Google has outlined five planning priorities for its Demand Gen campaigns as advertisers plan for 2026. The guidance appears in its December Demand Gen Drop update, published through the Accelerate with Google program. The recommendations focus on AI-powered targeting, creative formats, commerce tools, channel controls, and cross-platform measurement.
Key Details
Demand Gen is a Google Ads campaign type designed to reach people while they stream, scroll, or shop. Google reports that, on average, 68% of Demand Gen conversions between February 2025 and March 2025 came from users without recent Search ad exposure, based on its internal data.
Google's latest guidance highlights five main focus areas for your 2026 campaigns:
- Use optimized targeting and new customer acquisition goals to reach new or higher value customers.
- Supply diverse creative assets across images, short videos, and auto-generated videos within Demand Gen inventory.
- Support store, web, and app sales using local offers, checkout links, and Web to App Connect.
- Control placements across YouTube, the Google Display Network, Discover, and Gmail with Demand Gen channel controls.
- Measure campaigns using platform comparable conversion columns that align reporting with other media platforms.
These planning directions consolidate recent updates across Google Ads and Merchant Center into a single framework for Demand Gen campaign strategy.
Background Context
Demand Gen campaigns run across YouTube, the Google Display Network, Discover, and Gmail, aiming to reach people while they are streaming, scrolling, or shopping on these surfaces.
The December Demand Gen Drop guidance groups recent and upcoming updates under five themes: AI personalization, creative reach, sales tools, channel management, and measurement. Each theme connects to existing Google Ads or Merchant Center features that are documented in accompanying support materials.
The recommendations reference multiple help pages that describe setup, configuration, and reporting details for each feature so advertisers can apply them directly in their 2026 planning.
Source Citations
Google has published feature details and supporting documentation on its official help and business sites. Key public sources include:
- Demand Gen campaigns overview - product description and supported surfaces.
- Demand Gen 2026 planning takeaways - summary of guidance from the December Demand Gen Drop.
- New customer acquisition goals - configuration details for reaching new customers in Google Ads.
- Auto-generated videos in Demand Gen - explanation of video asset creation from supplied content.
- Local offers for store sales - Merchant Center guidance on promoting in-store promotions.
- Checkout links for web sales - documentation on adding direct purchase links in product listings.
- Web to App Connect - documentation on driving traffic from web ads into mobile apps.
- Demand Gen channel controls - settings reference for choosing YouTube, Display, Discover, and Gmail placements.
- Platform comparable conversion columns - definitions for cross-platform reporting fields inside Google Ads.
- Accelerate with Google Demand Gen Drop article - program article outlining the December Demand Gen Drop highlights.
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)