Google Ads Demand Gen campaigns: Specs and best practices

This approach (very similar to Social ads) targets users before they even begin searching, creating demand through captivating content. It's great for businesses that are looking to enhance their advertising strategies and reach new audiences.

What is Google Ads Demand Gen Campaign?

Google Ads Demand Gen is a new type of advertising campaign powered by AI, similar to Performance Max. It aims to catch the attention of new people and make them interested in products or services before they even start searching for them. These ads appear on popular platforms like YouTube (including YouTube feed, Shorts, and In-stream), Google Discover, and Gmail. Demand Gen campaigns use these visual and interactive platforms to create a complete and effective advertising strategy.

If you want to learn more about this campagin's basic, watch the video:

When will Demand Gen campaigns get to work?

Starting in October 2023, businesses could easily switch their Discovery ads to the new Demand Gen format. By March 2024, all Discovery ads will automatically change to Demand Gen, making it available for everyone to use.

So at this moment, you should already be using Demand Gen campaigns instead of Discovery.

Demand Gen campaigns vs Discovery Ads: What are the differences?

While both campaign types share the common goal of audience expansion and demand generation, Demand Gen introduces a numerous new features. Notable among these are:

• Diverse ad formats within one single campaign: Demand Gen gives advertisers a lot of flexibility. They can try different types of ads, like short videos and carousel image ads, all within one campaign.
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• Lookalike audience segments: Businesses can use their own customer data to find new audiences that behave similarly to their current customers. This helps them reach more people who are likely to be interested in their products or services. These lookalike audience can be refined to be:
  -> Narrow (Reaching the 2,5 % of people in your target location and language that are similar to your seed list)
  -> Balanced (Reaching the 5 % of people in your target location and language that are similar to your seed list, this is the default option)
  -> Broad (Reaching the 10 % of people in your target location and language that are similar to your seed list)
  
  
• Expanded YouTube reach: With ads on YouTube Shorts and In-stream, Demand Gen campaigns take advantage of the growing popularity of short videos. This helps businesses increase their brand visibility and get more people to engage with their ads.
  
  
• Flexible bidding options: Introducing the "Maximize clicks" bidding strategy, Demand Gen empowers advertisers with enhanced control over campaign optimization and performance.
  
  
• Additional ad reporting options: Demand Gen provides detailed reports, like conversion path reports and brand lift metrics. These reports give advertisers a clear understanding of how well their campaigns are working, helping them make better decisions.

Best practices for Google Demand Gen campaigns

In preparation for the sunset of Discovery campaigns in favor of Demand Gen campaigns, businesses can adopt several best practices:

1. Plan your migration early: Proactively upgrade existing Discovery campaigns to capitalize on the enhanced features of Demand Gen, ensuring access to expanded reach across YouTube and other platforms.
   
   
2. Prepare and refresh your creatives: Optimize ad creatives for visually immersive settings, leveraging high-quality images and videos to leave a lasting impression on audiences.
   
   
3. Build your audiences: Utilize Google's lookalike segments by building original seed audiences using first-party data, enabling targeted outreach to prospects exhibiting similar behaviors.
   
   
4. Revisit your conversion tracking: Ensure accurate and comprehensive conversion tracking, optimizing for lightweight conversion events (user behavior metrics) to facilitate faster campaign optimization.
   
   
5. Budget for success: Allocate budgets strategically, considering Google's recommended guidelines for optimal performance and leveraging smart bidding strategies to maximize results.
   

In summary, Google Ads Demand Gen represents a big change in digital advertising. It gives businesses new and powerful ways to attract and engage audiences. By using the new features and strategies of Demand Gen, advertisers can get the most out of their campaigns and achieve long-term growth and success online. At least that's what Google says. So let's test it out!

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