Google Demand Gen campaigns: channels, formats, bidding, timeline

By Piyush Sachdeva · Performance marketer. Founder of Performance Marketing News and Social Masla. · Drafted with AI assistance and checked against the linked official sources.

Published Oct 14, 2026Latest change Oct 14, 2026Last verified Oct 14, 2026

Demand Gen is Google’s campaign type for visual placements. One campaign runs image, video, carousel and product-feed ads across YouTube in-stream, in-feed and Shorts, Discover, Gmail, Google Maps and the Google Display Network, with channels chosen per ad group and conversion- or click-based Smart Bidding. It is also where Google’s other non-Search campaign types are being retired: Video Action Campaigns finished migrating in April 2026, and Display campaigns are migrating from June 2026 with completion expected by 2027. This page is the reference; the dated briefs at the end record each change.

Key facts
Platform	Google Ads
Feature	Demand Gen campaigns
Latest change	Oct 14, 2026
Status	Available
Where available	Available to all Google Ads advertisers. Video Action Campaigns were fully migrated into Demand Gen by April 2026; Display campaigns are migrating from June 2026 with completion expected by 2027. Channel prioritization and budget allocation are rolling out from October 2026.
Who is affected	Every advertiser running video, image or product ads outside Search: YouTube advertisers, former Video Action and Display campaign owners, and retailers with a Merchant Center feed.
Action needed	Decide per account. New video or display budgets go into Demand Gen by default now. Set channels per ad group, meet the asset set for Excellent Ad Strength, budget at least ten times target CPA, and read the channel and format segments weekly.
Sources	Google Ads Help: About Demand Gen campaigns · Google Ads Help: Channel controls in Demand Gen campaigns · Google Ads Help: Demand Gen campaign performance guide · Google Ads Help: Demand Gen asset specifications · Google Ads Help: Google Display Network integration with Demand Gen · Google Ads Help: Google Display Ads campaigns have a new home in Demand Gen · Google Ads Help: Video Action Campaigns are being upgraded to Demand Gen · Google Ads & Commerce blog: Introducing Demand Gen Drops · Google Ads & Commerce blog: February 2026 Demand Gen Drop · Google blog: Fuel your next wave of growth on YouTube with Demand Gen · Google Ads & Commerce blog: Google Display Ads is migrating to Demand Gen · Google Ads & Commerce blog: September 2026 Demand Gen Drop · Google Ads & Commerce blog: October 2026 Demand Gen Drop · Google Ads & Commerce blog: New channel prioritization and budget controls

Channels and controls

Google’s overview says Demand Gen can reach up to three billion monthly active users, with more than 50 billion daily views on Shorts alone; neither figure has a footnote. The channel controls page sets the rules. Channels are configured in each ad group’s Channels panel. “All Google channels,” which Google recommends for most advertisers, lets Google distribute budget across YouTube, Discover, Gmail and Maps, with the Google Display Network as an optional include. “Let me choose” allows any subset, down to a single channel. Maps serves only when the account has a non-affiliated location asset. Google video partners inside Demand Gen were renamed the Google Display Network, image inventory joined it in April 2025, and the GDN opt-in moved to the ad group level. Demand Gen uses marginal cost optimisation, so it favours the cheapest conversions and a channel you expect to see may serve little. Sensitive categories are generally limited to YouTube, and to Discover without personalised audiences.

On 14 October 2026 Google announced channel prioritization and budget allocation: channels marked high priority are funded first under Target CPA or ROAS, and a low-priority channel can be capped at a share of daily budget on a best-effort basis. In Demand Gen, Search, YouTube, Maps, Gmail and Discover group as “Google channels” against the Display Network. The controls are rolling out over the following months. Daily budget allocation by channel, promised “later this year” on the overview page, appears to be this feature.

