📺 Gmail, YouTube, Discover And Display Campaigns

A Google Gmail, YouTube & Display campaign shows picture and video ads in Gmail, on YouTube, in the Discover feed and across millions of websites and apps. ADs writes the text from your brief, cuts your pictures to Google's shapes, and creates the campaign paused.

Where to find it:

Tick Google Gmail, YouTube & Display when you build a campaign, or under Where it runs. The campaign screen then has a section Google: Gmail, YouTube, Discover and Display, in parts A to E.

A. What kind of campaign:

• Gmail, YouTube & Discover (Demand Gen): the only way to advertise in Gmail. Also YouTube (feed, before videos, Shorts) and Discover. Best for reaching new people with pictures and video.
• Display network and remarketing (Display): banner-style ads across millions of websites and apps. Best for showing your ads again to people who visited your site.
• Every Google channel at once (Performance Max): one campaign on Search, YouTube, Gmail, Discover, Display and Maps, and Google decides where. Best once Google receives your sales.

Classic YouTube video campaigns can only be created inside Google Ads itself. YouTube runs here through Demand Gen and Performance Max, which use the same YouTube placements.

B. The words:

Press Rewrite the Google text (Write the Google text the first time). It writes Headlines (up to 5, 30 characters each), Long headlines (up to 5, 90 characters each), Descriptions (up to 5, 90 characters each; Performance Max needs one of 60 or fewer), your Business name (25) and a Button. Every line is checked against Google's limits and the ad rules. Change anything, one line each, and press Save the text.

C. Pictures, logo and videos:

1. Tick up to 5 pictures from the campaign, or press Add pictures from your media library.
2. Press Make Google's picture shapes. ADs cuts each one to landscape 1.91:1, square, portrait 4:5 and vertical 9:16, for free on your server.
3. Logo (square): Change picks your logo. Any shape is placed on a square canvas, never cropped. Add a Wide logo (optional, 4:1) if you have one.
4. YouTube videos (optional, up to 5): paste the links or ids, one per line. They must be public or unlisted on YouTube.

D. Budget, bidding and who sees it:

• Daily budget. Demand Gen needs at least 5 US dollars a day.
• Bidding: maximise conversions or a target cost per sale on every type; maximise conversion value on Demand Gen and Performance Max; maximise clicks on Demand Gen and Display; your own cost per click on Display.
• Where the ads show (Demand Gen): Gmail, YouTube feed and search, YouTube before videos, YouTube Shorts, Discover, Display network and Google Maps.
• Countries, cities, regions and postcodes (Search Google), and Languages.
• Your audiences: Only them or Keep out for each list. For Performance Max, Only them guides Google instead.
• Let Google also find people like them (optimised targeting), on Display.
• Let Google send people to other pages of my site (Performance Max; off keeps everyone on your landing page), and Start and End dates.

E. Create in Google Ads (paused):

Google checks the whole campaign first; if any part is wrong, nothing is created and you see which part and Google's words. With the Google Ads script it is created on the script's next run. Once created, part E reads Already in Google Ads, and Your campaign in Google Ads now appears at the top of the section.

Changing the bidding later:

In Your campaign in Google Ads now, under Bidding, choose the new bidding, fill in its target or cost per click, and press Change bidding. ADs asks first, then sends only the bidding.

• Allowed on the campaign as it is: a different target cost per sale or target return, a new cost per click, and on Display and Performance Max any switch between the choices Google offers them.
• On a Demand Gen campaign that already exists, Google keeps bidding for sales and bidding for clicks apart. To move between them, Make a copy with this bidding and pause the old one makes a new campaign with the same words, pictures, audiences, countries and budget and the new bidding, switched off, and pauses the old one only once the copy exists. Switch the copy on when you are ready.
• Manual CPC on Display is always made as a copy, because its bid sits on each ad group.
• A campaign on a shared (portfolio) bid strategy is changed in Google Ads, so the other campaigns on it stay as they are.

With the Google Ads script the change waits for the script's next run; the panel shows Waiting for your Google Ads script until then.

A real example:

The course campaign of yoursite.com runs a Demand Gen campaign at $15 a day with Maximise conversions in the US, UK and Canada, on Gmail, YouTube feed and search, YouTube Shorts and Discover. It uses two pictures (the loaf and the starter jar), the round loaf logo and three headlines such as "Bake Real Sourdough".

Tips:

• Pictures matter most here. Give Google four or five strong ones.
• Keep buyers out with Keep out on your buyers list, so the budget reaches new people.
• See Managing Your Live Google Campaign for switching it on, pausing and the budget.