Create a Demand Gen line item

Prerequisites

To run Demand Gen line items you must first complete the initial setup for running YouTube & partners and Demand Gen line items, then enable Floodlight optimization for YouTube and YouTube auto-tagging.  

• Enable Floodlight optimization for YouTube: Floodlight optimization is an advertiser-level setting that applies to all new and existing YouTube & partners and Demand Gen line items within the advertiser. 
• Enable YouTube auto-tagging: Enable YouTube auto-tagging for your advertiser in Display & Video 360 Partner Settings to improve attribution signals for conversion measurement.

Create a Demand Gen line item

Create a new line item

1. Start in an existing insertion order or create a new one. Demand Gen is available within insertion orders with “Conversions” or “Clicks” objectives, or insertion orders without objective. Learn more about insertion order objectives
   Demand Gen is not compatible with insertion orders using automatic budget allocation. Ensure the insertion order uses the optimization setting “Control bid and budget at the line item level” and the “Automatically optimize your budget allocation” checkbox is unchecked.
2. In your insertion order, click New line item.
3. Pick Demand Gen as the line item type. 

Enter your line item details

4. Enter a Line item name.
5. In the “Targeting” section, you'll see that the device targeting, category exclusions, and inventory sources are set automatically. You can click Add targeting to set other line-item level targeting options. Additional types of targeting are available in the line item's ad groups.
6. Configure your line item's settings:
   1. Pick custom flight dates or use the same dates as the line item's insertion order.
   2. Enter the line item's budget and pacing settings. After you save the line item, you can't change between daily and flight, but you can update the budget amount. 
   3. In the Bid strategy section, initially choose either “maximize conversions”, “maximize clicks”, or “target CPA” as your bid strategy. If you choose “target CPA”, set your target bid. (Optional) Once you’ve collected enough conversions you can update the bid strategy to "maximize conversion value" or "target ROAS". Learn more about value based bidding strategies.
   4. (Optional) Add a product feed to your line item to show browsable product imagery below your ads. The product feed option is visible during line item creation if you have linked a Google Merchant Center account to your advertiser. Learn more about product feeds.
7. Select the Floodlight activities you want the Demand Gen line item to optimize towards and track as conversions. At least one Floodlight activity must be selected, unless you're using the “maximize clicks” bidding strategy.
   1. With Floodlight optimization for YouTube enabled, the Engaged View (read only) model is used for default reporting and optimization and this cannot be changed.
   2. The post-click and post-view window can be customized, which impacts reporting and optimization if set to a shorter window than your Floodlight configuration. Learn more about conversion counting for line items
   3. (Optional) Choose any additional settings for your line item, including Third-party vendors to enable third-party measurement for your line item.

Set up your ad group and ads

8. Click Create new ad group to set up an ad group for your line item:
   1. Enter an Ad group name.
   2. Click Add targeting to configure ad-group level targeting. Learn more about targeting options for YouTube & partners and Demand Gen line items.
      1. If using audience targeting, choose one Audience type per ad group for best control and visibility into performance.
      2. To prevent narrowing eligible inventory, positive targeting of keywords, categories or placements is not available for Demand Gen line items. Exclusions are supported. 
   3. If you’ve added a product feed to your line item choose which products from your Google Merchant Center account can show below ads in this ad group.
   4. Click Create new ad. 
   5. Enter an Ad name.
   6. Choose an Ad type.

      Video ad

      • Select up to 5 videos to use as a creative. Search for YouTube videos or paste YouTube URLs. Videos must be 10 seconds or longer. Click Add logo to upload or select a previously uploaded image. Select a square (1:1) image to use as the logo in your ad. 
      • Maximum file size for any image is 5120 KB. 
      • Recommended: 1200 x 1200. Min. required: 128 x 128.

      For video, carousel, and product-only ads, exactly one logo is required. For image ads, up to 5 logos are supported.

