Google is updating Demand Gen, its AI-driven campaign type for YouTube and Discover, with automated creative recommendations from Gemini. The June drop also widens automatic video resizing and adds measurement that ties campaigns to app installs.
Demand Gen is Google's visually focused campaign type, the successor to Discovery, placing image and video ads across YouTube, including Shorts and in-stream, along with Discover and Gmail. It is built to create interest among new audiences rather than capture existing search demand.
Creative Insights From Gemini
Google is bringing Gemini-powered insights directly into the creative selection process. When advertisers select image and video assets for a Demand Gen campaign, Gemini will provide automated recommendations on how to optimize that creative for YouTube.
Google says the feature is coming soon. The change moves asset selection from a manual judgment call toward guided suggestions. An advertiser uploading a set of product clips, for example, would receive prompts on which formats or adjustments suit YouTube placements before the campaign runs.
More Video Resizing Options
Demand Gen will support broader aspect ratio transformations, including vertical to square, vertical to landscape, and square to landscape. The option lets a single video asset be reshaped to fit more placements without an advertiser producing a separate file for each format. A retailer with one vertical Shorts clip could run a landscape version on larger screens from the same upload. Google lists this enhancement as coming soon.
Web-to-App Acquisition Measurement
Google is also expanding Demand Gen's measurement capabilities with a new web-to-app acquisition reporting feature. The measurement update, which is live now, lets advertisers see how Demand Gen campaigns bring in new app users through app installs.
It aims to close a reporting gap between web-based campaign activity and app outcomes, so a brand running Demand Gen on YouTube can attribute new installs to that spend rather than tracking the two surfaces separately.
Where This Sits
The new updates continue Google's push to fold Gemini deeper into its ad products, a direction it set out at Google Marketing Live earlier this year. They also track the wider shift toward AI handling creative and optimization work inside ad platforms. The company opened Demand Gen to retailer audience data earlier in June, part of a steady build-out of the campaign type, and Meta moved in a parallel direction this month with new AI ad-creation tools.
Recap
What did Google announce in the June Demand Gen drop?
Google introduced three updates to Demand Gen: Gemini creative recommendations and broader video resizing, both coming soon, plus web-to-app acquisition measurement, which is live now.
How do the Gemini creative insights work in Demand Gen?
When an advertiser selects image and video assets for a Demand Gen campaign, Gemini will provide automated recommendations on optimizing that creative for YouTube. Google says the feature is coming soon.
What does web-to-app measurement change for advertisers?
It lets advertisers attribute new app installs to Demand Gen campaigns, closing a gap between web campaign activity and app outcomes so they can measure cross-surface performance from one view.
