Dive Brief:

• Google is rolling out its Demand Gen campaign tool worldwide, according to a company announcement. The company has been beta-testing the product, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help marketers create more engaging content and better target audiences on social, since June.
• Calling the new tool “the next generation of Discovery campaigns,” the new Demand Gen enables advertisers to incorporate videos, including YouTube videos and Shorts, in their content. Demand Gen also includes new audience targeting features, like lookalike audiences, and action-based bidding strategies.
• The new product is intended to help advertisers extend their social strategies onto Google’s platforms, particularly display and YouTube.

Dive Insight:

For all the attention placed on social advertising and retail media, Google is still the top dog when it comes to discovery and engagement, thanks to its search and YouTube video capabilities. According to the company, users are 61% more likely to use YouTube or Google to research products or brands compared with other social sites, and are two-thirds more likely to buy a product after seeing it in an ad on YouTube. Google also claims YouTube is over twice as likely to be the channel consumers use when catching up on content from their favorite creators.

“The way consumers discover products is shifting – decisions are made throughout the funnel,” wrote Vidhya Srinivasan, vice president and general manager of Google Ads, in a blog post. “To keep up with this evolving media landscape, social advertisers need to adapt their strategies to deliver results.”

The Google Ads product is created to help advertisers apply their social media strategies to Google’s platforms, using formats including short-form videos, product images and other visual assets, to craft YouTube advertisements and Google Discovery digital ads. For instance, retailers can combine images and text from catalogs to create product feeds based on shoppers’ interests and intents.

Advertisers will also have access to Google’s targeting tools, such as creating lookalike audiences and action-based bidding strategies (such as maximizing clicks, conversions or website actions). They will also be able to evaluate ad performance by format to better understand which creative approaches are working best.

“Demand Gen campaigns can help you capture the interest of billions of users as they spend time on YouTube and Google’s visually immersive touchpoints,” Srinivasan said. “The engaging creatives can spur action while our audience and bidding solutions help you nurture interest with more potential customers.”

During beta testing, Argentine fintech company Naranja X achieved three-times higher click-through rates and a 61% lower cost per action with Demand Gen, according to Google. Samsung Germany, meanwhile, scaled its site traffic and increased click-through rates by 400% by optimizing its bidding strategy, Google reported.