Demand Gen is Google’s newest innovation to YouTube advertising – and it isn’t another campaign type update.
After testing across 20+ brands (and a lover of segmenting), new Demand Gen features center on three key areas:
This advancement is not a direct replacement but more of an evolution within the platform, similar to Performance Max.
It’s a way to combine multiple ad types and placements with the promise of finding the right user at the right time.
While Demand Gen is still in its infancy, it comes with relevant new strategies for video that advertisers need to jump on.
Let’s dive into each one so you can start adapting to these changes.
Many ecommerce brands are looking for seamless shopping experiences in 2025.
Now, with the ability to add the product feed to conversion video campaigns, customers can scroll through products within Shorts and In-stream placements.
On In-stream, products can rotate below the video and create an advertisement that’s not just a clickable card placement.
The products remain below the video from the start and are easily clickable to the brand’s website – an advantage for ecommerce we have not seen before.
Shorts has the most to gain from this innovation due to the cost efficiency of this ad type.
Attention real estate is maximized through vertical, share-of-voice content, with scrollable products displayed along the bottom that link directly to the website’s product pages.
Unfortunately, Shorts and product feed placement don’t necessarily drive the type of engagement we find within In-Feed or In-stream.
However, the belief is that every impression counts, especially with a 100% share of voice.
This is different from In-stream, where you compete with recommended videos, titles, descriptions, and other viewable elements.
If you lean into this strategy, make sure to hit it from a retargeting perspective, where a user has either been to the product page or engaged with the brand prior.
For ecommerce brands, the clickable product integration represents a major opportunity.
Dig deeper: YouTube’s triple threat: Mastering Feed, Shorts, and Skippable ads
One of the biggest advancements is the ability to segment to YouTube-only inventory.
Prior to Demand Gen within Video Action campaigns, advertisers were forced into the Display Network for video, allowing Google Ads to control how much spend went to the Display Network versus YouTube.
This wasn’t ideal for most advertisers.
But now, we can segment out Discover and Gmail in addition to the Google Display Network, allowing advertisers to sit in the driver’s seat.
When we layer in the product feed, we can segment:
The goal is to test how each combination performs.
In our initial results with retargeting audiences, we’re seeing that removing the product feed leads to lower CPMs – but also fewer clicks and conversions, though watch times tend to be longer.
When we layer retargeting into these tests, we begin to see the potential of combining product feeds with video: it’s not just about generating intent – it’s driving direct action.
This insight could shift how we approach and create product-focused video content moving forward.
Dig deeper: YouTube Ad Placements explained: In-stream, Shorts, and In-Feed
Get the newsletter search marketers rely on.
MktoForms2.loadForm(“https://app-sj02.marketo.com”, “727-ZQE-044”, 16298, function(form) {
// form.onSubmit(function(){
// });
// form.onSuccess(function (values, followUpUrl) {
// });
});
Now for the home run: we can now segment between In-stream, In-Feed, and Shorts.
This allows advertisers the ability to isolate one of these placements and layer on targeting, product or no product, and focus the inventory to YouTube-only.
This is important to brands for a few reasons:
As a user scrolls, this ad unit is not being played before specific content a user has chosen.
Users are in exploration mode, looking for a video to engage with.
The video and thumbnail must drive immediate interest and lead users to engage more than In-stream or Shorts ads.
Because of our experience with other platforms like Reels, Stories, and TikTok, this ad type is most impactful when quick, fast, and entertaining.
Content performs best when it’s lo-fi and user-generated rather than polished and highly produced.
Building for what potential purchasers interact with and are motivated by is key to driving engagement, interest, and intent.
In-stream can work well across many content types, but it’s especially effective for educational content, where users are more likely to stay engaged for longer periods.
As YouTube’s longest-running ad placement, In-stream has helped build brands not through quick hits, but through longer-form, high-quality videos.
These campaigns often show their impact not in clicks or conversions, but in deeper metrics like views, view rate, and completion rate.
With Demand Gen, advertisers can now segment and run specific videos in this placement – with or without product feeds – across targeted devices, including TV-only.
That flexibility opens up a new level of reach for conversion-focused campaigns.
One important innovation that often goes unmentioned in YouTube or Google Ads discussions is the ability to boost video content directly through YouTube Studio, with access to Demand Gen campaigns.
We’re testing this closely, as the results are noticeably different from campaigns run through the Google Ads interface.
Dig deeper: 3 YouTube Ad formats you need to reach and engage viewers in 2025
We’re still in the early days of Demand Gen, and while the differences are clear – and in many ways, better – the results haven’t fully delivered yet.
Specifically, conversion volume from video campaigns isn’t where we’d like it to be.
The best way to adapt right now is to test.
Run all placements together, segment strategically, and layer in product feeds where relevant.
Results across the 20+ brands currently live are still preliminary, but testing remains the most effective path forward.
YouTube is taking off, and now’s your chance to hop on board.
As more creators develop content, we see Google Ads putting massive focus on their YouTube ads product, helping brands test and innovate in this space.
When you win on YouTube, you have the best chance of winning (or placing very high) in your advertising category.
