Demand Gen: New Google Ads lead generation campaign

Demand Gen heralds the dawn of a new strategy for ad campaign generation on Google Ads, introducing AI (Artificial Intelligence) to boost your visibility.

An improved version of Discovery, this new service promises an increase in conversion rates as well as a host of highly useful advantages for advertisers. However, as is often the case with a new service, there are also a few challenges to overcome…

Wondering how Demand Gen (DG) can be useful to you? How best to utilize this new tool? Debugbar is here to present it in detail and give you the keys to harness its full potential.

What is Demand Gen and what is it used for?

Demand Gen (DG) is a solution developed by Google Ads designed to help advertisers and marketing teams create campaigns that are better adapted to social platforms, enabling them to stand out in an ever-evolving media environment.

Launched on October 10, 2023, for the general public, following a testing phase that started on June 14, 2023, the Demand Generation campaign aims to replace Discovery.

This new service is rather innovative as it incorporates Artificial Intelligence to propose ad campaigns that better consider customer needs in order to improve their engagement rate.

To offer this customer-centric approach, Google DG uses intent data.

In practical terms, this means that you can create ads that match your prospects’ interests and thus increase your chances of seeing them take action. So you’re not just converting anymore, you’re creating demand.

In simple terms, the goal of Demand Gen is to enable you to:

• Capture prospects from the very beginning of the sales funnel;
• Attract and retain a better-qualified new clientele;
• Increase your brand awareness;
• Increase your conversion rate and sales.

So, as you can see, on paper, DG makes splendid promises. But how does Google plan to fulfill them? Well, merely by relying on new features.

What are the main features of Google Demand Gen?

As you may have already somewhat understood, Demand Gen seeks to attract new customers by offering them optimized ads that manage to captivate them to take action.

To allow you to reach these goals, Google has evolved Discovery and offers with DG several new or improved features:

• Lookalike segments : These advanced segmentations effectively target prospects who resemble your current customers in order to reach consumers genuinely interested in your products / services.

• Reports segmented by ad format: To efficiently optimize your ads, it’s crucial to have an accurate analysis of your performance. With DG, you avail segmented reports by ad format. Thus you can understand which format works best on your audience and accordingly adjust your strategy.
• Multiplatform and multi-format coverage: Like Discovery, Demand Gen is compatible with several platforms (Gmail, YouTube, Discover, etc.). But the real novelty is that you can more widely distribute your campaigns as additional ad placements have been unlocked.

For example: Ads made with Discovery could only appear in YouTube’s feed. They can now also appear in YouTube Shorts and In Stream. So your impact is evidently larger.

You can also use various formats to increase your prospects’ engagement:

• Carrousels,
• Video,
• Image,
• etc.

Thanks to this diversity of forms, Google promises click-through rates (CTR) up to 3 times higher than those of “classic” campaigns.

• The product feeds: For retailers, DG offers the opportunity to enrich their ads with product feeds directly sourced from their catalog. This means that your ad can show precisely the products you sell. Thus, you increase the relevance and engagement of your prospects.
• A/B tests: DG provides you with various A/B testing tools to test your campaigns and identify the elements that work best.
• Automatic bidding through Maximize click: this feature offers you the possibility to manage your bids automatically based on the budget allocated to your campaigns. Thus, you can improve your click-through rate without having to increase your budget.

As you can see, this new service from Google offers interesting functions. And, as you can guess, these can prove very advantageous.

Demand Gen: What are the benefits of this service?

Demand Gen is a valuable ally for your marketing strategy, as it will allow you to:

• Boost your visibility.
• Improve your conversion rate.
• Attract and retain new customers.

Boost your visibility

With AI-optimized personalized ad experiences, DG can expose your brand to an audience of three billion monthly users.

This is a considerable potential to increase your brand’s awareness among an audience genuinely interested in your products.

