In October 2023, Google introduced a new type of ad campaign called Demand Generation. This AI-driven advertising option equips digital marketers with enhanced capabilities.

While traditional ad campaigns aim to familiarize users with a brand through engaging advertisements on popular social media platforms, Demand Generation offers advanced visuals and facilitates placements in three specific YouTube spots.

This blog explores the fundamental features and advantages of this innovative ad campaign type, as well as provides guidance on setting up Demand Generation in Google Ads.

What is Demand Generation Campaign in Google Ads

A demand generation campaign on Google Ads is designed to build interest and awareness among potential customers who may not yet be familiar with your products or services. Unlike campaigns that target people actively searching for specific products (like search ads), demand generation campaigns use display ads, video ads, or other formats to introduce your brand to new audiences. These campaigns aim to educate and engage rather than directly sell. They often use targeting options to reach specific demographics or interests that match your ideal customer profile. The goal is to spark curiosity and consideration, ultimately driving future purchases by establishing a connection with potential customers early in their buying journey.

Step-by-Step Guide: How to Set up a Demand Generation Campaign

1. Launching a New Campaign

In Google Ads account, click on the “New campaign” button on the “Overview” or “Campaigns” page.

Next, select a campaign goal – Sales, Website Traffic, or Create campaign without goal prompts option. Further, select the type of campaign: “creating demand”.

If you are using product feeds from the Google Merchant Center, click: “Start a campaign with product feed,” then switch and select the account to which the feed is linked. You should select this function right away while this setting cannot be changed after the publication.

Google offers three types of ads for this format:

•  Image with a feed
• Video with a feed
• Product cards in the feed

With AI facilitation, Google selects the most successful creatives for each placement depending on the format.

2. Setting up the Campaign

First, select the basic settings: campaign name, budget, bids, and schedule (when your campaign will be active).

Choose the campaign goal from the three options presented:

• Conversions
• Clicks
• Cost per conversion (CPC).

Configure device settings – choose between two options:

1. Show ads on all eligible devices
2. Set up selective device targeting.

You can target computers, mobile phones, tablets, or TVs. We advise digging deeper into how ad formats differ on various devices.

If you are using third-party ad analytics software, you’ll need to add URL tracking to receive data from the campaign.

You can optionally configure the Location and Language settings at the campaign level.

For Demand Gen campaigns you can set the bid type called “Maximum number of clicks”, which was not available in Google Discovery.

3. Customizing your Audience

When setting up the target audience, you can enter your data or choose it from the available options. Additionally, Google Ads offers:

• Special segments
• Interests
• Detailed demographic data
• Exclusions

‍A special segment is created based on the audience’s interests. In the advanced settings, you can enter the addresses of websites and applications browsed and used by your prospects.

Custom data involves pre-built audience lists.

‍A lookalike audience makes a special segment available in the Demand Generation campaigns. For this objective, you need first-party data as a customer list or a remarketing list. Then Google Ads will match your audience with its databases and offer you to target users with similar interests.

You’ll need to choose the percentage of the Lookalike Audience you’ll want to attract – 2.5%, 5%, or 10% respectively.

Interests and demographics embrace classic audience settings – the features that will help you spot specific users.

4. Creating an Ad and Selecting Creatives

At this stage, choose the best-fit ad format:

• Graphic (one image)
• Video ad (one video)
• Image carousel.

‍Google Ads offers different settings depending on the opted format. This is crucial while Google has detailed requirements for creatives. Once your ad fails to meet them, it will either fail the verification process or get blocked after the publication.

The quality of your creatives will directly impact the scope of audience engagement. Owing to eye-catching visuals, Google is positioning Demand Gen as an ad campaign type that will help you find new users on popular platforms.

The Benefits of Demand Generation Campaigns

Demand generation campaigns offer several key benefits for businesses looking to attract and engage potential customers:

• Increased Brand Awareness: Effective demand-generation strategies can significantly boost brand visibility among target audiences. By utilizing various channels such as social media, content marketing, and SEO, businesses can enhance their presence and reach.
• Lead Generation: These campaigns are designed to capture the interest of potential customers and convert them into leads. By offering valuable content or solutions to prospects’ problems, businesses can attract quality leads who are more likely to convert into paying customers.
• Educating the Market: Demand generation campaigns often involve educating the market about a product or service. By highlighting unique selling points and addressing common pain points, businesses can position themselves as industry leaders and trusted advisors.
• Nurturing Relationships: Through consistent communication and targeted content, demand generation helps nurture relationships with prospects at various stages of the buying journey. This ongoing engagement builds trust and increases the likelihood of conversion.
• Shortening Sales Cycles: By providing relevant information and addressing objections early in the buyer’s journey, demand generation can shorten the sales cycle. Prospects who are well-informed and engaged are more likely to make quicker decisions.
• Optimizing Marketing ROI: Demand generation campaigns focus on generating measurable results. By analyzing key metrics such as conversion rates, cost per lead, and customer acquisition costs, businesses can optimize their marketing efforts and improve ROI.
• Supporting Sales Efforts: Effective demand generation aligns marketing efforts with sales objectives. By providing sales teams with qualified leads and valuable insights into prospect behavior, these campaigns enable more targeted and effective selling.
• Adapting to Market Changes: Demand generation strategies are flexible and adaptable to market trends and changes in consumer behavior. Businesses can quickly adjust their campaigns based on real-time data and insights, ensuring relevance and effectiveness.