Formats and assets

The asset specifications list four image orientations: 1.91:1 landscape at 1200x628 recommended, 1:1 square at 1200x1200, 4:5 vertical at 960x1200 and 9:16 vertical at 1080x1920, minimum 600x1067, recommended for Shorts, in JPG or PNG. Video runs in landscape, portrait, square and vertical. Carousels take two to ten image cards. Product feeds come from Merchant Center. Text assets are headline, long headline, description, business name and call to action, plus a 1:1 logo; sitelinks are supported. Image-only and video-only campaigns are allowed; Google says both together usually perform better, and the February 2026 Drop pushed “Excellent” Ad Strength, which needs three assets per format. Since 24 September 2026, a 9:16 full-bleed image gives single-tap landing-page visits on Shorts, and Gmail image ads open the landing page on one tap.

Bidding, budget and learning

The performance guide is explicit. Bid strategies are efficiency-based, Target CPA, Target ROAS and Target CPC, or volume-based, Maximise conversions, Maximise conversion value and Maximise clicks; click-based strategies are for click goals only. Daily budget should be at least ten times target CPA, and a low budget is the top reason new campaigns underperform. A healthy campaign uses about 80% or less of daily budget while meeting target; a campaign consistently spending more is budget-constrained and should be raised by no more than 15%. Make no changes during learning, keep bid moves within 15% and about 5 to 10% a week, do not change the conversion goal on a live campaign, expect 50 conversions before judging anything and 30 to 50 after any change, and consolidate ad groups that go a week with sparse conversions. Changing a creative restarts policy review, about 24 to 48 hours.

Audiences

Demand Gen targets with lookalike segments built from purchasers, site visitors or YouTube viewers, Customer Match, custom segments, optimised targeting and new-customer acquisition goals. The migration pages confirm that lookalike, new-customer, Customer Match, remarketing, custom and contextual audiences carry over from Display, while combined audiences and hard targeting on household income or parental status do not; those become hints. Sensitive-category campaigns must use predefined Google audiences such as affinity or in-market.

Reporting and measurement

Reporting segments by channel and by format, such as in-feed, skippable in-stream and Shorts, with placement detail in the Where ads showed report and product-level reporting for feeds. Measurement options include Conversion Lift, which since September 2025 works at lower spend and can test a whole manager account, Brand Lift by allowlist, Search Lift, platform-comparable conversion columns that mirror other platforms’ default attribution, data-driven attribution, creative A/B experiments, Campaign Type Attribution to isolate Demand Gen conversions against paid social, and Uplift Experiments to measure how Demand Gen complements Performance Max.

Google’s performance claims

Each figure is Google’s own and carries the footnote shown. Demand Gen saw a 26% increase in conversions per dollar in a year, “Google Internal Data, February 2025 – March 2025.” Advertisers adopting at least three of four best practices saw over 40% more conversions, “Google Internal Data, Global, Apr 2024 – Dec 2025.” Large product selections see a 33% conversion increase from product feeds, “Google data, Global, May to June 2025, campaigns active since Q1 2024 with over 50 products.” Adding the Display Network to Demand Gen campaigns lifts ROI 9.5%, “Google Internal Data, Global, Aug 2025.” Adding Gmail lifts image-creative conversions 40% at the same ROI, “Google Internal Data, Global, Gmail Ads, February 2026.” Google Tag Gateway users see over 20% conversion uplift in Demand Gen, “Google Data, Global, Performance, June 3 – June 17, 2026.” None states a sample size.

