Demand Gen campaigns help you reach up to 3 billion monthly active users as they scroll through YouTube (YouTube Shorts now averages over 50 billion daily views) and their Google feeds, including Gmail and Discover. Learn more about Demand Gen campaigns and how to create a Demand Gen campaign.
In this article, we’ll answer the most frequently asked questions.
Transitioning from Discovery to Demand Gen
Do I have to do anything on my end to upgrade my Discovery campaigns to Demand Gen campaigns?
No, your Discovery campaigns will be automatically upgraded for you. Learn more about upgrading your Discovery ads to Demand Gen.
Why is Google upgrading from Discovery to Demand Gen?
Demand Gen campaigns give you the same benefits as Discovery campaigns, with new features, inventory, insights, plus an improved ad creation process to help you drive demand and purchase consideration.
Everything you find in your Discovery campaigns will be in your Demand Gen campaigns (with a few exceptions noted below). But with Demand Gen, your campaign will have new features and capabilities, including greater potential reach on Google’s most visually immersive surfaces (Gmail, YouTube, and Discover), where customers are more likely to be in a purchase mindset, more tailored ad experiences and more powerful bidding and measurement. Learn more About Demand Gen campaigns.
In what ways do Demand Gen campaigns look and function differently from Discovery campaigns?
- New features for Demand Gen:
- Uses the new Google Ads UI
- Ad group targeting / location targeting (optional)
- Video ads
- You will no longer have the Lead form extension
Will my existing Discovery Campaigns compete with Demand Gen campaigns?
No, they will not compete with each other but can work in tandem. Ultimately, you’ll want to upgrade your Discovery campaigns to the new and improved Demand Gen campaigns.
How can I view historical data from my Discovery ads campaign after it’s been upgraded to Demand Gen?
All your historical data will be seamlessly carried over from your Discovery campaign to your Demand Gen campaign, and there is no change to how you can access it. For example, you will be able to access it in the “Campaigns” table.
Is there a ramp up period for Demand Gen campaigns?
After you make a change to your bid strategy in your new Demand Gen campaign, there may be minor performance fluctuations as Google Ads optimizes your bids. To indicate this, your bid strategy status may be labeled as "Learning". You can hover over the status to learn why your bid strategy has the "Learning" status. It’s recommended that you allow two weeks for the "Learning" period to elapse before making bidding changes.
As a good general rule, wait 50 conversions before making changes to your campaign.
Give ads at least 24 hours to be reviewed and approved.
Should I add more assets to my new Demand Gen campaign once my Discovery campaigns transition to Demand Gen?
While not required, we encourage you to try using as many assets and asset types in your Demand Gen ad as possible. This will optimize your surface coverage, help tell customers a more holistic story, and ensure you can meet demand at every stage of the funnel. The various asset types available to you are single image ads, carousel ads, video ads, and connect TV ads. Learn more about Demand Gen campaign asset specs and best practices.
Why do I see only one ad format serving? (For example: Why are my image ads not serving while only video ads are serving?)
Having your video and image ad formats in one ad group enables autobidding to optimize and show the ads that perform best according to the goals set at your campaign. So if you only see one format serving, this means it’s the optimal format to drive the right type and volume of engagement for your campaign at this time.
Billing & Bidding
What is the billing type for Demand Gen?
Demand Gen will use mixed billing including CPM and CPC bidding. The list below includes bidding type per Google surface and ad format:
- Youtube video: CPM
- Youtube image: CPC
- Gmail: Teaser Click (The first click to expand the ad. You aren’t charged for the secondary click to the website)
- Discover feed image: CPC
- Discover video: EV (When someone watches your video for 5 seconds or more and clicks to play the video or clicks a link, that’s considered an engaged view.)
Which bidding strategies are supported for Demand Gen campaigns?
Both conversion and conversion-less bidding strategies are supported. This includes Maximize Clicks, Maximize Conversions, tROAS, Target CPA, and value based bidding.
How should I approach switching a campaign from Max Conversion or tCPA Bidding to tROAS? What should be the starting tROAS bid?
If you’re new to Demand Gen or you don’t have a specific tCPA or tROAS goal in mind, we recommend starting your campaigns with Maximize Conversions bidding and shifting to tCPA/tROAS bidding after your campaign received at least 50 conversions.
You can take following steps:
- Look at the last 30 days of ROAS at the campaign level.
- Set a more relaxed target ROAS, such as 20% lower than the last 30-day ROAS. Setting up bids that are high enough allows the system to bid competitively.
- Note: Setting a 20% lower ROAS means setting a 20% higher bid.
- Monitor your campaign performance closely after you switch to tROAS bidding and wait for the learning period to pass. This usually takes around 1 week, depending on conversion volume.
