How to Optimize Demand Gen Campaigns: A Comprehensive Strategy

Demand Gen campaigns represent Google’s approach to driving discovery and interest across its extensive Display Network.

These campaigns allow advertisers to engage with their target audience using highly visual formats, including image and video ads.

However, to fully unlock their potential, they require a tailored optimization strategy.

Here's a comprehensive system for optimizing Demand Gen campaigns to increase engagement and conversions.

1. Regular Spending & Segmentation Reviews

To optimize Demand Gen campaigns, it’s crucial to regularly review campaign spend and segmentation. Conduct checks every 72 hours, weekly, and monthly to assess performance. Start by identifying campaigns with strong conversion metrics but low search impression share (< 65%)—these are prime candidates for scaling. On the flip side, campaigns with high CPA and low ROAS should be flagged for further optimization.

Just like with other campaign types, asset groups are pivotal in Demand Gen campaigns. Review individual asset groups to ensure they are not under-spending despite good performance. Move high-conversion but low-spend asset groups into separate campaigns to increase control and maximize returns.

2. Fine-Tuning Targeting by Content & Placements

One of the key aspects of optimizing Demand Gen campaigns is precise targeting. Regularly review the content and placements of your ads. If you notice certain placements consuming significant ad spend without delivering conversions, exclude them. Use bid adjustments for specific placements if you're not using smart bidding to ensure you're spending efficiently.

Additionally, use the placement report to identify websites or apps that are irrelevant to your product or service. By excluding these from your targeting, you’ll reduce wasted spend and improve campaign performance. Optimizing targeting in this way ensures your ads reach the most relevant audiences.

3. Location, Device, and Audience Performance Optimization

Location and device performance play a critical role in the success of Demand Gen campaigns. Review your location-based data and exclude non-performing regions. Similarly, analyze device performance and make exclusions or bid adjustments based on conversion rates. For instance, if mobile users aren’t converting as well as desktop users, you may consider lowering bids for mobile devices or refining your mobile landing pages.

In terms of audiences, consistently review your audience signals. If you find that certain audiences are underperforming, add them to your exclusion list. This level of refinement helps improve the quality of your traffic, ensuring your ads resonate with the right users.

4. Review and Optimize Ads & Landing Pages

To further optimize Demand Gen campaigns, review your ad assets. Run split tests for ads within each ad group and pause any underperforming ads that show significantly lower CTR or conversion rates. If a winning ad emerges, duplicate it and make small adjustments to continue testing, ensuring you always have the highest-performing ad in circulation.

In addition, monitor video ads carefully. The "video played to" metric will help you evaluate viewer engagement. Videos with low retention (below 25%) may need to be re-edited with stronger hooks, intros, or calls to action.

Equally important is ensuring that all relevant ad extensions—such as sitelink extensions—are active. These extensions improve ad visibility and enhance user experience by providing more clickable information.

5. Optimize Your Landing Pages for Better Conversions

The success of your Demand Gen campaigns hinges not just on your ads but also on the landing pages they lead to. If a landing page has significantly lower conversion rates compared to others, consider making updates. Ensure that your landing pages feature clear pricing, return policies, and other credibility markers like customer reviews. Fast loading times are also critical—use tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights to test and improve page speed.

6. Bidding Strategies for Maximum Returns

Once there’s enough conversion data (at least 1 conversion per day for 30 days), automated bidding strategies like tROAS (Target ROAS) or tCPA (Target CPA) can be implemented for optimal results. These bidding strategies allow Google’s algorithms to adjust bids in real-time based on expected conversion rates.

However, the performance of these automated strategies should always be monitored. If you notice a drop in total conversions, conversion value, or impressions, it may be time to adjust your tROAS/tCPA targets. Optimizing your bidding ensures that you maintain a balance between profitability and ad visibility.

7. Quality Control & Continuous Monitoring

Finally, a successful Demand Gen campaign requires constant quality control. Regularly check if all conversion actions are correctly tracked, ensure your budget is on track, and verify that your payment methods are working without issue. Stay on top of any notifications from Google Ads and Google Merchant Center (GMC) to quickly address any issues that might limit campaign performance.

Additionally, look for “auto-apply” recommendations in your account, but review them carefully to ensure they align with your campaign goals. These recommendations can sometimes help improve efficiency but must be applied selectively to maintain control over your strategy.

A New Era for Top-of-Funnel Strategies

Google Ads has been actively pushing Demand Gen campaigns as a powerful tool for top-of-funnel strategies, making it a critical addition to any advertiser's toolkit. Demand Gen is designed to drive brand awareness and discovery across Google's Display Network as a relatively new campaign type, making it perfect for reaching users early in the buyer's journey.

With Google investing heavily in promoting this format, early mastery of Demand Gen campaigns can give you a significant competitive edge in today’s Google Ads landscape. By leveraging this campaign type, you can effectively build brand recognition and engage potential customers before they move to lower-funnel actions, positioning your brand as a frontrunner in a crowded market.

Conclusion

Optimizing Demand Gen campaigns requires a strategic approach that balances targeting, ad asset management, and ongoing performance reviews. By regularly refining your placements, reviewing your ad and landing page performance, and adjusting your bidding strategies, you can significantly improve the efficiency and profitability of your campaigns.

Whether focusing on new audience acquisition or improving conversions, these strategies will help you get the most out of your Demand Gen campaigns.

If you’re ready to take your campaigns to the next level, contact us today for a personalized optimization plan!