Display Campaigns Move Into Demand Gen: What Changes and How to Prepare

Display campaigns as they have existed for the past fifteen years are being retired before the end of 2026. The ads move inside Demand Gen. This is not a cosmetic rename: minimum budgets change, similar audiences return, a new conversion type appears, and some familiar controls simply disappear. Here is what to do with your existing campaigns and what to expect after the move.

What actually changes

Display was a simple instrument: banners, broad reach, cheap impressions, and remarketing as its main real use. Demand Gen works differently. It is built around Google's visual surfaces, including YouTube, Discover and Gmail, and it is designed to create demand rather than only recover people who already visited.

The last row is the interesting one. The new conversion type records that someone searched for your brand within seven days of watching your video. That is precisely the link that has always been missing: display created the demand, and the search campaign took the credit.

What to do with your existing Display campaigns

1. Write down what actually works in Display. Usually it is one or two remarketing scenarios, while the rest has been running on inertia for years. Migrate only what produces results.
2. Check whether you have video. This is the decisive question. Demand Gen runs without it, but noticeably worse. If you have none, shoot at least two or three short clips before the move.
3. Prepare imagery in the required ratios. You will need landscape, square and vertical versions. Old fixed-size banners are not used in the new format.
4. Do not migrate everything at once. Run Demand Gen alongside Display on part of the budget and compare cost per conversion over two or three weeks.
5. Switch YouTube off if you do not need it. Placements remain optional, so the format can be used as a straight replacement for classic display.
6. Review your placement exclusions. Some Display settings have no equivalent in Demand Gen, and it is better to learn that before launch than after.

Creative requirements in detail

Since creative is the bottleneck, here is the minimum kit worth launching Demand Gen with at all.

The most common preparation mistake is handing the system one clip in three crops and calling it three creatives. The algorithm needs different ideas, not different aspect ratios of the same one. If there is no production budget, shoot on a phone: in feed environments that material frequently outperforms expensive studio work because it looks native.

Who benefits from the move

• Anyone already producing video. Material shot for social works almost unchanged, and Demand Gen will deliver more for the same spend.
• Online stores with a product feed. The format handles product data well and surfaces specific items inside the feeds.
• Businesses on smaller budgets. The new 10x threshold makes the format viable where it previously was not.
• Brands working on awareness. The Branded Search conversion finally lets you show a client that display spend is not vanishing into thin air.

Who ends up worse off

• Accounts where Display was purely banner remarketing. Cheap impressions are not going away, but creative demands go up.
• Categories with strict compliance requirements. Coarser placement control means less say over the surrounding context.
• Anyone with no capacity to produce video. This is the hidden cost of the migration, and it is monthly rather than one-off.

How to prepare in a month

A realistic plan to work through before year end, week by week.

Frequently asked questions

Will my Display campaigns stop on their own?

Google has stated the format is being wound down before year end, so assuming they will run forever is unwise. Migrating the scenarios that work, on your own schedule, beats waiting for an automatic transition.

Can Demand Gen be used for remarketing only?

Yes. Remarketing audiences work, and that is the simplest migration path: same job, same budget, refreshed creative.

Is video mandatory?

Formally no, a campaign will run on images alone. But in practice the difference in cost per conversion between having video and not having it is substantial, so the saving is illusory.

What is the Branded Search conversion?

It records that someone searched for your brand on Google within seven days of watching your video. It is useful mainly for reporting: it exposes the display contribution that was previously credited to search campaigns.

Do returning similar audiences work exactly as before?

Not quite. This is a prospecting tool inside Demand Gen rather than a full restoration of the old mechanic. But for accounts that lost the option in 2023, it is a meaningful improvement.

The migration is not a disaster, but it exposes exactly what many accounts have been economising on for years: creative quality. If you want us to review your Display campaigns and prepare the transition without a dip, talk to our team. If you would rather understand what Google advertising costs and which formats you actually need, start here: what Google Ads costs.