Google today announced upcoming updates to its Demand Gen advertising platform, including new controls over ad placement and enhanced creative tools, while setting a timeline to retire its Video Action Campaigns. These changes highlight Google’s push for advertisers to create more engaging visual content and better measure its performance against social media campaigns. Starting in March, advertisers will be able to precisely choose ad placement across YouTube, Discover, and Gmail.
Specific targeting for YouTube Shorts will become available. Google Display inventory will also be added, reaching over 90% of global internet users. Creative enhancements are coming as well.
Vertical 9:16 image ads for Shorts will be available in late February. A new tool to create shorter versions of videos at scale is being introduced. The ad creation workflow is being improved with shareable previews.
Retail-specific features are being added too.
Google’s new ad placement controls
These include enhanced product feed integration, local inventory display capabilities, and omnichannel bidding for both online and in-store optimization.
According to Google, 61% of Gen Z users feel closer to YouTube creators than those on other platforms. Demand Gen delivers 58% higher ROAS than Video Action Campaigns, according to Nielsen. Marks & Spencer exceeded forecasted ROAS by 186% with 66% lower CPA using Demand Gen.
YouTube, popular with Gen Z, delivers 2.3x higher long-term return on ad spend compared to paid social media, according to Google data. The enhanced controls and creative tools should allow advertisers to efficiently create and optimize content across multiple platforms without needing to rebuild campaigns from scratch. With Nielsen data reporting strong Demand Gen returns compared to paid social and features like local inventory integration, advertisers can now more effectively connect their online and offline presence while achieving better performance for their investment.
Advertisers will no longer be able to create new Video Action Campaigns starting in April. They are encouraged to upgrade manually from Video Action Campaigns to Demand Gen before the automatic upgrade in July. Advertisers need to prepare for the transition to Demand Gen while leveraging the new features to better compete with social media platforms.
