Google will replace Video Action Campaigns with AI-powered Demand Gen

The news: Google is folding its Video Action Campaigns into AI-powered ad product Demand Gen next year. Framing the change as an “upgrade,” Google says Demand Gen will give advertisers broader reach, faster access to curated ad creative, and better audience targeting.

• Advertisers will be able to purchase Demand Gen inventory via Google Display and Video 360 beginning in October.
• Google said it “strongly recommends” advertisers begin using Demand Gen campaigns now to adjust before the transition takes full effect in Q2 2025. A “copy-and-paste” tool to convert Video Action Campaigns will be provided in the coming months.

How Demand Gen works: Like Video Action Campaigns, Demand Gen ads’ distinguishing feature is a call to action, which helps drive engagement from consumers when strategically placed. Demand Gen implements AI at various stages of the ad creation process.

• With these campaigns, AI powers creative material, creates lookalike audience segments based on a client’s existing user data, can predict the audience segments that are most likely to engage with an ad, and more.
• Google is trying to make the transition to Demand Gen relatively seamless: Its availability on its primary video ad exchange and similarity to Video Action Campaigns will likely help advertisers anxious about migrating away from a proven format make the jump.

Zoom out: Google has leaned heavily into AI for its newest ad products, injecting the tech into everything from creative to data analysis.

• At a May event, Google showcased several marketing and merchant tools to emphasize its AI push. They included placements in AI Overviews, which are being rolled out more broadly and will soon feature ad space.
• Those moves are echoed by many of Google’s competitors. Meta has similarly launched AI-powered ad buying tools that use the tech across creative, audience identification, and other functions.

Our take: AI ad tools lower the barrier of entry for advertisers, enabling easier and faster spending across Google’s ad ecosystem.

These products are in-demand: 63% of marketers said they used generative AI in a May Salesforce survey, with 35% planning to do so in the coming months.