Google Discovery Ads: What Replaced Them (Demand Gen) and How to Run a Campaign

Many guides still describe Google Discovery ads as if nothing had changed. In August 2023, Google announced that Discovery campaigns would be upgraded to Demand Gen, with the remaining ones moved automatically from January to March 2024, as stated in the Google Ads help center. This guide explains what Discovery ads were, what Demand Gen adds, where the ads appear, how to set up a campaign and how to judge its results.

What were Google Discovery ads?

Discovery ads, launched in 2019, were visual ads shown in Google's feeds: the YouTube home feed, the Discover feed of the Google app and the Promotions and Social tabs of Gmail. They combined images, a headline and a description, and Google's machine learning chose who saw them based on interests and behaviour. Their principle was the opposite of a search ad: reach people before they express a need, inside content they browse.

Two limits pushed Google to replace them: they mixed poorly with video, and advertisers had little control over where ads ran. Demand Gen answers both.

What is a Demand Gen campaign?

Demand Gen is the campaign type that took over Discovery. According to Google's description of Demand Gen, it integrates video and image assets in a single campaign and serves ads on YouTube, Discover, Gmail and the Google Display Network. What changed compared with Discovery:

Where do Demand Gen ads appear?

• YouTube: in-stream (before or during videos), home feed, Watch Next suggestions, Shorts between videos, and in search results on YouTube. Our guide to YouTube marketing covers the organic side of the platform.
• Discover: the article feed of the Google app and of the Chrome new tab page on mobile, built from each user's interests.
• Gmail: at the top of the Promotions and Social tabs, as a native message.
• Google Maps: listed among the channels you can select in channel controls.
• Google Display Network and video partners: third-party sites and apps, which you can exclude through channel controls if you want to stay on Google surfaces.

All of these are feeds, not answers to a query. People scroll; your ad must stop them in about a second. That is why the creative matters more here than in a Google Ads search campaign.

How do you set up a Demand Gen campaign?

1. Track conversions first

Demand Gen optimizes on the signals you send. Without reliable conversion tracking (purchases, leads, sign-ups) the algorithm optimizes for cheap clicks, which in feeds are often accidental.

2. Choose the goal and the bidding

Pick conversions or conversion value for sales and leads, clicks only for traffic tests. For target CPA, Google recommends a daily budget of at least ten times the target, so that the campaign gets enough conversions to learn.

3. Build audiences

Start with your own data (customer lists, website visitors, YouTube viewers), then lookalike segments built from them, then custom segments based on the searches and sites your buyers use. Broad interest targeting alone tends to spend fast with weak intent.

4. Prepare the creatives

Supply landscape (1.91:1), square (1:1) and portrait (4:5) images, a logo, several headlines and descriptions, and at least one vertical video for Shorts. Show the product in use, one message per visual, a readable text on a phone. Campaigns that combine images and videos usually perform better than image-only ones, according to Google.

5. Set channel controls and exclusions

Channel controls are set per ad group: by default the campaign uses all Google channels, which Google recommends for most advertisers, and you can restrict an ad group to chosen surfaces such as YouTube Shorts or Gmail, as explained in the help page on Demand Gen channel controls. Decide whether to keep the Display Network and video partners. Exclude sensitive content categories if your brand requires it, and exclude existing customers from prospecting ad groups.

6. Give the campaign time

Let it run without major edits for two to three weeks, then judge on conversions and cost per acquisition, not on click-through rate alone.

Which creatives work in Demand Gen?

Feeds reward ads that look like content. The table sums up what to supply for each surface and the mistakes that waste budget:

Rotate new creatives every few weeks: feed audiences see the same ads often, and performance drops when they tire of them. Test one variable at a time (visual, headline or offer) so that you know what made the difference.

How much do Demand Gen ads cost?

There is no fixed price: you pay per click (CPC) or per conversion through an auction, and the cost depends on your audience, your sector and your creatives. Feed clicks are often cheaper than search clicks, but the intent behind them is weaker, so compare campaigns on cost per acquisition and return on ad spend. Our ROAS calculator and CTR calculator help read the results, and our article on Google Ads costs gives benchmarks for budgeting the account as a whole.

Demand Gen or Search: when should you use each?

Demand Gen belongs to the upper part of the funnel: it is judged on the searches and conversions it generates later, which a last-click report underestimates. Look at branded search impressions and assisted conversions along with direct conversions, as in any performance marketing plan. The PPC logic of buying intent still belongs to Search.

Demand Gen, SEO and visibility in AI answers

Paid feeds create demand, but the search that follows is where buyers compare. If your Demand Gen ad makes someone curious, the next step is a search on Google or a question to ChatGPT or Gemini, and the brands that appear there win the click. That is why SEO and paid advertising work best together: ads accelerate, organic pages and AI citations capture the demand without a cost per click. Paid traffic stops when the budget stops; content keeps working.

Sorank covers the organic side on autopilot: it finds the keywords your buyers type, writes and publishes the articles that answer them, and tracks whether ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini cite your brand. Use Demand Gen to create interest, and make sure your site is the answer when that interest turns into a search. You can try it with the 3-day free trial.