Demand Generation to takeover from Video Action Campaigns in 2025

It’s another update from Google that will change the way you create and build out your campaigns. Set to replace the standard Video Action campaigns and use responsive ads in a new way, Demand Gen is the latest upgrade to get to grips with.

As a marketer or a business owner, understanding these updates is vital to staying one step ahead of your competition. Let’s take you through everything you need to know, so you’re fully prepared for the transition:

• What is Demand Gen, and why is it replacing video action campaigns?
• Why is Demand Generation replacing Video Action ads?
• Key differences between Demand Gen and Video Action campaigns
• How to get started with Demand Gen campaigns
• Preparing your strategy for the shift to demand generation

What is Demand Gen and why is it replacing video action campaigns? 

Let’s cut to the chase. Here’s everything you need to know, all in one place.

What is Demand Gen?

This is a brand new campaign type, touted by Google as a format that delivers “immersive, relevant and visual creatives” to your audience. It’s a campaign type that mimics work you may have already done on paid social campaigns on platforms like TikTok, Instagram or YouTube. These ads make use of the visual placements of ads in online locations like YouTube, YouTube Shorts, Google’s Discovery feed and Gmail. In many ways, these ads are made to be experienced and interacted with, not just seen.

To that end, this is an ad type that will be available on visual platforms, and not as a Google Search campaign.

Aside from the visual element, the placement of Demand Gen ads reflect the more modern way that users are consuming and engaging with media today. These ads are designed to reach users before they even think to actively search for a brand. Google says they are “integrated across entertainment focused touchpoints”, meaning that users will be seeing Demand Gen ads when they are casually browsing, in a relaxed state.

Unsurprisingly, a lot of the placement includes AI powered audience segments and suggestions, including lookalike audiences. This mirrors an overall trend that we’re seeing from Google’s most recent updates, as they integrate AI tools into existing platforms.

Why is Demand Generation replacing Video Action ads?

At the end of the day, these ad types are really similar. Both ad types were intended to reach audiences outside of the conventional text ads, serving a platform that allows advertisers to create ads that look more like social media ads. Both are the kind of ads that users can interact with through swiping, in a visual way.

It’s better to look at Demand Gen as something more like an upgrade to Video Action ads than their replacement. Here are a few of those upgrades you’ll find in the new ad format.

Expanded reach
Your ads will show both in YouTube Shorts and In-stream. This means there’s an instant mix of long form and short form content where your ads can now show.

And don’t worry, your ads will still show on the Discovery feed, Gmail and the rest of YouTube.

Video ad format upgrades
Demand Gen allows you to include up to five videos within your campaigns. There’s also a new format of a carousel ad, which includes a series of images, headline, CTA among other elements. Interestingly, you can also link a product feed to your campaign, creating multi-format ads based on those products.

New creative tools
To go with this new ad type is a brand new ad preview tool, so you can see exactly how your ads will look in these new formats and placements. As these are highly visual ads, this is incredibly useful.

You also have the ability to create A/B tests known as “experiments” where you can swap out various image and video elements to see what visuals bring in the best results.

New bidding options
This ad type is bringing back the old standard “Maximise Clicks” bidding strategy. It’s a bidding strategy that allows you to bring in the most interaction with your campaign, along with Maximise conversions, tROAS, target CPA and value-based bidding. 

Key differences between Demand Gen and Video Action Campaigns 

In brief, Demand Gen campaigns are very similar to Video Action campaigns, but these have been specifically designed to bring your ads to a much wider audience.

Not only are you now able to mix up your placements of visual, interactive ads into new areas like YouTube Shorts, you’re also connecting to audiences that are compiled (in-part) with Google’s powerful AI capabilities. Audiences are based on lookalike segments, making your audience more relevant and diverse than ever.

With interactivity from the usage at the heart of the effectiveness of any Demand Gen ad, this new campaign type offers more customised ad experiences for your users, thanks to A/B experiments and useful ad previews. 

Finally, you can benefit from experimenting with the Maximise Clicks bidding strategy, which encourages your campaign to chase interaction over simply focusing on conversions alone.

How to get started with Demand Gen campaigns

Creating a Demand Gen campaign is simple. It starts with choosing the most relevant campaign objective for your brand. Either sales, product and brand consideration or website traffic.

A complete guide can be found here, to get you started.

Preparing Your Strategy for the shift to demand generation 

The best route to success across your campaign management lies in integrating the new Demand Gen campaigns with your existing marketing efforts.

Combining Demand Gen with other campaign types

Combine your Demand Gen ads with your existing campaigns by working towards the same goal. If you build out this new ad format with the same goal in mind, the audience of your ads will be drawn to the same recognisable tone and style of ad, even with these new updates.

Demand Gen’s advanced features
This ad type makes the most of Google’s AI capabilities. But with this change comes the need for patience, as Google’s ad platform will need time to learn and update based on any bidding changes that you make. Google recommends waiting for at least 50 conversions before making any changes as a result, and waiting a minimum of 2 weeks before you change your bidding strategy. Slow and steady leads to more accurate results for your campaigns.

Conclusion

The transition from Video Action campaigns to Demand Gen marks a pivotal shift in how you can engage with your audience on visual platforms. By embracing Demand Gen, you’re tapping into an ad format that’s more dynamic, interactive, and aligned with modern user behaviour.

This is a way to embrace AI within your next PPC campaign, in a visual and interactive way. Now all you need to do is start experimenting with this brand new format.