YouTube Demand Gen Ads in India

What is YouTube Demand Gen?

Demand Gen is Google's performance campaign for social-style video and image ads. It runs across YouTube in-stream, in-feed and Shorts, plus Google Discover and Gmail. Google's DV360 help describes it as expanding reach from YouTube to Discover and Gmail, with video and image ads in a single line item.

Where formats like bumpers build awareness, Demand Gen is built to get people to act. Fill a form. Install an app. Buy something. It bids on conversions or clicks, not views.

Is Demand Gen available in DV360 or only in Google Ads?

It is available in both. This often confuses advertisers, so here is the plain answer.

Google brought Demand Gen line items into DV360 starting October 2024. In 2025 it moved DV360 YouTube video action line items over to Demand Gen. Creation of new video action line items was removed in spring 2025. Google's help says all remaining video action line items were to be paused and archived on 28 February 2026. So in late 2026, Demand Gen is the performance option for YouTube inside DV360.

Google Ads also runs Demand Gen campaigns, and that is where most advertisers first met the format.

We run Demand Gen in DV360. It keeps performance YouTube in the same account as your OTT and publisher buys, with one Floodlight setup. For the bigger picture, read DV360 vs Google Ads.

How does Demand Gen bidding work?

According to Google's DV360 help, you start with maximise conversions, maximise clicks, target CPA or target CPC. Target CPA needs a target bid. Once enough conversions build up, you can move to value-based strategies. You must pick at least one Floodlight activity to optimise toward, unless you bid for clicks.

There is no fixed CPM or CPV for Demand Gen. Costs follow your bid targets, audience and creative. So we quote budgets per campaign, based on your target cost per lead or sale. GST is extra.

A practical tip from Google's own implementation guidance is to start on maximise conversions, then move to target CPA once you have steady conversion volume, around 50 conversions in a learning period.

When should you use Demand Gen?

Use it when the goal is measurable action. Some typical Indian examples. An edtech brand collecting leads before admission season. A D2C skincare brand selling during a Diwali sale. A fintech app driving installs in Tier 2 cities. A Bengaluru real estate developer collecting site visit enquiries.

Google's Brandcast 2025 post shared an example from Acko, which said it saw 40% year-on-year business growth after using CTV, Shorts and Demand Gen together. That is a company-reported case, but it shows how brands combine awareness and performance on YouTube.

Demand Gen is not the right tool for pure reach. For that, use bumper ads or non-skippable formats.

What creative do you need?

Demand Gen mixes several asset types. Plan for horizontal 16:9 video, vertical 9:16 video for Shorts, square and horizontal images, short headlines and longer descriptions. More good assets give the system more to test.

Make the first seconds of video clear about the product and offer. Use real people and real use, not just brand films. Write headlines in the language of the target market. A Hindi headline for a UP campaign will usually do better than English.

How do you measure Demand Gen?

Judge it on cost per result. Track conversions, cost per conversion, conversion rate and, for e-commerce, return on ad spend. In DV360, Floodlight reports these next to your other media.

Also check where results come from, split across YouTube, Shorts, Discover and Gmail. Conversion lift studies can show how many conversions the ads truly caused, where eligible.

Tips for better results

Give the campaign enough budget and time to learn. Changing bids every two days resets learning. Feed it a strong first-party list to build lookalikes. Refresh creative every few weeks. And keep a separate awareness budget on skippable in-stream ads, so Demand Gen is not asked to do every job.