How to Execute a Successful Demand Generation Campaign with Google Ads

The demand generation tactics you build should aim to boost brand awareness, highlight your expertise, and encourage prospects to convert to leads.

Here are the six steps you need to follow when creating a demand generation campaign.

1. Define goals and choose metrics

The demand generation tactics you develop will hinge on the marketing objectives you want to achieve.

While enhancing brand recognition is significant for your demand generation unit, it’s not the sole aim you could pursue. You could also establish goals to:

• Raise online interaction
• Enhance your marketing-qualified leads
• Accelerate converting prospects into leads
• Enhance lead quality
• Acquire more higher-value leads

2. Identify target audience

Once you’ve clarified your goals and established how you’ll measure success, the next step is to identify who you’re aiming your campaigns at.

Understanding user intent data is crucial for understanding your target audience’s characteristics and behaviors. Many B2B marketers struggle to pinpoint their target audience, but a majority find that intent data is effective in defining their ideal buyer persona.

You can gather first-party intent data from your CRM or Google Analytics to understand your website visitors better. Social platforms also provide first-party social intent data that can be valuable for targeting your audience.

3. Build brand awareness

Once you’ve identified your target audience, create a strong presence across all the main channels they use to increase recognition of your brand.

In today’s landscape, it takes more interactions to generate interest than before, which is why many marketers are boosting their budget for reaching customers across different channels. They’re finding success by using multiple ways to connect with their audience.

Consider online strategies like having a professional website, using social media, sending out emails, hosting webinars and online events, and investing in paid advertising. Offline, you can reach your audience through radio, TV, newspapers, in-person events, creative promotions, and physical stores.

Customize each marketing campaign to fit the behaviors and preferences of your ideal customer. Brands that target their audience effectively see significant increases in their profits.

4. Reinforce your brand as the solution

It’s not sufficient to merely agree with your customers’ values and beliefs. You must show that you actively address their challenges.

Create educational materials that highlight the main problems your target audience faces and explain how they can overcome these issues. Position your products and services as integral to these solutions.

If you’re considering writing a blog post, focus on creating a practical guide that addresses keywords related to your ideal customers’ pain points. You can also develop guides and templates that serve as effective tools to solve problems.

Additionally, consider writing whitepapers and ebooks. According to 49% of marketers, whitepapers and ebooks are the most valuable types of content for generating demand. They allow you to thoroughly explore a problem and offer detailed guidance on how to resolve it using your products.

5. Convert prospects to high-quality leads

To move potential customers from showing interest to becoming qualified leads, it’s crucial to create methods that collect their contact information. This allows you to apply future strategies to nurture these leads effectively and provides your sales team with direct communication channels.

Use strategies like gated content, web forms, and free tools to gather contact details from leads. According to 80% of demand generation marketers, prioritizing lead quality over quantity is essential. To achieve this, it’s important to establish a lead scoring system. This system helps in identifying which leads should be given priority, ensuring that your efforts are focused on the most promising prospects.

One of the main challenges for demand generation professionals is finding high-quality leads. Without a lead scoring mechanism, distinguishing between valuable leads and low-quality ones becomes difficult.

6. Track and measure success

Regularly check how well each demand generation campaign is progressing towards your goals.

This will help you spot any campaigns that aren’t working, so you can avoid wasting time, money, and resources. You can either adjust these strategies to improve their performance or stop them entirely and use those resources elsewhere.

Tracking your campaigns will also show you which tactics are most effective at generating demand, so you can focus more on these strategies. Use this insight to plan future campaigns based on what works best.

Wrapping Up

By following these steps and continuously optimizing your demand generation campaign in Google Ads, you can attract, engage, and convert potential customers effectively, driving growth and success for your business. Demand generation campaigns offer e-commerce businesses a range of benefits, from increasing brand awareness and audience engagement to driving traffic to their website and generating leads. Leveraging the power of Google Ads and its advanced targeting and analytical capabilities ensures that your campaigns are highly effective and yield measurable results.

For expert guidance and support in executing your demand generation campaigns with Google Ads, reach out to Good On Digital. As an official Google Partner, we have the expertise and proven strategies to help you achieve your marketing objectives and drive sustainable growth for your business. Let us help you harness the full potential of Google Ads to elevate your brand and boost your sales.