From Google Display Ads to Demand Gen: what now?

Google is bringing Display Ads into Demand Gen, creating a more unified environment for an increasingly large part of its visual advertising inventory.

The Google Display Network will continue to exist. What changes is the way advertisers buy and manage that inventory.

With Demand Gen, advertisers can use the Google Display Network alongside YouTube, Discover, Gmail and Maps, while still having the option to run campaigns exclusively on GDN.

This makes the change particularly important for campaign management, creative, bidding and automation.

For advertisers with active Display campaigns, the operational priority is understanding how to prepare for migration and which settings need to be reviewed before making the move.

When is the migration from Display to Demand Gen happening?

The process has already started.

From June 2026, Google began rolling out a migration tool that allows eligible advertisers to move existing Display campaigns into Demand Gen.

At a later stage, new Display campaigns will only be created within Demand Gen, and Google will automatically migrate remaining eligible campaigns that are still using the previous campaign type.

The overall transition is expected to be completed by 2027.

This gives advertisers a useful window to review campaign structure, creative and settings before migration becomes automatic.

Display-only campaigns will still be available

One of the most immediate questions is whether advertisers will still be able to use the Google Display Network on its own.

The answer is yes. Within Demand Gen, channel controls allow advertisers to decide where their ads appear.

This means a campaign can remain Display-only or gradually expand towards YouTube, Discover, Gmail and Maps.

For migrated campaigns, the Google Display Network remains enabled by default. Other channels can then be added once the migration is complete.

This flexibility allows advertisers to manage the transition gradually, initially keeping a setup close to the previous Display campaign and evaluating broader inventory later.

What does Demand Gen add to Google Display Ads?

The integration mainly brings a broader creative and distribution environment.

Demand Gen allows advertisers to combine images and video and provides formats such as carousel ads, AI-powered image generation tools and a wider range of video ads.

Distribution can also extend across Google’s main visual surfaces.

This makes the move particularly relevant for brands already using a creative approach similar to paid social: more assets, vertical formats, short-form video and variations built around different audiences and placements.

According to Google's internal data, advertisers adding GDN to Demand Gen campaigns have seen an average 9.5% increase in ROI.

This is a platform-owned figure and should therefore be treated as an indication rather than a guaranteed benchmark for every account.

Channel control also becomes more flexible

Within Demand Gen, channel controls can be configured at ad group level.

Advertisers can allow Google to automatically distribute budget across the available surfaces or manually select specific channels.

For example, one ad group could remain focused on GDN while another is dedicated to YouTube Shorts, or a Display-focused campaign could gradually expand to Discover and Gmail.

Reporting also becomes more transparent: Demand Gen allows performance to be segmented by channel and, on YouTube, by specific formats.

For advertisers moving from Google Display Ads, this is particularly useful during the first phase, when understanding how the distribution mix is changing becomes important.

What happens to existing campaigns?

Google recommends using its migration tool for campaigns that are already active.

The tool transfers campaign settings and part of the previous learning history, including up to 42 days of performance data.

According to Google, this can reduce the new learning period to approximately one or two days.

The original Display campaign is subsequently marked as removed, while its historical reporting data remains available.

The migration is irreversible: once a campaign has been moved to Demand Gen, it cannot be reverted to the previous Display campaign type.

This makes it worth reviewing the setup and migration eligibility before starting the upgrade.

Some features will work differently

Demand Gen supports many of the functions currently used in Display campaigns, although there are several operational differences.

Available bidding strategies include Maximize Conversions, Maximize Conversion Value, Target CPA, Target ROAS and Maximize Clicks. Some legacy Display options, including Manual CPC, Viewable Impressions and pay-per-conversion, are not carried over in the same form.

Certain configurations may also need to be changed before migration. Google highlights examples such as shared budgets, lead form assets, some bid modifiers, product filters and certain ad group-level exclusions.

Campaigns using configurations that are not yet supported may therefore be temporarily ineligible for the migration tool.

A pre-migration review helps identify these cases before they cause problems.

Creative needs to be prepared as well

Demand Gen also requires more attention to creative assets.

Google recommends expanding the creative set with logos, images and videos to make use of the widest possible range of surfaces.

A business logo is required. When the original Display campaign does not contain one, the migration tool may insert a placeholder that should then be reviewed and replaced.

There is another operational detail worth considering: migrated ads are treated as new ads and therefore need to go through the approval process again.

For important campaigns or critical commercial periods, it makes sense to avoid leaving migration until the last possible moment.

What to check before migration

Before moving from Google Display Ads to Demand Gen, a quick campaign audit is useful.

The main areas to check are:

• bidding strategy and compatibility with Demand Gen;
• audiences, exclusions and ad groups;
• dedicated or shared budgets;
• available assets, especially logos and video;
• conversion actions used for optimisation;
• lead forms, product filters or other specific configurations;
• any lift studies currently in progress.

If a Conversion Lift study is running, Google recommends waiting until it has finished before using the migration tool, because the migrated campaign will not automatically be associated with the existing study.

The day of migration matters too

There is an easy-to-miss detail around budget.

When a campaign is migrated, spend already generated by the Display campaign earlier that day is not counted against the new Demand Gen campaign’s daily budget.

If a campaign with a daily budget of £50 has already spent £10 before migration, for example, the new Demand Gen campaign can start with a fresh £50 available for the remainder of the day.

Google therefore warns that temporary overdelivery or underdelivery may occur during the first 24 hours.

For accounts with significant budgets, choosing the migration timing carefully can prevent a fairly avoidable surprise.

Should you expand beyond the Display Network immediately?

It depends on the campaign objective.

For advertisers looking to maintain continuity with previous performance, Google suggests initially keeping GDN only within channel controls and using audiences and bidding levels similar to the original Display campaign.

Once the new configuration has stabilised, broader expansion can be evaluated.

Demand Gen can reach the same audience across different moments of the customer journey: while they watch YouTube, browse Discover, check Gmail or use other visual Google surfaces.

This is one of the more interesting aspects of the new model: discovery and visual performance can be managed within the same campaign type.

Expansion should still be tested against the account’s actual objectives. More inventory on its own does not guarantee greater efficiency.

How to evaluate performance after migration

Some fluctuation can occur during the first few days.

Google recommends allowing the campaign time to adjust and, when making bidding changes, keeping variations within roughly 15% and allowing approximately a week between subsequent adjustments.

The comparison should focus on KPIs tied to the campaign objective: CPA, ROAS, conversion value, conversion volume and the quality of traffic or leads.

Channel-level reporting can also help identify how distribution is changing, especially if YouTube, Discover, Gmail or Maps are activated after the initial migration period.

The move can therefore become an opportunity to reassess whether the previous Display structure still reflects how the brand wants to generate demand and acquire customers.

From Google Display Ads to Demand Gen: what should advertisers do now?

The move to Google Demand Gen brings Display Network management into a broader environment with new formats, channel controls, creative automation and access to other visual Google surfaces.

For advertisers with existing campaigns, the priority is to prepare the migration carefully.

That means checking setting compatibility, creative, bidding and measurement, using the migration tool where appropriate and monitoring performance during the days that follow.

The Google Display Network remains available as a standalone channel within Demand Gen.

The main change is the environment in which it is managed: a structure designed to combine broader inventory, more formats and increasing levels of automation.

For advertisers still using Google Display Ads, 2026 is therefore a good time to identify which campaigns can be migrated immediately and which ones need some setup work first.