Google discontinues video action campaigns, shifts focus to AI powered Demand Gen

Google is discontinuing its video action campaigns, integrating them into Demand Gen, an AI-driven ad product. This decision comes amid concerns from advertisers about inventory quality. Demand Gen will target audiences on Google platforms like YouTube and will also expand to external sites as part of this transition, as mentioned in a Google blog post.

On Wednesday, Google announced that starting in the second quarter of next year, video action campaigns will be upgraded to Demand Gen. These campaigns, which feature YouTube-style video ads with calls to action, allow consumers to visit brand websites or browse shopping catalogs.

Video action ads, primarily run on YouTube, will now transition to Demand Gen, which automates the creation of multi-format ads—text, image, and video—across platforms like YouTube, Discover, and Gmail. Google has also begun placing these ads on video partner sites. Advertisers can purchase Demand Gen ads through Display and Video 360.

“The way we look at it is Demand Gen is giving you everything that you get on video action and a lot more,” said Michael Levinson, Google Ads VP and general manager, in an interview with Ad Age. “What Demand Gen offers is really three things,” Levinson said. “One is, you can add images to your video campaigns … It’s very clear, [in] the data, that if you add images to your video campaigns, you’re going to get better performance. Our early data shows about 20% more conversion if you do that.”