Unlocking The Potential Of Demand Gen Campaigns

We’ve been really Impressed with the performance from Demand Gen campaigns. Since this is all Google owned and operated inventory (Discovery, Gmail, YT), it’s free from click spam which is not true of pMax or standard display campaigns. Being able to use lookalikes is a great way to prospect to really high quality audiences.

How we’ve approached Demand Gen so far:

✅ Optimising towards the same conversion action as Search (this might not be right for businesses that require a good deal of consideration e.g. B2B SAAS. For these businesses I’d probably optimise towards some kind of micro conversion like engagement.

✅ Start with customer match e.g. prospect list and gradually expand targeting as you confirm quality - Customer Match > Lookalike > Optimised Targeting

✅ We use exclusive landing pages for each targeting option so we can confirm lead quality. This might not be possible for all businesses.

✅ Test different creative options. Carousel Ads seem to perform best for our initial activity but obviously this is massively dependent on the quality of your assets. Being able to repurpose Social creatives including text overlays is nice as well.

✅Having a good offer obviously helps. Running generic branded creatives without a hook isn’t likely to work.

Our Results so far,

One of our clients in the home security sector is seeing high-quality leads, with CPA for Demand Gen as the second lowest in their account, just after branded search. As a prospecting channel, Demand Gen is entirely incremental. We’re not only driving quality leads but also bringing in substantial View-Through-Conversions and hundreds of thousands of monthly impressions—adding a brand lift and boosting site traffic and branded search.

With the right strategy, Demand Gen can be a game-changer.