Liam Walsh
Liam is a Co-Director at Intelligency and heads up the agency's Digital Intelligence & Paid Social activity. Over the last decade, he has worked with brands from the world of sports such as Premier League clubs to entertainment such as Channel 4 and Disney.
Google Ads will automatically transition Video Action Campaigns (VAC) to the new Demand Gen campaigns in Q2 2025. This update aims to enhance ad performance by merging video and image ads, enabling advertisers to reach more users across YouTube, Discover, and Gmail.
Why has Google implemented this change?
This change aims to improve the advertisers’ ability to reach users and potential consumers across several formats. At its core, is the combination of video and image ads for targeting. This expanded reach will give brands the creative flexibility to optimise different assets for different audiences and consequently, drive growth more effectively, whether that be through conversions, leads or traffic. Google has advised users to themselves with Demand Gen campaigns so that they are prepared for the transition and can make the most of its advanced features.
The benefits are expanded Reach and creative flexibility
Google has a large roster of platforms which makes it such an attractive proposition for brands and the new Demand Gen campaigns will allow marketers to engage up to 3 billion users monthly across channels such as YouTube, Discover, and Gmail. As previously mentioned, the combination of video and image ads allows for flexibility, but Demand Gen can also provide more granular insights into campaign performance, which will enhance conversion rates. This can only be a good thing for campaign management teams and their need to optimise performance.
There will be more audiences to target for brands
The integration of lookalike segments in Demand Gen campaigns allows brands to reach new audiences like their existing customer base. Google has suggested that this new targeting method improves conversion rates without sacrificing budget-efficient cost per acquisition (CPA). The example they provided was for Door Dash – similar to Deliveroo in the UK. Google has claimed that these upgrades in Demand Gen led to a 15x higher conversion rate and a 50% more efficient CPA.
