Google's Demand Gen upgrade: Key changes and success strategies

Google Ads' Demand Gen: A Guide to Success in the Post-VAC Era

The phasing out of Video Action Campaigns (VACs) and their integration into Demand Gen campaigns presents a significant opportunity for growth in Google Ads. Google is continually enhancing Demand Gen with powerful new tools, making it crucial to adapt quickly. This article outlines the key changes and strategies for optimizing your Demand Gen campaigns.

Understanding Google's Demand Gen Campaigns

Demand Gen campaigns (formerly Discovery campaigns) provide access to Google's ad inventory across various platforms: YouTube Shorts, YouTube In-Stream, YouTube In-Feed, Discovery feeds, Gmail, and Google Video partners. They support diverse ad formats for both ecommerce and lead generation:

• Ecommerce: Image and product ads, video and product ads, products-only ads.
• Lead Generation: Single image ads, video ads, carousel image ads.

Designed to rival Meta's offerings, Demand Gen aims to boost top-of-funnel investment, generate new demand, and enhance brand awareness. Future expansion to include Display Network inventory is anticipated.

Key Strategies for Demand Gen Success:

Remarketing: Effectively retarget users who've interacted with your website. Optimize by:

• Consolidated Starting Point: Begin with a single campaign targeting users within the last 30-90 days (depending on your sales cycle).
• Separate Remarketing and Prospecting: Avoid combining these distinct campaign types to maintain data clarity.
• Audience Segmentation: Segment audiences based on engagement time (e.g., one-day vs. 90-day cart abandoners) as your budget allows.
• Integrate with Display Remarketing: Leverage existing display remarketing campaigns for expanded reach.

Prospecting: Reach potential customers unfamiliar with your brand. Strategies include:

• Leverage Past Successes: Utilize successful audience-based prospecting campaigns from other channels.
• Analyze Existing Campaign Data: Identify high-intent audiences from other campaigns for targeted Demand Gen efforts.
• Broad to Narrow Targeting: Start with broad targeting and refine based on performance data.
• Validate Investment: Employ multi-touch attribution (MTA) modeling or incremental testing to justify investment.

Audience Selection: Effective audience segmentation is crucial:

• Life Events: Target users experiencing significant life changes (e.g., new pet owners).
• In-Market Audiences: Reach users actively searching for related products or services.
• Affinity Audiences: Engage users based on long-term interests and behaviors.
• Custom Audiences: Create unique segments using keywords, URLs, and app usage.
• Lookalike Audiences: Identify new customers based on existing customer data.

Transitioning from VACs: Google's automatic upgrade of VACs to Demand Gen campaigns by July 2025 necessitates proactive planning:

• Video-Only Campaigns: Maintain YouTube control with dedicated video-only campaigns.
• Integrated Video and Image Ads: Maximize reach with a mixed-media approach.

Best Practices for Demand Gen Campaigns:

• Align with Business Goals: Tailor campaigns to ecommerce or lead generation objectives.
• Utilize Product Feeds (Ecommerce): Boost conversions with dynamic campaigns showcasing product images.
• Test Prospecting: Consider prospecting if remarketing underperforms.
• Allow for Campaign Ramp-Up: Demand Gen requires longer optimization periods.
• Experiment with Video Ads: Explore Google's video ad format options.

Measuring Success: Demand Gen requires a shift in measurement focus:

• Upper-Funnel Metrics: Track engagement, video views, and audience interactions.
• Audience Uplift: Measure the impact on search and shopping performance.
• Incrementality Testing: Use brand lift studies, geo blackouts, or post-purchase surveys.

The Future of Demand Gen: Google's ongoing investment suggests further advancements:

• Expanded Channel Controls: More granular control over ad placement.
• New Video Formats: Vertical 9:16 video ads for YouTube Shorts.
• Enhanced Retail Features: Improved product feed integration and omnichannel bidding.

Conclusion:

Demand Gen campaigns present a powerful opportunity for growth. By adopting a strategic approach and leveraging the latest tools, advertisers can gain a competitive edge, build brand awareness, and drive long-term success. While requiring a different mindset than traditional Google Ads campaigns, the potential rewards are substantial.

This article is contributed content and reflects the opinions of the author.

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