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Create a Demand Gen campaign

The campaign wizard can publish a Demand Gen campaign. Demand Gen shows image ads on YouTube, Gmail, Discover, and Display. It reaches the people you pick, for example the people who search for your keywords, and Google finds more people like them. You select the campaign type on the Choose what to target step. The wizard has the same three steps as for a Search campaign.

Demand Gen uses Category search only. When you select Demand Gen, the Search type menu does not show.

To show image ads only to people who visited your site or are on your customer lists, use Demand Gen retargeting. See Create a retargeting campaign.

Select Demand Gen​

  1. On the Choose what to target step, click Campaign type. It is the first setting under the sentence.
  2. Select Demand Gen. The sentence changes to "Show my ad for product to people in country interested in search term."
  3. Complete the sentence.
  4. Click Find keywords.
  5. On the Choose keywords and budget step, select a keyword cluster.
  6. Click Write ad copy.

Hero Marketer then writes your Demand Gen ad. This uses credits, the same as other ad copy.

Keywords define who sees a Demand Gen ad​

A Demand Gen campaign has no keywords in Google Ads. The keyword cluster tells Hero Marketer who to reach: the People who search for your keywords part of the audience is the people who search on Google for the cluster's keywords. Hero Marketer also writes the ad for these keywords.

On the Choose keywords and budget step, the line next to the Keywords heading shows used for your audience, for example 10 · used for your audience. In the keyword table, the first list has the title Audience keywords, with the line People who search for these can be in your audience, at any budget. A Demand Gen campaign keeps all of its keywords at any budget, so no keyword moves to the Over budget list.

The monthly budget for Demand Gen​

You set a monthly budget on the Choose keywords and budget step. The recommended budget comes from the keyword cluster, the same as for Search and Performance Max. Demand Gen shows no expected clicks: the click estimate is for Google Search, and Demand Gen does not show on Search. See Set your monthly budget.

What a Demand Gen ad has​

Hero Marketer writes a Demand Gen ad with its own instructions, not the instructions of a Search ad:

  • 5 headlines of up to 30 characters.
  • 5 descriptions of up to 90 characters.

Google shows one headline and one description beside your image, with your business name and logo, and mixes them freely. So each headline stands alone, and no headline is pinned. The ad promises an offer only when the Offers list of your product names it.

Hero Marketer keeps Demand Gen ad copy in your draft only. It does not save it with the Search and Performance Max ad copy of the same search term. Ad copy for Search or Performance Max does not work for Demand Gen, so if you change the campaign type to Demand Gen after Hero Marketer wrote the ad, Hero Marketer writes the ad again when you continue. This uses credits.

The Check your ad step for Demand Gen​

The Check your ad step for Demand Gen has no search results preview, because Demand Gen does not show on Google Search. The campaign card shows the monthly budget, the keywords, the bidding, and the campaign name.

The step has four tabs:

  • Headlines. The 5 headlines, under Google shows one headline beside your image in YouTube, Gmail and Discover. Each one stands alone.
  • Descriptions. Up to 5 descriptions, under Each one goes with any headline.
  • Images. Your images, your logo, and the business name. This tab works the same as for Performance Max. See Images that a Performance Max campaign needs.
  • Audience. Who sees your ads. See Pick the audience of a Demand Gen campaign.

Each line shows its character count. A line over its limit, or an empty line, turns red. You can edit lines, but you cannot add lines. The launch waits until you approve the Headlines and Descriptions tabs: under the lines of each, click Approve headlines or Approve descriptions. See Check your ad.

Pick the audience of a Demand Gen campaign​

A Demand Gen campaign needs an audience. Google shows your ads to these people first, then finds more people like them. Launch is not available until you pick at least one part.

  1. On the Check your ad step, click the Audience tab.
  2. Under Audience, select the check box of each part that you want.

The parts are:

  • People who search for your keywords. When you launch, Hero Marketer creates a custom segment of these people in your Google Ads account, named Hero Marketer searchers, then the name of the ad group and a launch ID.
  • Each website visitor list or customer list of your account. The row shows the name of the list, then its type and size, for example Website visitors · 12,400 people.

A list shows when it is open and enabled, Google allows it on Display, YouTube, and Gmail, and it has 100 or more people there, or no size from Google yet. A new campaign starts with nothing selected. Until you pick a part, the heading shows Audience · pick at least one. If no list can go in, the section shows No website visitor or customer list with 100 or more people yet. If Hero Marketer cannot load your lists, the section shows Couldn't load your lists. with a Try again button. The audience takes up to 20 lists.

When Google does not accept the Demand Gen audience​

For Demand Gen, the audience is the targeting, not a hint. If Google does not accept the custom segment of searchers, a list, or the audience, publishing stops with Google's message, and nothing stays live. Clear the part that Google did not accept, then launch again.

Bidding and the name of a Demand Gen campaign​

  • Bidding. Maximize clicks (the default) or Maximize conversions. To change it, click the Bidding row on the campaign card.
  • Campaign name. The automatic name has this format: Demand Gen | search term | country code, for example Demand Gen | Product analytics | US. To type a different name, click the Campaign name row.

Launch a Demand Gen campaign​

The Launch button shows the monthly budget, for example Launch at $500 a month. Launch is not available until these are true:

  • You approved the headlines and the descriptions.
  • You picked at least one part of the audience.
  • You selected at least 5 landscape, 5 square, and 5 portrait images.
  • The product has a logo, and the business name is not empty.
  • No line of the ad copy is broken, and no image batch is in progress.

The launch bar lists each problem that stops the launch. To fix a problem, click its line. For the audience, the line is Pick an audience in the Audience tab.

What publishing builds for Demand Gen​

Publishing takes about one to two minutes, because Hero Marketer also uploads your images. It builds:

  • One Demand Gen campaign, bidding Maximize clicks or Maximize conversions. Google picks where each ad shows among YouTube, Gmail, Discover, and Display.
  • A daily budget of the monthly budget divided by 30.4, rounded down to the cent. The budget is not shared.
  • One ad group, named after the keyword cluster and the country code. It targets one country, in English, from today, with no end date.
  • The ad group's audience, from the parts that you picked. Hero Marketer saves it in the audience library of your account, named Hero Marketer, then the name of the ad group and a launch ID. Google's optimized targeting is on, so Google also finds people like your audience.
  • One multi-image ad with your landing page, the 5 headlines, the descriptions, 15 to 20 images, your logo, and the business name. Google picks the call to action button.

The campaign starts paused, and Hero Marketer turns it on as the last step. If publishing fails, nothing stays live. Google has no way to remove an audience, so an audience can stay in your audience library after a failed launch. It is not used and costs nothing.

Turn on Google's AI label for Demand Gen images​

Google Ads asks advertisers to label images that AI made. Hero Marketer cannot set this label for you. After you launch, turn on Google's AI label in Google Ads for the images that AI made, for example the images from Create images. Images from Create images keep their headline and button. Google's guidance discourages text and buttons on images, so Google can limit or disapprove some images. You can replace an image in Google Ads.

What the wizard does not do for Demand Gen​

  • It does not make video ads, carousel ads, or 9:16 images.
  • It makes one ad group with one multi-image ad.
  • It adds no sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, or prices.
  • It adds no lookalike segments, exclusions, frequency caps, or channel controls.
  • It does not make a Demand Gen campaign with Brand search or Competitor search.
  • Hero Marketer does not edit the ad, the images, or the audience after you publish. Use Google Ads.

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