About Demand Gen campaigns

Google Display Ads are moving to Demand Gen

Google Display Ads campaigns are moving to Demand Gen as the Google Display Network (GDN).

June 2026: Eligible advertisers can begin voluntarily moving existing campaigns using the migration tool in their account.
Coming later: New campaigns can only be created within Demand Gen, and any remaining eligible campaigns will be automatically migrated.

For step-by-step migration instructions and a full breakdown of the new features, read the full article: Google Display Ads campaigns have a new home in Demand Gen.

Demand Gen campaigns are Ad campaigns that capture engagement and action across YouTube (including Shorts), Discover, Gmail, Maps, and the Google Display Network. These campaigns can help social advertisers reach up to 3 billion monthly active users across Google's most impactful surfaces.

Demand Gen Introduction

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Benefits

Expand the impact of your ads

👁 Expanded Impact: Access to YouTube and Google's most immersive, visual touchpoints, highlighting, 1. Multi frame on YouTube including Shorts, Discover, and Gmail, 2. Reach 3 billion plus users, and 3. 50 billion plus global daily views on Shorts.

Serve ads on YouTube and Google's most immersive visual surfaces.

Demand Gen campaigns serve ads on YouTube, Discover, Gmail, and the Google Display Network.
Demand Gen lets you reach more than 3 billion active monthly users with more than 50 billion global daily views on Shorts alone. Learn How to buy YouTube Shorts ads with Demand Gen campaigns.
Google AI creates the perfect combination of tailored, high impact visuals, messages, and placements, so you can drive more consumers to press “pay now.”
Preview your top performing video and image creatives across Google and YouTube to ensure they tell the right story.

Tailored ad experiences

👁 Tailored Ad Experiences: Audience first creatives that drive demand, highlighting, 1. Lookalike audiences, 2. Creative A/B experiments, 3: New campaign setup w/ creative previews, 4. Product feeds.

Combine the power of Google AI with the flexibility of controls.

Audience-first creatives that create new demand and drive conversions.
Your most immersive, visual creatives will be served to the most relevant potential customers. Customize your campaign to engage customers on specific channels.
Activate Lookalike segments to help you reach new, qualified audiences outside of your existing customer base. Lookalike segment includes people who made a past purchase, visited your website, or watched videos on your YouTube channel. Learn how to Use Lookalike segments to grow your audience.
Tap into audience insights to custom-match the right audience based on your advertising goals.
A/B experimentation helps fine-tune your creative approach to regularly improve performance.
Demand Gen campaign setup comes with creative previews and product feeds. Store your product catalog while millions of people discover, explore, and buy products. Learn how to Use a product feed to show your products in Demand Gen campaigns.

AI-powered bidding & measurement

👁 AI Powered Bidding and Measurement: Fuel the funnel and measure the impact, highlighting, 1. Conversion, Value based and MaxClicks bidding, 2. Search life, 3. Brand lift, 4. Conversion lift, 5. Data driven attribution.

Fuel your marketing funnel and measure the impact.

Value-based and Maximize Clicks bidding optimize conversion across the full funnel to drive consideration goals such as site visits. Learn more about Value-based bidding and Maximize clicks bidding.
Use measurement tools such as brand, search, and conversion lift to help you determine whether your ad spend is paying off.
Insights from these tools and Google AI, your Demand Gen campaigns allow you to optimize for website traffic, convert high value users, and bid against efficient metrics.
Data driven attribution to show the full value of a campaign in the Google ecosystem.

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👁 An advertisement on the Google Display Network.

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When to use Demand Gen

	👁 Image Search	👁 This icon represents Performance Max, which allows performance advertisers to access all of their Google Ads inventory from a single campaign. Performance Max	👁 Image Demand Gen
👁 Image Use to:	Maximize performance across Google Search	Maximize performance across all of Google's channels and surfaces	Generate demand and deliver business results on Google's most visual, entertaining surfaces
👁 Image Bidding	Target IS Clicks Conversions Conversion Value	Conversions Conversion Value	Clicks Conversions Conversion Value
👁 This icon represents the ability to target unique audience segments. Audience	Search audiences enable advertisers to combine their 1P data with Google signals to achieve a variety of marketing objectives.	Steer AI with NCA goals, value rules, and audience signals. (No hard targeting)	Enable audience customization with the ability to target unique audience segments such as Lookalike segments.
👁 Image Channels	Reach customers on Search + Search Partners (AFS).	Drive performance across all Google channels and inventory. (Search, YouTube including Shorts, Discover, Gmail, Google Display Network)	Choose the Demand Gen channel where your ads show so you can curate the ad experiences to align with your marketing strategy. For example, if you have a vertical creator video, you can choose to serve on YouTube Shorts only to create an optimal mobile ad experience. (YouTube Shorts, YouTube in-feed, YouTube Home feed, YouTube watch next, YouTube Search, Discover, Gmail, and Google Display Network)
👁 Image Creative assets	Image (Landscape 1.91:1, Logo 1:1, 4:1, Portrait 4:5, Square 1:1) Text (Headline, long headline, description, final URL or URL path, business name, CTA, sitelink descriptions)	Image (Landscape 1.91:1, Logo 1:1, 4:1, Portrait 4:5, Square 1:1) Text (Headline, long headline, description, final URL or URL path, business name, CTA) Video (horizontal, square, vertical) Learn how to Build an asset group.	Image (Landscape 1.91:1, Logo 1:1, Portrait 4:5, Square 1:1) Text (Headline, description, final URL, business name, CTA) Video (Landscape, portrait, square, vertical) Carousel ad (Headline, description, final URL, business name, CTA, logo 1:1, 2-10 image cards: Landscape 1.91:1, Portrait 4:5, Square 1:1 Product feeds Learn more about Demand Gen campaign asset specs and best practices.
👁 Image Measurement and Reporting	Reporting to keyword/ad level with insights and recommendations to improve your performance.	Insights for asset groups (launched) and individual assets (2H 2023) Product level reporting for GMC	Insights and reporting metrics for all individual assets/formats Brand Lift under allowlist, Search Lift, and Conversion Lift measurement Creative A/B experiments Product-level reporting for GMC feeds
👁 Image Other product differentiators	Product listing ads Advanced goals: NCA	MO/Goal focused buying flow Advanced goals: NCA, NCA HVO, re-engagement Retail feed formats on all surfaces (Search, YouTube, Gmail, Discover, Google Display Network)	Social-like buying flow Product feed formats on all visual surfaces (YouTube, Gmail, Discover, and Google Display Network) with option to upload cover image/video

