Demand Gen ad group targeting: locations, languages and channels

What it does

Demand Gen differs from most Google campaign types in one useful way: locations and languages can be set on the ad group, not only on the campaign. One campaign can therefore hold an ad group for Illinois with English creatives and another for New York with Russian creatives, sharing a budget and a bid strategy but serving different people. Together with channel controls and audiences per ad group, this makes Demand Gen a flexible tool, and also an easy one to overcomplicate if every idea becomes its own ad group.

Channel controls decide where an ad group may serve. By default Demand Gen uses all available Google channels: YouTube in-feed, in-stream and Shorts, Discover, Gmail and the Display network. You can limit an ad group to selected channels. Do it for a reason: a vertical video made for Shorts, a horizontal cut meant for in-stream, or a test that should run on YouTube only. Every channel you remove shrinks the inventory the system can use, which can raise costs and slow down learning, so start broad unless the creative clearly fits only some places.

Languages in Demand Gen limit ads to people whom Google, by its own signals, considers speakers of that language; they do not translate anything. Match the ad group language with the language of its creatives and landing page. If you want Russian-speaking people in the US, a coherent package is a Russian ad group with Russian images and a page that opens in Russian, while an English ad group next to it covers everyone else. Choose locations where you can actually serve customers or hire, and remember that a narrow area also means a smaller audience and slower learning.

When to split ad groups: when creatives differ by language, when locations need different landing pages, offers or legal wording, when a format belongs to specific channels, and when an audience needs its own message. When not to split: to push budget into a region, because the budget lives at the campaign level and the system decides how to spend it across ad groups; or to create many tiny ad groups with the same creative, because data spread thin makes each group slower to evaluate. If a region must have a guaranteed budget, give it a separate campaign.

AdAce Ads manages Demand Gen inside existing campaigns. You can create new ad groups and ads in a Demand Gen campaign and set each ad group's locations, languages and channels: YouTube in-feed, in-stream and Shorts, Discover, Gmail and Display. An ad group can also get an audience of people who searched your keywords, built as a custom segment. Every creation and change is a proposal: before writing, the service reads the current state, an approver confirms with a password and second factor, and the result is read back. Google changes can be checked in Google's validate-only mode first, where Google fully validates the change and writes nothing.

Why it helps

• Different languages and locations inside one Demand Gen campaign.
• Channel control per ad group for format-specific creatives.
• Clear rules for when to split ad groups and when not to.
• Every change approved by a person and read back.

How to set it up

1. Open “Campaigns” and choose an existing Demand Gen campaign of the client.
2. Create a new ad group or pick an existing one.
3. Set locations and languages that match the creatives and the landing page.
4. Keep all channels or select YouTube in-feed, in-stream, Shorts, Discover, Gmail or Display.
5. Optionally add an audience of people who searched your keywords.
6. Check the proposal in Google and approve it with password and second factor.

Good to know