How to create Google Demand Gen campaigns in Ad Manager

Google Demand Gen campaigns help you reach potential customers before they actively search, using visually rich ads across YouTube, Discover, Gmail and Google partner surfaces. This guide walks you step by step through creating a Demand Gen campaign in Ad Manager.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• What is a Demand Gen campaign?
• Before you start
• Step 1: Create a New Campaign
• Step 2: Select Your Campaign Goal
  • Conversions
  • Clicks
  • YouTube Engagements
• Step 3: Set Budget & Schedule
• Step 4: Configure Ad Group Settings
  • Location Targeting
  • Language Targeting
  • Placements
• Step 5: Define Your Audience
• Step 6: Create Your Ads
  • Single Image Ads
  • Single Video Ads
  • Carousel Ads
• Step 7: Preview Your Ads
• Step 8: Review & Publish
• Important Notes
• When Should You Use Demand Gen?

What is a Demand Gen campaign?

Demand Gen campaigns are designed for upper- and mid-funnel growth. Instead of relying on keywords, they use compelling creatives and audience signals to generate awareness, consideration and engagement across Google’s most immersive placements.

You can use Demand Gen campaigns to:

• Build brand awareness

• Drive product discovery

• Increase engagement with video and visual ads

• Support long-funnel conversion strategies

Before you start

Make sure that:

• Your Google Ads account is connected under Ad Manager settings to create a Google ad campaign.

• Conversion actions (if you plan to optimize for conversions) already exist in Google Ads.

• You have creatives ready (images and/or YouTube video URLs).

Step 1: Create a New Campaign

1. Go to Ad Manager under Marketing

2. Click Create Campaign

3. Select Google as the advertising platform

4. Choose Demand Gen Ads as the campaign objective
   
   

Step 2: Select Your Campaign Goal

Choose one campaign goal based on what you want to optimize for:

Conversions

• Select an existing conversion goal from your connected Google Ads account

• Optionally enable Target CPA to optimize toward a specific cost per conversion

Clicks

• Optimizes the campaign for traffic

• Optionally enable Target CPC

• No conversion goal is required

YouTube Engagements

• Optimizes for engagement from YouTube viewers

• Automatically uses an engagement-based conversion goal

• Only video ads are supported for this goal

• Optional Target CPA support

Step 3: Set Budget & Schedule

1. Choose Daily or Lifetime budget

2. Enter your budget amount

3. Select campaign start and end dates

4. (Optional) Set an Ad Schedule to control which days and times your ads run

Ad scheduling is useful if you want to pace spend or show ads only during specific business hours.

Step 4: Configure Ad Group Settings

Ad group settings control who sees your ads and where they appear.

Location Targeting

• Include or exclude countries, states, cities, or custom areas

• Ads will follow Google Demand Gen location behavior

Language Targeting

• Select one or more languages

• Ads can appear to users who understand any of the selected languages

Placements

Choose where your ads can appear:

• All Google channels (automatic placement)

• Manual placement selection, including:

  • YouTube (In-stream, In-feed, Shorts)

  • Google Discover

  • Gmail

  • Google Display Network

Step 5: Define Your Audience

Demand Gen campaigns support advanced audience targeting. You can select existing audiences directly from inside the campaign builder.

Supported audience types include:

• Interest & affinity audiences

• In-market audiences

• Data segments (remarketing)

• Lookalike audiences

• Demographic targeting

• Audience exclusions

Step 6: Create Your Ads

Demand Gen supports multiple ad formats. The available formats depend on your campaign goal.

Single Image Ads

• Upload up to 20 images

• Upload up to 5 business logos (required)

• Add up to 5 headlines and 5 descriptions

• Choose a CTA and business name

Single Video Ads

• Add up to 5 YouTube video URLs

• Videos must be at least 10 seconds long

• Recommended to include multiple aspect ratios (16:9, 9:16, 1:1)

• Upload business logos

• Add headlines, long headlines, descriptions, CTA, and business name

• Sitelinks are supported (shared at the campaign level)

Note: Video ads are mandatory when the campaign goal is YouTube Engagements.

Carousel Ads

• Add a minimum of 2 cards, up to 10 cards

• Each card includes:

  • Images (up to 3 per card)

  • Headline

  • Final URL

  • CTA

• Ensure consistent branding and image ratios across all cards

Step 7: Preview Your Ads

The platform provides a live ad preview so you can review how your ads will appear across:

• YouTube

• Google Discover

• Gmail

Use the preview to validate creatives and placements before publishing.

Step 8: Review & Publish

Before publishing, review:

• Campaign goal and budget

• Targeting and placements

• Audience configuration

• Ad creatives and formats

Once everything looks good, click Publish to launch your Demand Gen campaign.

Important Notes

• At least one ad group and one ad are required to publish

• Video ads are required for YouTube Engagement campaigns

• Conversion goals are pulled directly from your connected Google Ads account

• Placement behavior follows Google Demand Gen rules even when using our familiar UI

When Should You Use Demand Gen?

Demand Gen campaigns are ideal if you want to:

• Reach new audiences before they search

• Run visual or video-first campaigns

• Support awareness and consideration goals

• Build full-funnel Google advertising strategies from a single platform

You’re now ready to launch your first Google Demand Gen campaign in Ad Manager.