Quick answer: Google Demand Gen and Display reach people before they search. For service businesses they work best for remarketing and visual services.
Search ads catch people who are already looking. Demand Gen and Display campaigns reach people who aren’t searching yet, while they watch YouTube, scroll the Discover feed, check Gmail or browse websites. That makes them more like Facebook ads than search ads.
What each one is
Demand Gen
Google’s visual, social-style campaign type. Ads run on YouTube (including Shorts and in-feed), Discover, Gmail and Google’s display network. You supply images and video. Demand Gen replaced the older Discovery campaigns and is Google’s main answer to Meta-style advertising.
Display
Image and responsive ads across millions of websites and apps in Google’s display network. Cheap impressions, wide reach, and historically a lot of low-quality placements and accidental clicks.
When they make sense
- Remarketing: showing ads to people who visited your site but didn’t enquire. This is often the best use of Display or Demand Gen for service businesses.
- Visual services where showing the result sells (renovations, landscaping, design, cosmetic services).
- Building demand for something people don’t know to search for yet.
- Search volume is maxed out. You’re already capturing most relevant searches and need more leads.
When to avoid them
- Small budgets. Under about $1,500 a month in total ad spend, Search usually deserves every dollar.
- Urgent services. People needing a plumber now search. They don’t need to be persuaded on YouTube.
- Weak tracking. Display especially can generate conversions from accidental clicks and bots if your tracking counts the wrong things.
How to set them up well
- Use a conversion goal, not clicks. Optimise for leads, ideally qualified leads.
- Start with remarketing audiences (website visitors, customer lists) before cold audiences.
- Use real images and short vertical video. Demand Gen performs best with video, especially for YouTube Shorts.
- Exclude poor placements. In Display, exclude mobile apps categories and sites that produce clicks but no leads. Check the “where ads showed” report.
- Exclude existing customers with your customer list.
- Set frequency caps for Display remarketing so you don’t follow people around the internet for weeks.
How they fit with Facebook ads
For many service businesses, Meta (Facebook and Instagram) does the “reach people before they search” job more effectively and cheaply. Demand Gen is worth testing if:
- Your customers are heavy YouTube users
- Facebook ads are working and you want another channel with similar creative
- You want to reuse video ads across platforms
See Google Ads vs Facebook ads and YouTube ads for small business.
Sources and further reading
Written by Gregory
20 years building websites and running lead generation, mostly with my own money on the line. Based in Sydney, working with clients worldwide. How I work →