Google Ads Demand Gen: Scaling Tool or Overhyped Trap?
Demand Gen is 6 years old and widely misunderstood. Here is what it actually is, who it works for, and when you should add it to your Google Ads stack.
Everyone in ecom is talking about Demand Gen. Most of them have no idea what it is.
Chris has been running Google Ads for around five years and has managed clients generating over $200 million in revenue with Google Ads alone. He has tested Demand Gen extensively - and he has a strong opinion on why so much of what you hear about it right now is wrong.
Demand Gen is not new - it is 6 years old
This is the first thing to get straight. Demand Gen is not some fresh campaign type that just dropped.
Google first announced it as Discovery Ads at Google Marketing Live in May 2019. By May 2020 it was live in most ad accounts. That is before Performance Max (PMax) even existed. PMax launched in November 2021. Discovery Ads were already here a full year before that.
Then in 2023 Google rebranded it. Discovery Ads became Demand Gen. New name, some new features, slightly updated targeting options. But the same core idea underneath.
The rebranding made sense for Google. Discovery Ads had a reputation problem. It was immature. People mostly knew it as a way to burn budget. Giving it a fresh name, "demand generation," made it sound purposeful and powerful. But if you understand the history, you are not fooled by the framing.
Why Google built it - and where it fits in the funnel
To understand Demand Gen, you need to understand Google's problem.
Google has always been exceptional at the bottom of the funnel. Search ads, Shopping ads - people are looking for something specific with buying intent, and Google puts you right in front of them. Shopping ads are profitable, competitive, and effective for exactly this reason. It is pull marketing at its best.
But that is only one slice of the market. Meta can work across the whole funnel - awareness at the top, consideration in the middle, conversion at the bottom. Google was strong in a narrow band and losing the rest to competitors.
Google also owns YouTube. YouTube has enormous reach. It is a search engine and a content platform. So Google decided to use what it already owned - YouTube, the Google Discover feed on the app, and Gmail - to push into the mid-funnel and compete more directly with Meta for ad spend at earlier stages of the buying journey.
That was the plan behind Discovery Ads, and it became the plan behind Demand Gen.
The problem? Early on it did not work well. Discovery Ads were seen as budget burners with no real performance story. The rebranding gave the campaign type a second chance.
What Demand Gen actually is (and where it runs)
Demand Gen runs your ads in three places:
- YouTube - video and image ads
- Google Discover - the feed you see on the Google mobile app
- Gmail - ads inside the inbox
These are all placements where people are browsing, not actively searching. That is the key difference. You are not catching someone who just typed "buy running shoes." You are catching them while they are watching a video or scrolling their feed - the discovery phase.
Shopping ads are pull marketing. Demand Gen is push marketing. They serve different stages of the funnel and you cannot just swap one for the other.
For targeting, Chris runs a mix of broad/open targeting and very specific lookalike audiences built from real data - top in-market audiences, custom segments based on converting search terms from shopping campaigns. That last part matters a lot. You are feeding the algorithm signals from what is already working at the bottom of the funnel and using them to find similar people higher up.
Who Demand Gen actually works for
Here is the part that gets glossed over in most social media posts about Demand Gen.
The brands winning with it are not winning because of Demand Gen. They are winning because they already had a solid foundation, proven offers, and strong shopping performance. Demand Gen gave them more surface area. It was not the thing that made their store work.
This is correlation versus causation. When you see a case study about a brand killing it with Demand Gen, look at what else they had. They probably had mature Shopping campaigns, an established brand, quality creative assets, and a pixel with a lot of data behind it. They were in a growth phase already. Demand Gen helped them scale further, not start.
Chris ran a heavy Demand Gen setup with one of his first big success stories - House of Gentlemen, in Q4 2023. But that campaign ran on a solid shopping base. The split was roughly 60-70% Shopping and 30% Demand Gen. It was not Demand Gen alone.
The real criteria before you test it
Chris is direct about this. If you do not have these things in place, do not run Demand Gen. You will burn budget and walk away thinking the campaign type does not work when the real issue was readiness.
A proven lower funnel. Shopping ads (and ideally Meta ads or search campaigns) should already be profitable. That is where you start with the highest probability of success and the clearest feedback. Once that is maxed out, you have somewhere to go next.
Quality creative assets. You can run Demand Gen with feed only and some accounts do. But if you want real mid-funnel impact you need strong image or video creatives. The placement is social-adjacent. Feed thumbnails compete against proper creative.
A mature pixel and audience data. Demand Gen needs data to target well. It needs a long learning phase and it needs budget to exit that phase. A thin pixel with limited conversion history makes all of this slower and more expensive.
