Demand Gen Advertising on Google: A Complete Guide to 2025
In a world where consumer attention is the main currency, marketers are constantly looking for new ways to engage audiences and achieve higher conversions.
Although "young", Demand Gen ads on Google have quickly established themselves as one of the most powerful online advertising tools, especially for businesses looking to attract new users and create demand for their products or services.
👉 In this article, you'll learn what Demand Gen advertising is , how it works, why it's important, and what its advantages are over other Google campaigns.
What is Demand Gen advertising on Google?
If Google Search campaigns are one side of the coin, Demand Gen is the other.
If Search campaigns respond to an existing demand and address a specific intent from users at the right time, then Demand Gen does exactly what their name suggests - they generate demand.
Demand Gen ads can be called "Next Generation."
These campaigns proactively engage consumers with visually appealing content to create interest and demand among an audience that may not be familiar with your product or service.
🗓️ At the end of 2023, they replace Google Discovery ads, adding extra goodies for advertisers.
As we've repeatedly mentioned lately - visual content is the new king and that's what makes Demand Gen campaigns so attractive to advertisers.
Through them, you reach users beyond the text-filled search engine results pages (SERPs). Instead, Demand Gen gives you a chance to stand out with beautiful video or static advertising that appears across Google's visual content-focused products - YouTube, Gmail Ads & Google Discovery Feed.
🟠 In other words, through Demand Gen campaigns, you're where consumers are (most often) entertained. Which makes them quite similar to other types of ads you know well like those on social networks (like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok).
Key Features of Demand Gen Ads
From specific ad formats and placements to artificial intelligence optimization, here are the essentials you need to know before running your first Demand Gen ad on Google.
What audiences can you target with Demand Gen advertising?
👉 The possibilities for targeting audiences with Demand Gen are many. Choose from a variety of targeting options that you can adjust at the campaign or ad group level.
1. 📍Campaign level basics
- Targeting by device: choice of platform, operating system, device model and networks.
- Location and language: ability to target by country, region, city, geographic radius or proximity to a specific location.
2. 👩 Demographic targeting
You can target ads to audiences based on:
- Age and sex
- Household income
- Parental status
3. 🛍️ Google Segments
Google provides ready-made audiences that make targeting easier:
- Custom segments: allow you to target via keywords, URLs or apps related to your search audience.
- Interests and detailed demographics:
- In-market: consumers with purchase intent.
- Life Events: People who are experiencing major life events (wedding, moving, etc.).
- Affinity segments: consumers with certain interests and habits.
4. 📱Target an audience that has already interacted with your business:
- Website visitors: people who have visited your website.
- App users: users who have used your app.
- YouTube audience: people who have interacted with your videos or channel.
- Customer list: audience based on data collected from your business.
5. ⚙️ AI-driven targeting
- Lookalike segments: audiences that share common characteristics with your existing customers.
- Optimised targeting: an automated Google option to improve performance with segments you may not have thought of.
- Recommended audiences based on your goals. Based on behavioral and demographic data to identify users most likely to be interested in your products or services.
6. ❌ Exclusion of certain segments
You can exclude users who have already interacted with your business (e.g. site visitors, customers, etc.).
Where can Google Demand Gen ads be displayed?
👉 Demand Gen ads use a variety of formats that can be displayed in the following locations across the most commonly used Google products:
- YouTube Shorts
- YouTube in-stream ads
- YouTube in-feed ads
- Google Discover
- Gmail ads
What formats are used in Demand Gen advertising?
👉 Key to the success of Demand Gen ads are high-quality visuals that grab attention and evoke an emotional connection. The options are:
- Video: for example, YouTube ads or videos that appear on Discover.
- Images: bright, quality visuals that grab attention and make the user pause while scrolling through their feed.
- Carousels: allow you to tell a story through multiple images.
Benefits of Demand Gen Advertising on Google
🚀 Extended range
You're reaching an audience that doesn't yet know about your product, but would be interested. This makes it easy to find the new users you need to scale your business.
Targeting by interests, demographics or lookalike audiences are valuable weapons in the hands of advertisers looking for new growth opportunities.
🚀 Personalization and more engagement
Ads are tailored to the interests and behaviour of the consumer. And videos and visual content hold attention longer than text ads.
This means Demand Gen advertising is shown to the right people at the right time - even if they don't know they need your product/service.
🚀 A/B tests
Demand Gen ads give you the opportunity to A/B test your campaign and preview it before its official launch (ad preview). This allows you to achieve the best results based on real data and thus get the best return on your investment.
🚀 Optimization and automation with artificial intelligence
AI tests different combinations of content and audiences to find the most effective formats. This makes it possible to automatically optimize campaigns in real-time to target more budget to the best performing elements.
How do you create a Demand Gen campaign in a few easy steps?
1. Create a new campaign
- Log in to your Google Ads account, select "Campaign" from the menu and add a campaign name.