Demand Gen is Google’s newest innovation to YouTube advertising – and it isn’t another campaign type update.
After testing across 20+ brands (and a lover of segmenting), new Demand Gen features center on three key areas:
This advancement is not a direct replacement but more of an evolution within the platform, similar to Performance Max.
It’s a way to combine multiple ad types and placements with the promise of finding the right user at the right time.
While Demand Gen is still in its infancy, it comes with relevant new strategies for video that advertisers need to jump on.
Let’s dive into each one so you can start adapting to these changes.
Many ecommerce brands are looking for seamless shopping experiences in 2025.
Now, with the ability to add the product feed to conversion video campaigns, customers can scroll through products within Shorts and In-stream placements.
On In-stream, products can rotate below the video and create an advertisement that’s not just a clickable card placement.
The products remain below the video from the start and are easily clickable to the brand’s website – an advantage for ecommerce we have not seen before.
Shorts has the most to gain from this innovation due to the cost efficiency of this ad type.
Attention real estate is maximized through vertical, share-of-voice content, with scrollable products displayed along the bottom that link directly to the website’s product pages.
Unfortunately, Shorts and product feed placement don’t necessarily drive the type of engagement we find within In-Feed or In-stream.
However, the belief is that every impression counts, especially with a 100% share of voice.
This is different from In-stream, where you compete with recommended videos, titles, descriptions, and other viewable elements.
If you lean into this strategy, make sure to hit it from a retargeting perspective, where a user has either been to the product page or engaged with the brand prior.
For ecommerce brands, the clickable product integration represents a major opportunity.
Dig deeper: YouTube’s triple threat: Mastering Feed, Shorts, and Skippable ads
One of the biggest advancements is the ability to segment to YouTube-only inventory.
Prior to Demand Gen within Video Action campaigns, advertisers were forced into the Display Network for video, allowing Google Ads to control how much spend went to the Display Network versus YouTube.
This wasn’t ideal for most advertisers.
But now, we can segment out Discover and Gmail in addition to the Google Display Network, allowing advertisers to sit in the driver’s seat.
When we layer in the product feed, we can segment:
The goal is to test how each combination performs.
In our initial results with retargeting audiences, we’re seeing that removing the product feed leads to lower CPMs – but also fewer clicks and conversions, though watch times tend to be longer.
When we layer retargeting into these tests, we begin to see the potential of combining product feeds with video: it’s not just about generating intent – it’s driving direct action.
This insight could shift how we approach and create product-focused video content moving forward.
Dig deeper: YouTube Ad Placements explained: In-stream, Shorts, and In-Feed
Get the newsletter search marketers rely on.
MktoForms2.loadForm(“https://app-sj02.marketo.com”, “727-ZQE-044”, 16298, function(form) {
// form.onSubmit(function(){
// });
// form.onSuccess(function (values, followUpUrl) {
// });
});
Now for the home run: we can now segment between In-stream, In-Feed, and Shorts.
This allows advertisers the ability to isolate one of these placements and layer on targeting, product or no product, and focus the inventory to YouTube-only.
This is important to brands for a few reasons:
As a user scrolls, this ad unit is not being played before specific content a user has chosen.
Users are in exploration mode, looking for a video to engage with.
The video and thumbnail must drive immediate interest and lead users to engage more than In-stream or Shorts ads.
Because of our experience with other platforms like Reels, Stories, and TikTok, this ad type is most impactful when quick, fast, and entertaining.
Content performs best when it’s lo-fi and user-generated rather than polished and highly produced.
Building for what potential purchasers interact with and are motivated by is key to driving engagement, interest, and intent.
In-stream can work well across many content types, but it’s especially effective for educational content, where users are more likely to stay engaged for longer periods.
As YouTube’s longest-running ad placement, In-stream has helped build brands not through quick hits, but through longer-form, high-quality videos.
These campaigns often show their impact not in clicks or conversions, but in deeper metrics like views, view rate, and completion rate.
With Demand Gen, advertisers can now segment and run specific videos in this placement – with or without product feeds – across targeted devices, including TV-only.
That flexibility opens up a new level of reach for conversion-focused campaigns.
One important innovation that often goes unmentioned in YouTube or Google Ads discussions is the ability to boost video content directly through YouTube Studio, with access to Demand Gen campaigns.
We’re testing this closely, as the results are noticeably different from campaigns run through the Google Ads interface.
Dig deeper: 3 YouTube Ad formats you need to reach and engage viewers in 2025
We’re still in the early days of Demand Gen, and while the differences are clear – and in many ways, better – the results haven’t fully delivered yet.
Specifically, conversion volume from video campaigns isn’t where we’d like it to be.
The best way to adapt right now is to test.
Run all placements together, segment strategically, and layer in product feeds where relevant.
Results across the 20+ brands currently live are still preliminary, but testing remains the most effective path forward.
YouTube is taking off, and now’s your chance to hop on board.
As more creators develop content, we see Google Ads putting massive focus on their YouTube ads product, helping brands test and innovate in this space.
When you win on YouTube, you have the best chance of winning (or placing very high) in your advertising category.
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution
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