Google Demand Gen 2026: Every Update That Matters

Table of contents

• Is Demand Gen right for you?
• New placements: Google Maps and YouTube Shorts
• Creator and affiliate content in paid campaigns
• AI-assisted campaign creation
• Scale for product-focused advertisers
• Measurement and attribution updates
• Frequently asked questions
• What to do next

Summary

Google announced 10 Demand Gen updates at Google Marketing Live 2026. The biggest ones: Maps is now a selectable channel, AI can pre-fill your campaign setup from existing PMax data, checkout links are live in more markets including the UK, and view-through conversion optimisation is in open beta globally. Each update below includes its current status and a straight verdict on whether it’s worth acting on now or watching from a distance.

Zara Imrie, Google Ads & AI Marketing Specialist, Founder of Bizi Digital

This post was drafted with AI assistance and reviewed by Zara Imrie.

Is Demand Gen right for you?

Before we get into the features, let’s be honest about where Demand Gen actually fits.

Demand Gen is Google’s upper-to-mid funnel campaign type. It runs across YouTube (including Shorts and in-stream), Discover, and Gmail. It’s visual, interest-led, and built for reaching people who aren’t yet searching for what you sell.

That’s the thing people miss.

If your whole account runs on Search and PMax and you’re already profitable, adding Demand Gen isn’t automatically the right move. It requires creative, it requires patience, and it requires a measurement setup that can credit view-through and assisted conversions, not just last-click.

I’ve seen accounts where Demand Gen absolutely flew, usually e-commerce brands with strong creative and audiences who respond to video. I’ve also seen it drain budget for lead gen accounts where the funnel is tight and every pound needs to convert directly.

So read the updates below with that lens. Each one has a verdict. Use those to decide what’s worth testing.

For the full GML 2026 picture, see the Google Marketing Live 2026 roundup.

New placements: Google Maps and YouTube Shorts

Google Maps in Demand Gen

What it is: Maps is now a selectable channel inside Demand Gen campaigns. Ads show in Browse (the explore tab), Directions, and Entity/Place Details (when someone opens a specific location). Format is Promoted Pins, which sits alongside organic results rather than interrupting them.

Status: Open Beta, Global.

This is a genuinely interesting placement. People in Maps are in a doing mindset: searching nearby, comparing options, deciding where to go. That’s high intent, not passive browsing. For local businesses, retail, hospitality, or any brand with a physical presence, this is worth testing early.

The Promoted Pins format is low-friction for users, which usually means better engagement and less skip behaviour.

Verdict: Worth acting on now if you have a physical location or serve local/regional audiences.

Checkout links on YouTube Shorts and in-feed

What it is: Checkout links let you send Demand Gen viewers directly to a checkout page rather than a product or landing page. That extra click removal is doing real work: Google reports a 6% conversion uplift. Checkout links are now live on YouTube Shorts and in-feed ad formats (not just in-stream).

Status: Generally available. Live in US, Canada, UK, Germany, Japan, India, with 9 more markets being added.

The UK inclusion matters for British advertisers. If you’re running Demand Gen with a product catalogue and you haven’t tested checkout links yet, this is the most straightforward win on this list. Fewer steps between ad and purchase almost always helps.

Verdict: Worth acting on now if you’re running Demand Gen for e-commerce in a supported market.

Creator and affiliate content in paid campaigns

Affiliate partnerships in Demand Gen

What it is: You can now discover and boost organic YouTube Shopping affiliate videos inside a paid Demand Gen campaign. The creator keeps their organic content, you amplify it with paid reach. Google reports a 20% conversion lift while maintaining CPA.

Status: Pilot, US only.

If you already run an affiliate programme and have creators producing YouTube Shopping content for your products, this is a natural extension. You’re taking content that’s already converting organically and buying it more eyeballs. The 20% lift claim comes with the usual caveat (pilot data, US market), but the logic is sound.

For UK advertisers: watch this one. It’ll expand.

Verdict: Worth acting on now if you’re US-based with active YouTube affiliates. Worth monitoring for everyone else.

Creator videos in the asset picker

What it is: Google has redesigned the asset picker inside Demand Gen. It now surfaces creator partnership videos you’ve already set up through Google’s creator tools, and automatically identifies content that’s relevant to your campaign. You don’t have to manually find and upload the asset.

Status: Coming soon, Global.

This is more of a workflow improvement than a strategy shift. If you’re already working with creators, it removes friction. If you’re not, it doesn’t change the decision about whether to start.

Verdict: Worth monitoring. Act when it lands if you’re running creator partnerships.

AI-assisted campaign creation

Pre-filled Demand Gen from PMax

What it is: Google’s AI can now pre-fill a new Demand Gen campaign with settings pulled from your existing PMax campaigns. Budget, bidding strategy, and audience signals are auto-populated based on what’s already working in your account. You review and confirm rather than starting from scratch.

Status: Open Beta, Q2 2026, Global.

This is a meaningful time saver for accounts that have mature PMax campaigns with solid performance data. The AI is reading your account signals and using them to skip the blank-page problem.

The risk is passive acceptance. If you click through the pre-filled settings without reviewing them, you’re trusting the AI’s interpretation of your goals. Always check the budget recommendation in particular. PMax and Demand Gen serve differently, and what looks right in one isn’t necessarily right in the other.

I tried a similar setup with a client earlier this year where the AI pulled in a PMax audience that was way too broad for what we needed at the awareness stage. We caught it in review. The pre-fill is a starting point, not a finished plan.

Verdict: Worth acting on now. Use it as a starting point, not a final answer.