- If you want to use product feeds, enable the "Run a product feed campaign" option .
2. Choosing a campaign goal
Choose one of the following goals:
- Sales.
- Website Traffic: to attract traffic to the website.
- Product and Brand Consideration: for product and brand promotion.
- Campaign without a goal's guidance: for manual management.
The choice of goal should reflect the desired outcome of the campaign, for example, if the goal is website visits, choose Website Traffic.
3. Campaign targeting setup
Targeting by device:
- Choose whether ads appear on all devices or specifically on mobile phones, computers, tablets or TV screens.
- For mobile devices and tablets, you can target specific operating systems, models and networks.
Targeting by language and location:
- All languages and all locations are used by default.
- For more precise targeting, enable campaign-level targeting and set a radius around a specific location.
4. Budget setting and beating strategy
Choose from the following strategies for beating:
- Maximize Conversion Value.
- Target ROAS: Optimization for return on advertising spend.
- Maximize Conversions.
- Target CPA: Cost per Action Optimization.
- Maximize Clicks.
Budget Options:
- Daily budget: the average amount you want to spend daily.
- Total budget: total amount for the whole campaign, evenly spread over a set period.
5. Ad Group level targeting update
Audience selection:
- Leverage existing segments (e.g. custom or lookalike) or create new audiences.
- Enable optimized targeting to allow algorithms to expand audiences beyond set demographics.
Exclusion of audiences:
- Exclude unwanted segments to avoid overlapping or showing ads to the wrong audience.
Demographic targeting:
- Limit or expand ads by age, gender, income and other characteristics.
6. Creation of advertisements
Ad formats:
- Video Ads: single video ads suitable for YouTube.
- Images: single images for Google Discover and Gmail.
- Carousel Ads: Multiple images in one format suitable for interactive campaigns.
What to include:
- Ad Name.
- Visual elements (logo and various images/videos).
- Text elements (title, description).
How does Demand Gen differ from Performance Max?
Performance Max is another innovative type of automated Google Ads campaign designed to maximize performance.
Here again, with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, various ad networks such as Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, Discover and others are combined to ensure maximum coverage and impact.
Performance Max is distinguished by its ability to adapt advertising content to user behavior and needs.
Advertisers provide key elements such as images, videos, titles and descriptions, and AI optimises combinations of these to achieve the best results. All of this happens within a single campaign, which simplifies management and increases efficiency.
There are quite a few differences between Demand Gen campaigns and Performance Max campaigns, which we've put together in a table.
Best Practices for Successful Demand Gen Advertising
Invest in visual content
Visual content is the heart of Demand Gen campaigns. To engage your audience, it's important to create content that not only looks good, but also conveys your message clearly and emotionally.
- Use professional images and videos: rely on high resolution and colours that match your brand identity.
- Product Focus: Show your product or service in the context of everyday life so your audience can easily identify with it.
- Emotional Connection: Include scenarios and characters that evoke emotions such as joy, calm, or contentment.
Test different formats
Variety in formats is key to figuring out what works best for your audience.
- Videos:Suitable for YouTube and Discover, videos can tell a story and demonstrate the product in action.
- Carousels: ideal for showcasing multiple aspects of a product - features, colors, styles.
- Images: Effective for static ads in Discover and Gmail when clear and visually appealing.
- Textual content: although visuals are leading, short and clear textual messages in headlines and descriptions also play an important role.
Optimise your audience
Targeting the right audience can be the difference between a successful campaign and an ineffective one.
- Segment your audience: divide them by interests, demographics, behaviours and intentions.
- Use lookalike audiences: reaching consumers who look like your existing customers can significantly increase effectiveness.
- Optimised targeting: rely on Google's AI to automatically optimise targeting based on the audience you initially select. This gives you the opportunity to reach segments of users you may have missed.
Keep an eye on the metrics
Analysis of the campaign's performance is critical to its success.
- CTR (Click-Through Rate): Indicates how well your ads engage users. A low CTR can signal a need for improvement in creatives or targeting.
- CPC (Cost Per Click): measures how much you pay for each click. A high CPC may suggest it's time to optimize your audience or content.
- Conversion Rate: determines what percentage of clicks result in the desired action (purchase, subscription, etc.). This is a key indicator of campaign performance.
- Engagement Metrics: For video ads, track metrics for views, completed videos, and watch time.
Analysis and testing
Constant testing is a key element for a successful Demand Gen campaign. Use A/B testing to see how different visuals, headlines and formats perform and determine the best combination.
These best practices will help you get the most out of your Demand Gen campaigns by ensuring high engagement, better conversions, and sustainable growth.
Demand Gen ads are a powerful digital marketing tool in 2025. They offer an innovative way to create demand, engage audiences and optimise results using AI. Compared to traditional campaigns and Performance Max, Demand Gen differentiates itself with its focus on visual impact and personalized experience.
With the right strategy and a creative approach, Demand Gen can be the key to increasing visibility and conversions for your business.