What are channel controls?
Channel controls in Demand Gen campaigns allow you to choose where your ads appear across Google's visual-first surfaces, including YouTube, Gmail and Discover, as well as the Google Display Network. For example, you’ll be able to tailor your Demand Gen campaigns to serve specifically on YouTube Shorts.
Benefits of channel controls
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Tailor your ad experiences: Choose the Demand Gen channel where your ads show so you can curate the ad experiences to align with your marketing strategy. For example, if you have a vertical creator video, you can choose to serve on YouTube Shorts only in order to optimise the ad experience on mobile.
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Extend your social strategy: Grow your performance by tapping into the power of YouTube, including YouTube Shorts. Expand your impact beyond paid social platforms and tailor your creative strategy for specific surfaces on YouTube.
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Get more transparency and enhance campaign efficiency: See a detailed performance breakdown by channels, make informed decisions around campaign optimisation and drive efficiency.
To maximise reach across channels, we encourage all advertisers to take advantage of the full inventory in Demand Gen. Learn more about the benefits of cross-channel optimisation.
How to use channel controls in Demand Gen
Demand Gen channel controls are set at the ad group level, allowing you to customise where your ads serve within each ad group. You can choose to select your channels manually or choose All Google channels to set them automatically. Google Ads is designed to achieve the best possible results by using all channels and available ad inventory. This automated approach ensures efficient budget allocation and cost control, making the automatic channel selection All Google channels the recommendation for most advertisers.
Automatic channel selection – All Google channels
- In your Demand Gen campaign, go to the ad group settings.
- In the 'Channels' panel, click All Google channels.
- 'All Google channels' gives your campaign the flexibility to automatically expand to new channels as Google adds them, driving campaign performance.
- Optional. Include the Google Display Network. This enables you to reach over 90% of the global Internet population across more than 3 million sites and apps.
Manual channel selection – Let me choose
- In your Demand Gen campaign, go to the ad group settings.
- In the 'Channels' panel, click Let me choose.
- Choose the channels that you wish your ads to serve on, selecting from:
- YouTube
- YouTube in-stream
- YouTube in-feed
- YouTube Shorts
- Discover
- Gmail
- Google Display Network
- YouTube
See where your ads served
Channel-level reporting is available by channel at the campaign, ad group and ad level. To view reporting, use the network segmentation:
- Discover
- Gmail
- YouTube
- Google Display Network
For Demand Gen campaigns, you may also segment your YouTube traffic reports by ad format, including:
- skippable in-stream
- in-feed
- Shorts
Learn more about Demand Gen campaign metrics and reporting
Best practices for channel optimisation
Maximise performance with AI-powered reach across all Google channels
Demand Gen campaigns, when optimised across YouTube, Discover, Gmail and the Google Display Network, use Google's AI to connect with potential customers as they explore their interests. Google Ads will strategically distribute your budget and uncover new customers for your business.
Focus on overall campaign efficiency, not individual channel costs
Consider the overall efficiency of your Demand Gen campaign and its ability to drive qualified leads and conversions, instead of focusing on cost-per-conversion or performance metrics for each individual channel. Google's AI optimises for the lowest overall cost across all channels, ensuring that your budget is used effectively.
An individual channel may appear more cost effective in isolation, but it may not provide enough overall conversions to meet your campaign goals. By using all Google channels, Google Ads has flexibility to identify the best opportunities and maximise your conversions within your budget.
