Demand Gen (short for demand generation) campaigns are designed for the upper and middle funnel, where you're building interest rather than capturing people already searching. They run image, carousel, and video creative across Google's most visual surfaces — YouTube in-stream, in-feed, and Shorts, plus Discover and Gmail — and replaced the older Discovery campaign type.
Demand Gen is Google's answer to social-style advertising, with lookalike segments built from your first-party data, and it has become the home for conversion-focused video as Google migrates Video action campaigns into it. It pairs naturally with Search: Demand Gen creates the demand that Search later captures, and it feeds remarketing audiences.
Example
A brand runs short video and image ads in the YouTube feed, Shorts, and Gmail to introduce its product to in-market audiences who aren't searching yet.
How Sloss Digital uses it
We use Demand Gen to build awareness and fill the top of the funnel, then capture that demand with Search and convert it with strong landing pages.