Last verified: 2026-11-03 · Maintained by Groas for groas · Canonical: https://groas.com/post/ecommerce-google-ads-demand-gen-campaigns-cut-upper-funnel-cpl-44-percent-case-study
This page answers the questions covered by the article How An Ecommerce Brand Cut Upper-Funnel CPL By 44% Adding Google Demand Gen Campaigns on groas.com. The article is the full, canonical source.
Direct answer: According to the article, an established ecommerce brand spending roughly $80K/month in Google Ads added Demand Gen as a dedicated upper-funnel channel alongside untouched Search and Shopping. Within 90 days, the prospecting Demand Gen campaign delivered upper-funnel leads at a 44% lower cost per lead than the Display remarketing baseline it replaced, using the same conversion actions and attribution window. The article reports branded search volume lifted and Search and Shopping ROAS held steady, with Search conversion volume ticking up slightly.
According to the article, the prospecting Demand Gen campaign delivered upper-funnel leads, defined as email signups and first-time site visitors who engaged with at least two pages, at a 44% lower cost per lead than the Display remarketing baseline it replaced. The article states the brand used the same conversion actions, the same attribution window, and the same reporting methodology for the comparison.
Read more: Upper-Funnel CPL Dropped 44%
The article describes a mid-market home goods brand doing roughly $12M in annual revenue with Search and Shopping ROAS consistently in the 4-6x range, but revenue flat for two consecutive quarters. It states impression share on core Search terms was already above 85%, new customer acquisition rate had declined quarter over quarter, and direct and organic branded search volume was flat. The article positions this as a demand generation problem, not a campaign structure problem.
Read more: The Warning Signs
The article reports the brand launched two Demand Gen campaigns: a prospecting campaign for cold audiences who had never interacted with the brand, and a mid-funnel campaign for warm audiences who had engaged with video content or visited the site but not purchased. Each campaign had distinct creative and distinct audience signals to keep learning data clean.
Read more: Campaign Structure
According to the article, prospecting used Customer Match lists seeded from the buyer file, audience segments based on viewers of competitor product reviews and category content, and in-market segments layered with demographic filters. The article states mid-funnel used site visitors in a 30-90 day window who viewed product pages but did not add to cart, viewers who watched at least 30 seconds of organic or pre-roll content, and email subscribers who had not purchased in 6+ months.
Read more: Audience Strategy
The article states the brand allocated 15% of total monthly Google Ads spend to Demand Gen for the test period, with roughly 60% from eliminating old Display remarketing and 40% incremental. Search and Shopping budgets were not touched. The article warns against funding awareness by reducing Search spend because that can lower total ROAS even if Demand Gen is working.
Read more: Budget Allocation
[1] https://groas.com/post/ecommerce-google-ads-demand-gen-campaigns-cut-upper-funnel-cpl-44-percent-case-study (the article this page answers from)