Not Running Demand Gen Campaigns Yet? You're Behind

Most brands are obsessed with bottom-funnel conversions. They pour budget into retargeting and branded search, hoping to catch users who are already primed to convert. That’s all well and good, but here’s the hard truth: you can’t retarget people who’ve never heard of you.

If you want to grow in a meaningful, scalable way – not just wring out a few more conversions from the same pool – you need demand generation. And not tomorrow. Now.

Let’s talk about what a Demand Gen campaign actually is, why it matters, how to launch your first one, and what you need to track to make it work.

What is a Google Demand Gen campaign?

A Demand Gen campaign is Google’s social-style campaign type, built to create demand among people who don’t yet know they need you. Instead of chasing keywords, you hand Google your best images and videos, tell it who you want to reach, and it serves those ads across Google’s most visual, discovery-led surfaces: YouTube (including in-stream, in-feed and Shorts), the Discover feed and Gmail.

If you ran Discovery campaigns in the past, Demand Gen is their replacement. Google retired Discovery and migrated every campaign over to Demand Gen (that transition completed back in 2024), and in 2025 it also folded Video Action Campaigns into the same campaign type. So Demand Gen is now the single home for feed-based, visual prospecting inside Google Ads – there’s no separate Discovery product to go back to.

The trade-off is that Demand Gen is asset-hungry. It runs on creative, not keywords, so you need a spread of images and videos in the right formats plus several headlines and descriptions before it can do its job. Get the ingredients right and it will place them across billions of impressions of YouTube, Discover and Gmail inventory. Get them wrong and it has nothing to work with.

If you’re weighing this against Google’s other automated campaign type, read our breakdown of Performance Max vs Demand Gen – there’s a short version further down in the FAQ.

Why Demand Generation Shouldn’t Be an Afterthought

Most businesses have a demand capture strategy. Few have a demand creation strategy. And that’s the gap.

Here’s why Demand Gen isn’t just a buzzword – it’s a revenue multiplier.

1. Bigger Discovery Channels, Not Just Meta

Meta has become the go-to for performance marketers, and for good reason – it’s one of the strongest platforms for solution-aware users. These are people who already know they need something like your product.

But YouTube? That’s a problem-aware market. It’s where people go to learn, explore, and discover. If you’re only running ads on Meta, you’re fishing in a pond when there’s an ocean out there.

With Demand Gen, you’re not just waiting for people to stumble across your brand – you’re putting it in front of them in a way that makes them care.

2. Real Incrementality

You’ll hear marketers talk about “incrementality”, but not many can prove they’re delivering it.

Demand Gen done right isn’t just shifting conversions from one channel to another – it’s adding net-new customers to your pipeline. These are people who never would have searched for you, never clicked a retargeting ad, and never made it to checkout… if you hadn’t reached them earlier in their journey.

3. More Stable Than Meta (If You’re Willing To Work For It)

Meta’s performance can be erratic. It’s quick to optimise, but just as quick to destabilise with creative fatigue or algorithm changes.

Demand Gen across YouTube, Discover and Gmail is more stable – but there’s a caveat: it takes effort. You can’t just plug in a few creatives and wait for magic. You need strategy, strong audience frameworks, and a better understanding of your funnel. If display prospecting is already part of your mix, Demand Gen is the natural next step up in creative quality and intent signals.

4. Smarter Targeting Capabilities

One of the unsung benefits of Demand Gen is how precise you can get with targeting.

• Want to reach users who’ve visited a competitor’s site? You can do that.
• Want to build campaigns around search themes – not just keywords? You can do that too.

It’s not just about demographics or interests. It’s about intent signals. And Demand Gen gives you access to them in a way most platforms don’t.

How to launch your first Google Demand Gen campaign

The motivational case is easy. The setup is where most people stall, so here’s the actual sequence inside Google Ads.

1. Pick your objective and conversion action. Start a new campaign, choose the Demand Gen type, and select the conversion goal that matters most – purchases, leads or sign-ups. Everything downstream optimises towards this, so don’t leave soft actions like page views switched on if you care about revenue.
2. Set your budget and bid strategy. You’ll choose between Maximise conversions, Target CPA, Maximise conversion value or Target ROAS. Google’s own guidance is to set a daily budget of at least 10 times your target CPA so the campaign has room to learn and find new audiences – if your target CPA is £30, that’s a £300/day budget as a floor, not a stretch. (Note: from June 2026 Google renamed the target-based options, so “Maximise conversions with a target CPA” now simply appears as “Target CPA”, and the ROAS equivalent as “Target ROAS”.)
3. Build your audiences. This is where the intent signals live, and Demand Gen gives you three main tools:
   • Custom segments – tell Google the search terms people use or the URLs they visit (including competitors), and it builds an audience around that behaviour. This is how you turn “target competitor visitors” and “build around search themes” from a nice idea into an actual segment.
   • Your data segments – Customer Match lists, plus people who’ve visited your site or app or engaged with your YouTube channel. Your best first-party data usually makes your strongest seed.
   • Lookalike and optimised targeting – historically you’d build a lookalike segment from a seed list. Google is now shifting away from fixed lookalike thresholds towards optimised targeting, which takes your first-party lists as a signal and lets its AI find similar users automatically. Feed it a good seed list either way.
4. Upload your creative to spec. Demand Gen is asset-hungry, so give it a full spread. Upload images in all four aspect ratios – horizontal 1.91:1 (recommended 1200x628), square 1:1 (1200x1200), vertical 4:5 (960x1200) and vertical 9:16 (1080x1920, the one that unlocks Shorts) – plus a square logo. Videos need to be at least 5 seconds (10+ to run on YouTube in-stream). Google’s rule of thumb is at least three assets in each aspect ratio, alongside several distinct headlines and descriptions, so the system has enough variety to test.
5. Set frequency and placements. Decide where you’re comfortable showing – YouTube, Discover, Gmail or all three – and cap frequency so you build recall without hammering the same person. As the post covers below, somewhere around 2.5 to 4.5 average frequency is a sensible band for most industries.
6. Measure on assisted and view-through, then give it time. Don’t judge a demand-creation campaign on last-click. Track assisted and view-through conversions, and give the campaign a genuine learning window – think a few weeks and a meaningful volume of conversions before you draw conclusions, not a weekend. Google’s reporting is delayed, so early panic kills good campaigns.