Budget to endure the learning phase. This is not a campaign you launch and read after a week. If you are tight on budget or need fast returns, the lower funnel is where you should stay.
How to measure it properly
This is where a lot of advertisers get it wrong. They look at the ROAS of a Demand Gen campaign in isolation and either panic because it looks low compared to Shopping, or they get excited because they have heavy retargeting and attribution overlap making it look artificially good.
You cannot compare the ROAS of a Demand Gen campaign directly to a Shopping campaign. They operate in different parts of the funnel. Demand Gen is targeting people who are not ready to buy yet. The conversion windows are longer. The path is less direct.
What you actually want to measure is the overall uplift. Is total account performance - blended ROAS, revenue, new customer acquisition - improving as you run Demand Gen alongside your lower funnel campaigns? Is it fuelling Shopping performance over time? That is the question.
For bigger accounts running multiple channels, you end up looking at MER (marketing efficiency ratio) - total revenue against total marketing spend - rather than campaign-level ROAS. That is a more complex analytics job, but it is the right one once you have multiple campaigns running at different funnel stages.
Read how to scale Google Ads for ecommerce to see how the full-funnel setup fits together, or check the Performance Max vs Standard Shopping breakdown if you are still building out your lower funnel first.
When to actually add Demand Gen
The timing answer is simple: after the lower funnel is profitable and maxed out.
Nail Shopping. Nail search. Get Meta working if you have the budget. Get your pixel mature, your creative process in place, and your data strong. Then - when you are looking for the next level of growth - that is when Demand Gen becomes relevant.
Timing also matters within the year. Chris specifically focuses Demand Gen for Q2 and Q4. These are the periods when buying intent is high and mid-funnel activity converts better because demand is already elevated. You are pushing on an open door rather than trying to manufacture it.
Chris has recently invested heavily in building new Demand Gen processes and SOPs for the ZenoX Media team, specifically to prepare for Q4. For bigger accounts that already have the foundation, it is a major part of the scaling plan.
Lower funnel status
Maxed out
Pixel maturity
High data volume
Creative assets
Strong images or video
Best timing
Q2 and Q4 peaks
See the Performance Max best practices for 2026 to make sure your Shopping base is set up right before you layer anything on top.
The bottom line on Demand Gen
Demand Gen is not bad. It is not a magic hack either.
It is a 6-year-old campaign type that got a fresh name and a wave of social media hype. The brands making it work are not making it work because of Demand Gen. They are making it work because they already had everything else right - winning products, strong Shopping campaigns, real creative processes, and a mature pixel.
If that is you, Demand Gen is a legitimate scaling tool. Especially in Q2 and Q4 when demand is already elevated and mid-funnel activity converts faster.
If that is not you yet, go build the foundation first. See how we structure accounts from the ground up or check the full scaling playbook to get there.
Frequently asked questions
Is Demand Gen actually a new Google Ads campaign type?
No. Google launched it as Discovery Ads at Google Marketing Live in May 2019 and it was live in most accounts by May 2020 - a full year before Performance Max launched in November 2021. In 2023 Google rebranded it to Demand Gen with some new features, but the core campaign type is the same underneath.
Why did Google create Demand Gen?
Google dominated the lower funnel with search and shopping ads but had no real presence in the mid-funnel where Meta was strong. Google used what it already owned - YouTube, the Google Discover feed, and Gmail - to push into the discovery phase and compete for ad spend at earlier stages of the buying journey.
What do I need before I run Demand Gen?
You need a profitable lower funnel (Shopping and ideally Meta), quality image or video creative assets, a mature pixel with real conversion data, and enough budget to endure a long learning phase. Without these in place, Demand Gen will just accelerate weak results at a higher cost.
Can I run Demand Gen instead of Shopping ads?
You can, but it is rarely the right move. The brands winning with Demand Gen already had solid Shopping campaigns and a proven offer in place. Starting with Demand Gen from scratch instead of Shopping or Meta gives you slower learning, more expensive traffic, and less feedback. Build the lower funnel first.
How should I measure Demand Gen performance?
Do not compare its ROAS to your Shopping campaigns - they serve different funnel stages. Look at overall account uplift - blended revenue, blended ROAS, new customer acquisition. For bigger accounts running multiple channels, the right metric is MER (marketing efficiency ratio) - total revenue against total marketing spend across every channel.
When is the best time to run Demand Gen?
After your lower funnel is profitable and maxed out. Q2 and Q4 are the strongest windows because buying intent is already high and mid-funnel activity converts better when demand is naturally elevated.
Get the lower funnel right first. Then Demand Gen will actually do something for you.