Important policy restrictions for sensitive categories

While Demand Gen campaigns typically serve across multiple surfaces and offer flexible targeting, there are specific limitations for sensitive verticals to prevent ad serving confusion:

Inventory restrictions: Ads in sensitive categories are generally restricted to YouTube inventory and are not eligible to serve on Gmail or the Google Display Network. However, most sensitive categories, excluding gambling, alcohol, and political content, may serve on the Discover feed if they do not target personalized audiences or predefined Google audiences.
Targeting limitations: Sensitive category campaigns must exclusively target predefined Google audiences, such as Affinity or In-Market audience segments.
Product feeds: Advertisers promoting alcohol are strictly prohibited from using product feeds in their campaigns.

Before you begin

Follow these steps to start your Demand Gen campaign journey.

Gather your assets

Gather your creative assets, including headlines, descriptions, images and logos. To drive better performance, select your highest-quality image and video assets, such as brand and inspirational imagery featuring minimal text and effective lighting. You can also repurpose top-performing assets and messaging from existing campaigns on other platforms such as email or social.

Note: You'll increase your chances of achieving optimal performance by including more assets.

Set up conversion tracking

Set up conversion tracking on your website and make sure that the Google tag is working properly. Optimize for lightweight conversion events such as "add to basket" or "site visit" and choose a conversion counting option that makes sense for your campaign. Conversion tracking provides valuable signals to our systems so you can achieve your desired results faster.

Recommended budget requirements

Your budget settings affect how quickly we can optimize your campaign for conversions. For campaigns using target CPA bidding, Google Ads recommends setting a budget that's at least 15 times your target CPA.

For campaigns using Maximize conversions bidding, use the new tCPA scaling simulator within Google Ads to interact with percent-based bid increments and get traffic estimates.

If your ads are marked as "Eligible (limited)" due to "Implied Interactivity", you must fix the ads for them to serve. Additionally, ensure that your tCPA bid isn't set far below the historical average.

Frequently asked questions

What's a Demand Gen campaign?

Demand Gen is a tool that integrates video and image assets into a single campaign to drive action across Google's "discovery" feeds. It uses AI to serve your best-performing visuals to audiences who are most likely to be interested in your brand, even if they aren't actively searching for you yet.

What's the difference between Demand Gen and Performance Max campaigns?

While both use Google AI, their goals differ:

Performance Max helps you find more converting customers across all of Google's channels (for example,Search, Maps, Shopping). Learn more About Performance Max campaigns.
Demand Gen captures engagement and action across Google's most impactful surfaces. It gives you more control over creative testing, audience targeting, and specific placements on YouTube and Discover.

Can I run "Image Only" or "Video Only" Demand Gen campaigns?

Yes, you can choose to run a campaign that is strictly video-based or strictly image-based. However, using both typically yields better performance.

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) won't be available at the campaign level. Topics and placement exclusions won't 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”.

For more information, visit Demand Gen Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).

Next steps

View Demand Gen campaign asset quality and policy requirements

Learn Demand Gen asset policy requirements as you plan for your new Demand Gen campaign.

View Ad strength for your existing images and videos

Ensure that you're using your very best creatives for your new Demand Gen campaigns by relying on the Ad Strength tool.

View asset reporting for your existing images and videos

Learn about asset reporting for your existing creatives before you create your Demand Gen campaigns.

Learn Demand Gen asset specs and best practices

Learn how to create the highest potential ads following asset specs and using asset best practices.

Learn about dynamic product ads for Demand Gen campaigns

Learn how you can use Google Merchant Center product feeds in your Demand Gen campaigns.

Create a Demand Gen campaign

Learn how to create a Demand Gen campaign, including asset specifications and management.

Use Lookalike segments to expand your audience reach

Reach people who have similarities to your existing customers with Lookalike segments.

About Demand Gen metrics and reporting

Learn About Demand Gen campaign metrics and reporting.

About Demand Gen A/B experiments

Create A/B experiments for Demand Gen campaigns.

About Google video partners

Google video partners is an available surface for Demand Gen campaigns. Learn more About Google video partners.

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