Demand Gen in the Commerce Media Suite

What it is: Demand Gen is now part of Google’s Commerce Media Suite, which lets retailers share their first-party data with brand advertisers. Brands can use that retailer data to reach high-intent shoppers across YouTube, Discover, and Gmail.

Status: Generally available, Global.

This one is specifically for brand-retailer partnerships. If you’re a consumer brand that sells through major retailers (think: a supplement brand selling through Boots, or a tech brand selling through Currys), this creates a way to target shoppers who have already shown intent at the retailer level.

For most SMBs managing their own accounts, this isn’t immediately relevant. It requires a retailer partner to be set up in the Commerce Media Suite.

Verdict: Not relevant unless you have an active brand-retailer partnership in Google’s Commerce Media network.

Scale for product-focused advertisers

Product videos at scale

What it is: You can now add your entire Google Merchant Centre video library to a Demand Gen campaign in one go, rather than being limited to a handful of videos per campaign. Google dynamically serves the best-performing video for each user and placement.

Status: Pilot, Global.

For e-commerce accounts with large catalogues, this is a real operational improvement. The old per-campaign video limit was genuinely frustrating if you had product-specific video content across dozens of SKUs. Dynamic serving doing the optimisation work is also more efficient than manually splitting campaigns by product.

See also: Google’s automated product video update for more on how video is being scaled across campaign types.

Verdict: Worth acting on now if you have a large video library in Google Merchant Centre.

Measurement and attribution updates

View-through conversion optimisation

What it is: You can now include view-through conversions (VTCs) in your Demand Gen bidding target, not just click-based conversions. This means the algorithm can optimise for users who saw your ad and later converted, even if they didn’t click the ad directly.

Status: Open Beta, Global.

This is the update that makes the biggest difference to how you measure Demand Gen performance. The classic problem with upper-funnel campaigns is that the click-through conversion data looks weak compared to Search, because a lot of the value happens in the view-then-search-then-buy journey. If your attribution model can’t see that path, you under-value the channel and cut budget.

VTC optimisation lets the bidding algorithm factor in that behaviour. The catch: you need a clean conversion setup and you need to be confident in your view-through conversion window settings. If those aren’t right, you can end up optimising toward inflated signals.

Verdict: Worth acting on now, but only after auditing your conversion setup. This will skew results if your VTC window is too wide.

Demand Gen Uplift Experiments

What it is: A structured A/B test that measures the incremental impact of Demand Gen running alongside PMax. Google cites Nielsen MMM data across 1.1 million campaigns (2022 to 2024) showing that adding Demand Gen to Search and PMax delivers 10% higher ROAS and 12% higher sales effectiveness.

Status: Closed Beta, Global.

The 1.1 million campaign stat is impressive but needs context: that’s aggregate data across a huge range of accounts, industries, and spend levels. Your account is not the average. What this experiment gives you is a proper holdout test so you can measure the actual lift for your specific account rather than relying on Google’s aggregate benchmarks.

If you can get into the closed beta, take it. Running on faith that Demand Gen is helping isn’t a strategy.

Verdict: Worth pursuing if you can access the closed beta. The independent measurement is the real prize here.

Campaign Type Attribution

What it is: A new closed beta feature that lets you attribute and bid toward all Demand Gen conversions without the influence of other campaign types. It isolates Demand Gen’s contribution to conversions in a multi-campaign account.

Status: Closed Beta, Global.

In accounts running Search, PMax, and Demand Gen simultaneously, the attribution picture gets messy fast. This feature gives you cleaner signal on what Demand Gen is actually driving. Useful for anyone who wants to make serious budget decisions about Demand Gen rather than guessing.

Verdict: Worth pursuing if you’re in a closed beta and running Demand Gen alongside other campaign types. Not actionable yet for most advertisers.

Frequently asked questions

Is Demand Gen the same as Discovery campaigns?

No, but it replaced them. Google phased out Discovery campaigns in 2024 and Demand Gen is the successor. It runs across the same core placements (YouTube, Discover, Gmail) but with more creative formats, stronger audience controls, and now more channels including Maps.

Can I run Demand Gen without a Google Merchant Centre feed?

Yes. Demand Gen works with non-shopping creative (images and video). The product video features and checkout links require a Merchant Centre feed, but the campaign type itself doesn’t.

What’s the minimum budget for Demand Gen?

Google doesn’t set a hard minimum, but practically speaking you need enough budget for the algorithm to gather data and optimise. For most accounts, £30 to £50 per day is a realistic floor for getting meaningful signal. Lower than that and optimisation stalls.

Do the new Maps ads in Demand Gen work differently from Local campaigns?

Local campaigns were folded into PMax, so they’re not a direct comparison. Maps placements in Demand Gen are a separate channel selection within the Demand Gen campaign. They use Promoted Pin formats rather than the full-screen creative you’d see in other Demand Gen placements.

Should I move budget from PMax to Demand Gen based on the 10% ROAS uplift claim?

Not on that stat alone. The 10% figure is aggregate across 1.1 million campaigns. Run the Uplift Experiment if you can access it. Measure your own account’s response before shifting budget. Google’s aggregate numbers tell you what’s possible, not what’s likely for your specific account and industry.

What to do next

If you want a straight read on whether Demand Gen fits your account right now, an audit is the fastest way to find out.

A Google Ads audit at Bizi Digital looks at your full campaign mix, attribution setup, and where Demand Gen would or wouldn’t add value. No obligation to rebuild everything. Just a clear picture of what your account needs.

Or if you have a specific question about any of these updates, get in touch.

Last updated: 21 May 2026