      • Add a companion banner. Select either an image that's automatically generated from the videos in your YouTube channel (recommended) or upload your own. Companion banners appear on computers only.
      • Enter the text for your headline, which can contain up to 15 characters including spaces. The headline should promote your product or service.
      • Add a long headline and description. Long headlines can be up to 90 characters and descriptions can be up to 70 characters.
      • Select your call to action text from the drop-down list.
      • Enter your business name. In certain layouts, this may appear in the text of your ad.
      • Enter the landing page URL for your ad. You can customize the display URL for your ad by providing up to two descriptive terms that will be appended to your landing page domain.
      • (Optional) Add a Click tracker URL. Click More options to add a tracking template, final URL suffix, or custom parameters to the final URL.

      Image ad

      • Select up to 20 images to use in your ad. At least 1 landscape or square image is required, in the correct aspect ratio. 
      • Maximum file size for any image is 5120 KB.
      • Landscape image (aspect ratio: 1.91:1). Recommended: 1200 x 628. Min. required: 600 x 314.
      • Square image (aspect ratio 1:1). Recommended: 1200 x 1200. Min. required: 300 x 300. 
      • Portrait image (aspect ratio: 4:5). Recommended: 960 x 1200. Min. required: 480 x 600. 
      • Click Add logo to upload or select a previously uploaded image. Select a square (1:1) image to use as the logo in your ad. 
      • Maximum file size for any image is 5120 KB. 
      • Recommended: 1200 x 1200. Min. required: 128 x 128.
        For video, carousel, and product-only ads, exactly one logo is required. For image ads, up to 5 logos are supported.
      • Enter the text for your headline and description. Headlines can contain up to 15 characters. Descriptions can be up to 70 characters.
      • Select your call to action text from the drop-down list.
      • Enter your business name. In certain layouts, this may appear in the text of your ad.
      • Enter the landing page URL for your ad. You can customize the display URL for your ad by providing up to two descriptive terms that will be appended to your landing page domain.
      • (Optional) Add a Click tracker URL. Click More options to add a tracking template, final URL suffix, or custom parameters to the final URL.

      Carousel ad

      • Click Add card to create between 2 and 10 cards to be used in your carousel ad. Each card contains images, a headline, call to action and landing page URL.
        • Select at least 1 landscape (1.91:1) or square (1:1) image to create a new card. Optionally, you can also add 1 portrait (4:5) image. The images you add to this card must have the same aspect ratios (landscape, square or portrait) as the other cards in your ad. If your card has multiple images, only 1 of these images will be used in the ad when shown.
      • Click Add logo to upload or select a previously uploaded image. Select a square (1:1) image to use as the logo in your ad. 
        • Maximum file size for any image is 5120 KB. 
        • Recommended: 1200 x 1200. Min. required: 128 x 128.
          For video, carousel, and product-only ads, exactly one logo is required. For image ads, up to 5 logos are supported.
      • Enter the text for your headline and description. Headlines can contain up to 15 characters. Descriptions can be up to 70 characters.
      • Select your call to action text from the drop-down list.
      • Enter your business name. In certain layouts, this may appear in the text of your ad.
      • Enter the landing page URL for your ad. You can customize the display URL for your ad by providing up to two descriptive terms that will be appended to your landing page domain.
      • (Optional) Add a Click tracker URL. Click More options to add a tracking template, final URL suffix, or custom parameters to the final URL.

      Product-only ad

      • Click Add logo to upload or select a previously uploaded image. Select a square (1:1) image to use as the logo in your ad. 
        • Maximum file size for any image is 5120 KB. 
        • Recommended: 1200 x 1200. Min. required: 128 x 128.
      • Enter the text for your headline and description. Headlines can contain up to 15 characters. Descriptions can be up to 70 characters.
      • Select your call to action text from the drop-down list.
      • Enter your business name. In certain layouts, this may appear in the text of your ad.
      • Enter the landing page URL for your ad. You can customize the display URL for your ad by providing up to two descriptive terms that will be appended to your landing page domain.
      • (Optional) Add a Click tracker URL. Click More options to add a tracking template, final URL suffix, or custom parameters to the final URL.

9. Click Create ad.
10. (Optional) If you'd like to use multiple ads, click Create new ad again and repeat the steps above. For best results run at least 5 ads per ad group, with a different call-to-action button and headline for each ad. 
11. Click Create ad group..
12. Click Create to save your new line item.

When starting a new line item or making changes to bids, targeting, or ads, allow for 30 days before evaluating performance and making optimizations.