Timeline

April 2025. New Video Action Campaigns can no longer be created; Display Network image inventory joins Demand Gen.
July to September 2025. Video Action Campaigns with 2025 spend are auto-upgraded in batches; those without are removed.
18 September 2025. Demand Gen Drops begin as a monthly showcase; Conversion Lift at lower spend, platform-comparable conversion columns, omni-channel bidding, local offers and promotion assets announced.
24 February 2026. The February Drop frames four best-practice areas: audiences, bid and budget, creative, data strength.
April 2026. Final Video Action Campaigns are auto-upgraded; failures are recreated as paused Demand Gen campaigns.
20 May 2026. Maps inventory, checkout links in nine more markets, product feeds in more verticals, creator video boosting, AI-assisted campaign creation from Performance Max settings, Campaign Type Attribution and Uplift Experiments.
26 May 2026. Display campaigns are announced as moving into Demand Gen, completion expected by 2027.
June 2026. Display migration tool begins a phased rollout.
24 September 2026. Single-tap landing-page visits for image ads on Shorts and Gmail; Business Agent for YouTube ads by signup; affiliate location extensions in Maps.
13 October 2026. The October Drop: Data Strength Uplift metric launching in Google Ads, Data Manager expanding to Display & Video 360 and Google Analytics, enhanced conversions coming to both.
14 October 2026. Channel prioritization and budget allocation announced, rolling out over the following months.

Our view

Demand Gen has gone from an experiment to the only door for video and display budgets on Google, and the help pages now read like an operating manual for people who used to run Video Action and Display campaigns. Three things decide whether it works. Budget: the ten-times-CPA rule is not a suggestion, and most failed campaigns we see are starved. Assets: three per format including a 9:16, or the campaign is excluded from the placements that perform. Patience: fifty conversions before judgement, and bid moves of 5 to 10%, which is slower than most teams tolerate. The channel controls arriving now are the first real answer to “where did the money go,” and we would use them to cap the Display Network rather than to exclude it.

What to do

Set channels per ad group deliberately: All Google channels with the Display Network included for most campaigns; Let me choose only where a format or placement demands it.
Upload three images per orientation including 9:16, three videos in the main orientations, and a product feed if you have one, then check Ad Strength reads Excellent.
Set daily budget at ten times target CPA or more, start with a Maximise strategy if you have no realistic target, and hold changes until 50 conversions.
Segment reporting by channel and format weekly, and open the Where ads showed report for Display Network placements.
If you still run Display campaigns, read the migration brief below and move them on your own schedule before the automatic phase.

Still unknown

Google gives no date for the automatic Display migration phase, no rollout dates for channel prioritization, and no sample sizes for any performance figure. Whether channel-level daily budget allocation is the same feature as the 14 October budget allocation controls is our inference from the overview page’s wording.

Coverage on this site

Demand Gen single-tap image ads on YouTube Shorts and Gmail, 24 September 2026.
Google Display Ads moving to Demand Gen: timeline and migration, 26 May 2026.
Google Ads channel prioritization and budget caps: what changes, 14 October 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Where do Demand Gen ads appear?

YouTube in-stream, in-feed and Shorts, Discover, Gmail, Google Maps for accounts with a location asset, and the Google Display Network, which has carried image ads since April 2025. Channels are chosen per ad group: All Google channels, which Google recommends, or Let me choose, down to a single channel such as Shorts only.

What budget does a Demand Gen campaign need?

Google’s performance guide says at least ten times your target CPA per day, and calls a low daily budget the top reason new campaigns underperform. A healthy campaign spends about 80% or less of its daily budget while hitting target; raise budget by no more than 15% at a time.

Can I run Demand Gen on YouTube Shorts only?

Yes. In the ad group’s Channels panel choose Let me choose and select YouTube Shorts alone. Google notes not every channel suits every ad type, and that Demand Gen optimises for the cheapest conversions, so a single channel may serve less than expected.

Is Demand Gen replacing Display campaigns?

Yes. Google announced on 26 May 2026 that Display campaigns are moving into Demand Gen as the Google Display Network channel. A migration tool has rolled out since June 2026; new Display campaigns will later be Demand Gen only, remaining campaigns will migrate automatically, and completion is expected by 2027. Video Action Campaigns completed the same move by April 2026.

Official sources

Related coverage

Update history

Oct 14, 2026 — Reference page created from seven Google Ads help pages and seven dated announcements. It consolidates the Demand Gen briefs on this site and will be updated as Google changes the campaign type.

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