How to Get Started With Demand Gen (It’s Easier Than You Think)

If this sounds like a mountain to climb, don’t worry. You’ve already got a head start if you’ve been running Meta successfully.

Here’s how to kick things off:

1. Repurpose Your Winning Meta Creatives for YouTube

Your best-performing Meta videos aren’t just assets – they’re proof of concept. Take them, reformat them, and run them on YouTube.

But don’t stop there…

2. Extend Videos to Focus on Problem Awareness

If your current creatives jump straight to the solution – your product – you’re missing the opportunity to speak to users who don’t even know they need it yet.

Introduce the problem. Show the pain point. Make people feel it. Then you can guide them to the solution.

3. Target Competitor Audiences and Adjacent Interests

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Your competitors have already built audiences that resemble your ideal buyer.

Use Google’s audience targeting to reach their site visitors, as well as people interested in similar categories. You’ll be surprised how quickly you can get in front of high-quality prospects.

The Metrics That Actually Matter

Demand Gen isn’t about instant conversions. That’s not the point. So don’t judge its success by the same metrics you use for bottom-funnel campaigns.

Here’s what you should focus on:

1. View-Through and Assisted Conversions

These are your canary in the coal mine. They show you whether your campaigns are influencing outcomes – even if they aren’t the last click.

Track assisted conversions in GA4. Pay attention to view-throughs in Google Ads. These give you a much clearer picture of your impact.

2. CAC and ROAS Based on Clicks (Not Engaged Views)

Google includes “engaged views” in their reporting – users who watched 10 seconds or more of your video without clicking. Don’t build your ROAS models around these. Stick to click-based conversions to understand true performance.

3. Average Frequency per User

Frequency tells you how many times someone saw your ad. Too low, and you’re not making an impact. Too high, and you’re wasting spend.

Find the sweet spot where recall and relevance meet – usually between 2.5 and 4.5, depending on your industry.

4. CPC Still Matters (But It’s Not Everything)

Lower CPC can give you more impressions and a broader reach. But don’t chase cheap traffic if it’s not converting. Balance cost with quality and downstream impact.

A Few More Tactical Tips

• Use your Meta-to-GA4 ROAS as a baseline. Your Demand Gen ROAS should fall within ±10% of this number. That’s a solid starting benchmark.
• Be patient. Google reporting is delayed. Don’t rush to kill campaigns too early.
• Remember: Google often reports a lower RTO (return on ad spend over time). Factor that into your calculations, especially if you’re used to Meta’s more generous reporting windows.

What’s Your Budget Saying?

If your entire paid media budget is going toward conversion-focused campaigns, you’re playing a short-term game. That’s not how brands are built.

Ask yourself: what percentage of your spend is going toward demand creation? If the answer is “not much”, then you’re not just missing opportunities – you’re leaving growth on the table.

FAQ {#faq}

Is Demand Gen the same as Discovery?

No – Demand Gen is Discovery’s replacement. Google retired Discovery campaigns and migrated everyone over to Demand Gen (completed in 2024), then folded Video Action Campaigns in during 2025. Demand Gen keeps the Discover, Gmail and YouTube feed placements you’d expect, but adds far more reach across YouTube (including Shorts), better audience controls and richer creative formats. If you’re looking for the old Discovery campaign type, this is where it went.

What budget do I need to start?

There’s no fixed minimum spend to open a Demand Gen campaign, but there is a practical floor. Google recommends a daily budget of at least 10 times your target CPA so the campaign can exit the learning phase and reach enough new people. If your target cost per conversion is £25, plan for roughly £250/day; if it’s £50, closer to £500/day. Start below that and you’ll starve the algorithm and draw the wrong conclusions. Treat the first few weeks as an investment in data, not a pass/fail test.

How is it different from PMax?

Performance Max chases conversions across all of Google’s inventory – Search, Shopping, Maps, Display, YouTube, Discover and Gmail – and leans heavily on capturing existing demand. Demand Gen is narrower and more visual: it lives on YouTube, Discover and Gmail only, and its job is to create demand among people who aren’t searching for you yet. In short, PMax is mostly demand capture, Demand Gen is demand creation. Most growing brands run both, feeding the top of the funnel with Demand Gen and capturing intent lower down with PMax and Search. We go deeper in Performance Max vs Demand Gen, and if you’re running PMax on ecommerce it’s worth checking you’re not leaving money on the table without a Shopping feed.

What creative do I actually need?

At minimum, images in all four aspect ratios (1.91:1, 1:1, 4:5 and 9:16), a square logo, and – ideally – a few videos of at least 5 seconds. Aim for three or more assets per aspect ratio plus several headlines and descriptions. The more quality variety you give Google, the more inventory it can fill and the better it can optimise.

How long before Demand Gen works?

Give it a genuine learning window rather than a snap judgement. Google’s reporting is delayed and demand-creation campaigns influence conversions further down the line, so allow a few weeks and a meaningful volume of conversions before you decide. Judge it on assisted and view-through conversions, not last-click, or you’ll switch off a campaign that’s quietly working.