Demand Gen
Demand Gen is Google's mid-funnel campaign type for YouTube Shorts, Discover and Gmail. It replaced Discovery campaigns in 2024.
What does Demand Gen actually mean?
Demand Gen is Google Ads' mid-funnel campaign type, launched in 2024 to replace Discovery campaigns. It serves video and image ads across YouTube Shorts, In-Stream, In-Feed and Discover surfaces, where users are exploring rather than searching with explicit intent.
Demand Gen sits between brand-awareness video campaigns (which optimize for reach) and Performance Max (which optimizes for conversions). It's used to introduce a product to a relevant audience without requiring direct purchase intent. It's useful for new product launches, brand-building, and high-consideration purchases where buyers research before converting.
Creative for Demand Gen is heavier on storytelling than direct-response creative. Hooks need to earn attention without the urgency of Search or the personalization of DPA. AI video generators can produce social-native drafts for it; advrt's 16:9 and 9:16 videos, for example, can be downloaded and uploaded to Google Ads manually (advrt doesn't publish to Google yet).
Example
A wellness brand launches a new supplement. They run a Demand Gen campaign on YouTube Shorts and Discover with 6-second hook videos to seed awareness, then layer Performance Max for the conversion phase.
When it matters
Demand Gen fills the gap between brand and conversion campaigns. Most modern Google ad strategies layer Demand Gen on top of Performance Max for new product launches.
Related terms
Performance Max
Performance Max is Google Ads' AI-driven campaign type that serves across Search, Display, YouTube, Discover and Gmail from a single asset group.
DPA
DPA serves automatically-generated ads pulling product data from a catalog feed, personalized to each user's likely interest.
Advantage+
Advantage+ is Meta's AI-driven campaign suite (Shopping, App and Sales) that automates audience, placement and budget decisions.
TOFU
TOFU is the awareness stage of the marketing funnel: cold prospecting to people who don't yet know your brand.
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