- As the campaign learns and becomes more efficient, you can gradually make bid changes of +/-10% based on your results
What are the best practices for Demand Gen Campaigns with the Max Clicks bidding?
- Audience: Select the most relevant themes for potential customers and customers that are most likely to interact with your ads. You can inspire them to want to learn more about your products or services by using compelling landing pages
- Use in-market and affinity segments, and life events
- Custom segments allow you to control how you define your audience segment; use 10-15 search keywords that capture audience interests/purchase intent/conversion intent.
- Budget: There is no minimum budget required for Max Clicks bidding
- Landing page:
- Include compelling content on your landing pages
- Max Clicks campaigns are compatible with your website URL/domains, YouTube video links, third-party product pages, and/or Livestream link
- Creatives:
- Use a variety of images, videos, and text assets so that Google AI can best learn and drive the best results by optimizing your ads.
- Use both image and video assets in your Max Clicks campaigns.
Should I start my Demand Gen campaign with Max Clicks to get a faster ramp-up, and then switch to tCPA or tROAS bidding to achieve my conversion goals?
Your approach should be customer goal centric:
- If your goal is to obtain more clicks: Max Clicks bidding is a good option, however, keep in mind that Max Clicks is optimized for relevant landing page visits. This works well for consideration or awareness objectives in the initial stages of the user journey.
- You can also use Max Clicks bidding to build remarketing lists and bring more customers and potential customers into the funnel in a separate campaign outside of your “conversion goal” campaign.
- If your goal is to obtain more conversions: Start with tCPA or Maximize Conversions bidding, so that Google AI can learn and optimize using “conversions data” right from the start.
Audiences
Do you recommend consolidating multiple ad groups?
Yes. Ad group consolidation can help broaden audience targeting without diluting the relevancy of your ads. By combining similar types of audiences into fewer ad groups, Google AI can gather more data and make better-informed bidding decisions, allowing it to better adapt to changes in user behavior, market conditions, and competitive dynamics. Your campaigns will continue to become more competitive and efficient over time.
How are Lookalike segments and Optimized targeting different?
Lookalike segments help you find new and relevant customers similar to your seed audiences to help you achieve your advertising goals. Optimized targeting uses Google AI to look beyond optional manually selected audiences (signals) in order to improve a campaign’s performance and acquire customers you may have missed with only manual audiences. Lookalike segments help you drive similarity based audiences and optimized targeting helps you drive performance by showing ads to people who are most likely to convert. They work well together to help you achieve your advertising goals.
Can I reuse my audiences across other Google campaign types?
Yes, but it’s important to note the following: If your audience for Demand Gen includes a Lookalike segment, the audience will show up as "Eligible - Limited" for other campaign types as Lookalike segments cannot be used outside of Demand Gen campaigns. The rest of your audience segment will remain intact and can be used across other Google campaign types.
Can I reuse Lookalike segments across other Google campaign types?
No you can’t, since Lookalike segments are only available for Demand Gen campaigns.
Why can’t I use certain in-market and other segments in my Demand Gen campaigns?
Infinite taxonomy segments are generated for each campaign type based on the unique audience available. Not every segment will be available across all campaign types. Audience manager does not filter out segments according to campaign type availability, so you may see segments that are only usable for Display, show up while creating your Demand Gen campaign.
General
Am I required to use both video and static assets for my Demand Gen campaigns?
No, you're not required to use both. You have the option to add image, video, or both asset types to Demand Gen campaigns, and campaigns using a single format will still serve. Campaigns using only one creative format will auto-serve only to inventory that is eligible to serve that format. For campaigns that include both image and video creatives, the system will optimize the asset mix that works best for their campaign goal.
Can I control impression frequency in Demand Gen campaigns?
No. The system automatically controls impression frequency to show your ad to the right people, at the right time, and the right number of times. If you’re interested in reviewing an impression frequency report, you can use the unique reach (which reports at the campaign level) and impressions data.
Why can’t I change the location or language on my Demand Gen campaign?
In Demand Gen, you can only set the location or language at the campaign or ad group level (never both). Edits to location and language can only be made at the level where they were set. Once it’s defined at that level, edits can only be made at that level.
- Note: You can only set the radius for location at the campaign level.
Which extensions are supported by Demand Gen campaigns?
Sitelink extensions are available for Demand Gen campaigns.
How will brand safety be handled in Demand Gen?
You can manage content exclusions using the “Content Suitability” page at the account level. The core suitability settings (inventory type, content types. and labels) will not be available at the campaign level. Topics and placement exclusions will not be generally available at the campaign or ad group levels. Keyword exclusions are available at the account level under “Content Suitability” within “Excluded content keywords”.
