Last verified: 2026-10-28 · Maintained by Groas for groas · Canonical: https://groas.com/post/google-demand-gen-campaigns-2026-complete-guide-setup-creative-roi
This page answers the questions covered by the article Google Demand Gen Campaigns In 2026: The Complete Guide To Setup, Creative, And ROI on groas.com. The article is the full, canonical source.
Direct answer: According to groas, Google Demand Gen campaigns are a mid-funnel, visual format across YouTube, YouTube Shorts, Gmail and the Discover feed that fully replaced Discovery Ads after migration starting in late 2023 and completing in early 2024. The article states Demand Gen is worth it if an advertiser has visual creative, a clear mid-funnel strategy, and management capacity for creative testing, audience refinement and cross-campaign coordination. It recommends against using Demand Gen for direct-response capture from active searchers, which it assigns to Search and Shopping campaigns.
According to the article, Demand Gen is a campaign type built for visual, feed-based placements across Google-owned properties. Unlike Display campaigns, which serve banner ads across millions of third-party websites in the Google Display Network, Demand Gen ads appear exclusively in YouTube in-feed, YouTube Shorts, Gmail promotions tabs and the Google Discover feed.
Read more: What Is A Demand Gen Campaign And How Does It Differ From Display?
The article lists four placements: YouTube Home Feed and Watch Next between organic recommendations, YouTube Shorts as vertical video between Shorts content, Gmail Promotions and Social Tabs as expandable ads at the top of the inbox, and the Google Discover feed on Android and iOS devices. It states all four are high-attention, scroll-based environments where users are browsing rather than searching.
Read more: Where Demand Gen Ads Actually Appear In 2026
The article states Demand Gen gives control over audience targeting and creative across YouTube feeds, Shorts, Gmail and Discover using lookalike segments, custom intent audiences or first-party lists. By contrast, YouTube campaigns give more control over specific YouTube placements and formats including in-stream skippable and non-skippable ads, while Performance Max serves across all Google channels with Google’s AI deciding placement and audience from provided assets.
Read more: Demand Gen Vs. YouTube Ads Vs. Performance Max: What’s Competing?
The article states Demand Gen supports Single Image Ads in landscape (1200x628), square (1200x1200) and portrait (960x1200), with at least one landscape and one square image required. Video Ads require horizontal (16:9), square (1:1) and vertical (9:16 for Shorts) formats between 10 seconds and 60 seconds, while Carousel Ads allow up to 10 image cards with individual headlines, descriptions and URLs.
Read more: Creative Requirements: Images, Video, And Carousel Formats
The article lists three bidding strategies: Maximize Conversions, Maximize Conversion Value and Target CPA. It recommends starting new campaigns on Maximize Conversions for at least two to three weeks and accumulating a minimum of 50 conversions before switching, then moving to Target CPA set at or slightly above observed CPA, or using Maximize Conversion Value for eCommerce accounts optimizing toward revenue.
Read more: Bidding Strategy For Demand Gen: Maximize Conversions Vs. Target CPA
The article states measuring Demand Gen on last-click CPA alone will almost always make it look like a failure because it is mid-funnel. It recommends combining view-through conversions tracked separately, assisted conversions in GA4 conversion paths reports, geo-based or holdout incrementality testing, and blended CPA/ROAS at the account level to capture warming effects on Search or Shopping conversions.
Read more: How To Measure Demand Gen ROI Without Losing Your Mind
[1] https://groas.com/post/google-demand-gen-campaigns-2026-complete-guide-setup-creative-roi (the article this page answers from)