Drive better performance by upgrading Video Action Campaigns to Demand Gen

Consumers today expect multi-format content experiences as they research, compare and buy new products and services. To help advertisers capture emerging demand and drive growth, we’re bringing the best of Video Action Campaigns and Demand Gen together. Starting in Q2 2025, Video Action Campaigns, also known as video conversion campaigns, will be upgraded to Demand Gen campaigns.

Advertisers using Video Action Campaigns will drive stronger performance by adopting a multi-format strategy with Demand Gen today. In fact, advertisers who uploaded both video and image assets to Demand Gen saw 20% more conversions at the same cost per action than those who uploaded video assets only.¹ What’s more, you’ll get a suite of powerful features in Demand Gen to help you achieve greater results:

• Expanded reach: Engage with up to 3 billion monthly users² by expanding your reach from YouTube to Discover and Gmail.
• Tailored, multi-format creative storytelling: Run video and image ads in one campaign and get granular insights segmented by formats for creative optimization. Bring the excitement and innovation of creators right into your campaigns with partnership ads powered by BrandConnect. Control where your video assets appear with creative preferences, ensuring optimal placement across various surfaces. For example, if you’ve developed an ad with a creator that’s really popular on YouTube Shorts, you can pin it to the surface so it shows up there more often.
• More relevant, specific audiences: With Lookalike segments, you can reach more audiences who are similar to those who already love your brand.

We’re also bringing the top features that you love about Video Action Campaigns to Demand Gen — omnichannel bidding will be available in beta in the coming months, support for buying Demand Gen campaigns in Display and Video 360 will be rolling out in October, and third-party verification with YouTube brand safety partners and Google video partners inventory are now available in Demand Gen. Finally, you'll maintain similar performance with your existing video assets — on average, advertisers who only run video ads with Demand Gen saw similar conversions to their Video Action Campaigns at a similar cost per action.³

Learn how to upgrade your Video Action Campaigns to Demand Gen

Here’s a preview of the upgrade process in Google Ads to help you plan ahead and set your campaigns up for success:

Here’s what’s you need to know at each stage of the upgrade:

• Today, we strongly recommend you start running Demand Gen campaigns as an alternative to Video Action Campaigns. You can choose to create new Demand Gen campaigns from scratch, or easily duplicate all your settings in Video Action Campaigns into new Demand Gen campaigns using our copy-and-paste tool which will be rolling out to all advertisers in the coming months.
• Starting in early 2025, we’ll introduce a migration tool to help you manually upgrade your Video Action Campaigns to Demand Gen, seamlessly carrying over your historical settings and learnings in Video Action Campaigns for consistent performance. If you’d like to take advantage of the new features in Demand Gen, such as Lookalike segments or image ads, we recommend you create new Demand Gen campaigns instead of using the migration tool to upgrade. Check our FAQ page for detailed guidance.
• Starting in March 2025, you’ll no longer be able to create new Video Action Campaigns in Google Ads. To ensure a smooth transition before this comes into effect, we recommend you start familiarizing yourself with Demand Gen campaigns today.
• Starting in Q2 2025, all remaining Video Action Campaigns will be automatically upgraded to Demand Gen for you in Google Ads. You will be notified in advance of any changes to your accounts. Once the automatic upgrades conclude, Video Action Campaigns will no longer be available to you as a campaign type in Google Ads.

Learn more about the upgrade process and timeline for Display & Video 360.

Advertisers are seeing success with multi-format storytelling

DoorDash, an online food delivery platform based in the U.S., tested Demand Gen and saw a 15x higher conversion rate at a 50% more efficient cost per action compared to Video Action Campaigns. Partnering with Kepler, DoorDash tested a mix of image and video assets to drive more impact across Google and YouTube’s visually immersive surfaces.

Prepare for upgrades with new resources

In the coming months, our team will continue to share more information and updates to keep you informed at every step of the upgrade process, starting with a webinar later this month. You’ll hear directly from our product experts on more tips and insights on upgrading Video Action Campaigns to Demand Gen and have all your top questions answered. Be sure to follow @GoogleAds to stay updated throughout the process.

You can also visit the Google Ads Help Center to learn more about Demand Gen, and create new Demand Gen campaigns following our creative excellence guide and best practices guide. If you have any questions, please refer to our FAQ page.