. Set channels: all surfaces, or restrict deliberately – YouTube only if all you have is video
4. Locations & language: define your target market; one country is enough to start
5. Choose a bidding strategy: usually "Maximize Conversions" at launch, switching to Target CPA later
6. Build the audience: warm lists first, lookalikes and custom segments as separate ad groups – so you can see which layer performs
7. Create the ads: several image and video variants per ad group, cover all formats, add carousel or product feed where it makes sense
8. Launch & monitoring: for the first 2 weeks, only observe (is tracking working, is the budget being spent?) – only then adjust assets and audiences based on data

Common Demand Gen Mistakes

• Launching Demand Gen before Search: the cheapest conversion comes from someone already searching. Cover search first, then create demand
• Applying search KPIs: a Demand Gen CPA isn't comparable to a brand search CPA – users are at completely different points in the journey
• Cold interest audiences only: without your own data (lists, remarketing), the system is missing its strongest foundation
• One 16:9 banner for everything: without vertical formats you forfeit Shorts and mobile feeds – a large share of the available reach
• Sabotaging the learning phase: daily changes to budget and audiences keep the campaign permanently in learning mode
• Celebrating view-through conversions uncritically: without separate evaluation, you systematically overestimate the campaign's contribution

Conclusion: A Complement, Not a Replacement

In 2026, Demand Gen is the right campaign type if you can convince visually, your search campaigns are maxed out, and you want to open up new audiences – with real control over audiences and creatives that Performance Max doesn't give you. But it's no replacement for search campaigns and no channel for quick, cheap conversions.

If you're unsure whether Demand Gen fits your account structure or how to prioritize getting started, take a look at my Google Ads management – strategy, setup, and ongoing optimization from a single source.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are Demand Gen campaigns in Google Ads?

Demand Gen is Google's visual campaign type for feed environments: image and video ads appear on YouTube (including Shorts), in the Discover feed, in Gmail, and – since 2025 – on the Google Display Network. The goal is to create demand before users actively search for your offer. Demand Gen replaced the former Discovery campaigns and also absorbed Video Action Campaigns in 2025.

Where do Demand Gen ads appear?

On YouTube (in-stream, in-feed, and Shorts), in the Google Discover feed, in Gmail, and – since 2025 – on the Google Display Network. Since 2025, channel controls let you decide which of these surfaces your campaign may use – for example YouTube only, if all you have is video creative.

Does Demand Gen replace search campaigns or Performance Max?

No. Search campaigns capture existing demand – that's where purchase intent is highest, and anyone actively searching should find you through search first. Demand Gen creates demand further up the funnel and complements Search and Performance Max rather than replacing them. Only once your search campaigns run cleanly is Demand Gen the logical next step.

How much budget does a Demand Gen campaign need?

There's no official minimum, but the algorithm needs enough conversions to learn from. As a rule of thumb from my own practice: your daily budget should be a multiple of your target CPA, otherwise the learning phase drags on for weeks. With very small budgets, remarketing audiences are the most sensible starting point because they convert fastest.

What are view-through conversions in Demand Gen?

View-through conversions come from users who saw your ad but didn't click, and converted later. On top of that there are engaged-view conversions after at least 10 seconds of video watch time. Both are weaker signals than click conversions and should be evaluated separately – otherwise the campaign looks better on paper than it really is.