Google recently launched Demand Gen campaigns, a new format aimed at driving interest, consideration, and action across its most visually engaging platforms—YouTube (including Shorts), Gmail, Discover, and the Google Display Network.
If you’re keeping track, the current Google Ads ecosystem includes Search, Performance Max, Display, Shopping, Video, and App campaigns. So where does Demand Gen fit? Who is it built for? And how does it change how we approach campaign planning?
That’s what we’re unpacking in this article.
First, what exactly is Demand Gen, and what makes it different?
Demand Gen campaigns use a mix of creative formats (video, images, carousels, and product feeds) and are served in high-impact, scroll-heavy environments like:
- YouTube Shorts and Home Feed
- Gmail Promotions tab
- Google Discover feed
- Google Display Network
Unlike Search, Shopping, or Performance Max, these ads don’t appear on search results pages. Instead, they’re meant to spark discovery and build intent, often before a user even knows exactly what they’re looking for.
These campaigns are also set to replace Video Action Campaigns (VAC) entirely, with the full transition scheduled for July 2025.
Why is Google doing this?
To understand the “why,” we need to look at the bigger picture.
Historically, Google Ads was rooted in intent, people searching for answers, products, and services. But over the last few years, Google has been broadening its reach across the funnel, introducing tools that move beyond just intent capture to include intent creation.
With Demand Gen, Google is clearly leaning into discovery-style advertising—the kind popularized by platforms like Meta, TikTok, and Snapchat. In doing so, it’s trying to position itself as a bigger player not just in performance, but in brand and consideration media, too.
I think part of this push is strategic, but part of it reflects broader consumer behavior shifts.
Today’s buyers are:
- Spending more time on scrollable, visual platforms
- Watching more short-form video
- Taking longer to make decisions
- Being more selective with their purchases due to economic pressures
This fragmentation in attention and increase in research time mean that upper and mid-funnel tactics are more important than ever.
At Bloom, we’ve said it before: brand powers performance. And brand isn’t built at the bottom of the funnel, it starts much earlier. Demand Gen gives us another lever to pull when designing full-funnel strategies that align with how people actually discover and evaluate products in 2025.
What We Like About Demand Gen?
Demand Gen is essentially Video Action Campaigns’ smarter cousin. Same DNA, but now with more inventory, more creative tools, and improved bidding strategies. There’s a lot to appreciate from a campaign management perspective:
Creative flexibility: You can mix videos and images in a single campaign, finally. This makes execution easier and aligns more closely with how users actually consume content across platforms.
Placement control: You can choose to run only on YouTube or include Gmail and Discover, which gives us room to test, adapt, and refine placements based on goals.
New audience tools: Lookalike segments feel like a welcome addition, especially when first-party data is limited or we’re testing top-of-funnel initiatives.
Better Measurement with Platform-Comparable Conversions: One of the more useful updates from a reporting standpoint is the “Conversions (Platform Comparable)” column in Google Ads. It offers an alternative view of performance by factoring in view-through conversions (VTCs) and isolating Demand Gen impact from other Google campaigns. While it doesn’t influence bidding or optimization, it does integrate seamlessly with reporting dashboards and helps media teams make more informed decisions about budget allocation across platforms.
Where Does Demand Gen Fits in the Mix?
Google itself recommends using Demand Gen on top of Performance Max and Search, and we agree. Search and PMax are great for capturing existing intent. But Demand Gen allows us to start earlier in the journey, where intent is just forming, or hasn’t even started yet.
We see this being particularly useful for:
- Launching new products or categories
- Supporting brand lift during seasonal moments
- Driving engagement when conversion windows are long (like B2B or high-consideration retail)
Testing In Motion
Like any new campaign type, Demand Gen has a learning curve. While the early positioning is strong, there’s still testing to be done. We’re currently evaluating performance across a range of creative formats, audience types, and placements—and so far, results have been mixed (which is expected at this stage).
Some campaigns haven’t outperformed their predecessors, while others show clear potential.
For example, with a Canadian fashion retailer, we recently transitioned from Video Action to Demand Gen, and the difference was significant: over a 6-week period, we saw a +477% increase in sessions, +750% in purchases, and a +685% lift in purchase revenue.
We’re encouraging clients to start testing now and manually upgrade existing VAC campaigns. The sooner we understand how Demand Gen performs across verticals and in combination with other Google campaigns, the better positioned we’ll be to build it into broader, full-funnel media strategies.