Demand Gen Campaigns

What are Demand Gen Campaigns?

Demand Gen is Google's campaign type for the upper and middle stages of the customer journey. Instead of waiting for search queries, you show image and video ads in Google's visual feeds: YouTube (including Shorts), the Discover feed, and Gmail. Demand Gen replaced the former Discovery campaigns and added video formats.

How Do Demand Gen Campaigns Work?

You provide images, videos, and text — Google combines them into ads and serves them to audiences you define via segments and lookalike lists. Targeting is based on interests, behavior, and your own data:

• First-party data: Customer lists and website visitors as a basis for similar segments
• Interest segments: Users with relevant interests and purchase intent
• Optimized targeting: Google automatically expands the audience to conversion-likely users

Who Should Use Demand Gen?

Demand Gen makes sense when your search volume is limited or you want to reach new audiences who don't know your offer yet. Don't expect search campaign conversion rates — users are at an earlier decision stage.

Pro Tip: Only start Demand Gen once your conversion tracking works reliably and your search campaigns are maxed out. Without solid conversion data, the algorithm can't optimize effectively.