Optimize your conversion rate and sales

By leveraging AI to deliver hyper-personalized ads, DG effectively targets users likely to take action.

As a result, you can expect an increase in your conversion rate and sales.

Attract and retain your customers

DG isn’t just a tool for reaching new customers. It also helps retain your existing clientele with personalized ads based on their past interests and behaviors.

But beware, while these benefits are alluring, the DG service isn’t without drawbacks either.

What are the limitations of Demand Gen?

Although it presents significant advantages, DG also includes a few challenges:

• Limited control: With AI at the helm, some advertisers might feel a loss of control over their campaigns.
• Lack of transparency: Some advertisers have pointed out a lack of transparency in campaign reporting.
• An initial investment: For quality video content, an initial investment may be required.
• No guarantee of success: While YouTube and other compatible broadcasting networks have a broad audience, there is no guarantee that your ads will achieve the expected success.

That’s why it’s essential to test different settings to see if this solution can suit you and allow you to obtain the best possible results.

Has everything you just read convinced you to use Demand Gen? Want to know how to create campaigns? Well then, let’s look at that right away.

How to create a Google Ads campaign with Demand Gen?

Creating a Google Ads campaign with DG might seem intimidating at first, but fear not! Debugbar is here to guide you step-by-step:

1. Log into your Google Ads account.
2. Navigate to the “Campaigns” tab located on the left side of your dashboard.
3. Click on “Create a new Campaign” to start setting up your new Demand Gen campaign.

4. Choose your campaign objective. You can select from various objectives such as:
   • Boosting your sales,
   • Brand awareness,
   • Attracting more leads,
   • And much more.

5. Define your target audience: “Geographical”, “By device”, etc.
6. Configure your bidding strategy (clicks, conversions or website actions) and set your budget.

7. Define your audience.
8. Create your ads.
9. Confirm and launch your campaign.

Your Google Demand Gen campaign is now set up and ready to be launched. But remember, simply launching a campaign is not enough for its success. It’s absolutely essential to follow certain guidelines to put the odds in your favor.
Our 8 tips for optimizing your tool usage

Crafting an effective Google Demand Gen campaign involves following certain guidelines. Here are Debugbar’s 8 tips for a successful campaign:

1. Use different formats: Don’t hesitate to test different ad types (video, image, carousels…), to see which works best with your audience.
2. Fully utilize data: Carefully analyze the reports provided by Demand Gen to understand which strategy works – and more importantly, why it works.
3. Test various bidding strategies to see which one yields the best return for your campaigns.
4. Prioritize relevance: Remember that users are more likely to engage with ads that are relevant to them.
5. Optimize conversion tracking: Use Google Ads’ conversion tracking tags on your entire website and on the final page where conversions are confirmed.
6. Avoid making major adjustments within two weeks of launching the campaign.
7. Select the bid tCPA or tROAS to align your goals and your level of expertise.
8. Aim for at least 50 conversions per experiment: To fully benefit from Demand Gen’s algorithm, you should aim for a minimum of 50 conversions per experiment. This allows the algorithm to continuously learn and optimize your ads.

By applying these tips, you will enhance the effectiveness of your Google Demand Gen campaigns and maximize your return on investment.

Demand Gen: Key takeaways

To summarize, Demand Gen is a real asset for advertisers & marketing teams wanting to stand out online.

With its numerous features and massive potential in terms of reach and engagement, this tool is set to revolutionize the Google Ads ad universe.

• Demand Gen was publicly launched on October 10, 2023, following testing phases.
• This service, an advanced version of Discovery, promises higher conversion rates and offers new benefits to advertisers.
• DG comes with new features (lookalike segments, report segmented by ad format, product feed…).
• Google DG can cover several platforms (Gmail, YouTube Shorts, Discover) and format (video, image, carousel…)
• Demand Gen helps construct marketing campaigns tailored to social platforms.
• It uses AI and intent data to target prospect’s interests, aiming to boost engagement.