Discovery Campaigns

Discovery campaigns is the old name for Google's feed-based campaign type that put image-led ads in places like Discover, Gmail, and YouTube feeds. You will not create one today. Google's current Demand Gen documentation describes a campaign type that combines video and image assets across Google's discovery feeds, and it does not list Discovery as a campaign type. Google's June 2023 announcement introduced Demand Gen with new lookalike segments and a new creation flow for image and video assets. Treat Discovery as a former name for the same family of ads. If you manage an account that still has Discovery in its history, look at the campaign type column and the change history before you assume anything. Past Discovery campaigns are history, and the ones now running are Demand Gen.

Demand Gen is a superset in scope. Its help page lists YouTube including Shorts, Discover, Gmail, Maps, the Google Display Network, and Google video partners as surfaces. Formats include images in landscape, logo, portrait, and square sizes, videos in horizontal, square, and vertical shapes, text headlines and descriptions, carousel ads, and product feeds from Merchant Center. You can pick specific channels, such as Shorts only. Lookalike segments help reach people similar to existing customers, including buyers, site visitors, and viewers of a YouTube channel. Image sizes, text limits, and the number of assets differ in Demand Gen, so a creative set made for Discovery needs a refresh. Google's Demand Gen asset specification page lists the current sizes and rules.

Bidding changed with it. Demand Gen's comparison table lists Clicks, Conversions, and Conversion Value as goals, with value-based and Maximize Clicks highlighted. Target ROAS comes with conversion history requirements: Google asks for 50 conversions in the past 35 days with 10 in the past 7 days per campaign, or 100 across the account, and the conversions need a value above zero. Older Discovery advice written around image ads, a few text fields, and a different reporting layout does not translate cleanly, so treat it as direction instead of a recipe. Audience options also grew. Besides your own lists and Google's segments, lookalike segments can reach people similar to existing customers, and the audience signals you pick shape where the campaign finds new people.

Where this still matters: old agency decks and audit reports, which name Discovery campaigns as a recommendation or a result. API references that mention old resource types. And advice articles that quote creative specs from before 2023. A common mistake is to follow such a guide step by step and then wonder why the interface looks different, or to compare a Discovery-era conversion rate to a Demand Gen result without noting that the inventory and the creative have changed. Another is assuming the audience controls match. Be skeptical of case studies from the Discovery era. They describe different formats, inventory, and bid strategies, so the results do not predict what Demand Gen will do for you.

If you inherit an account with Discovery history, find the campaign in the list and check its status and type. Use the reporting from that period as a baseline for cost per conversion, not for tactics. This week, open your Demand Gen setup, check that your creative includes both image and video assets (Google's help says mixing both usually performs better), and write down which surface you want. If you are new to the family, Demand Gen is where to learn it. For a small business, a sensible start is one Demand Gen campaign with a modest budget, a handful of good images, a short video, and a conversion goal you already track.