Buying traffic · also called Demand Gen campaigns, Discovery ads, GDN
Google Demand Gen (Discovery)
Demand Gen is a Google Ads campaign type that shows image and video ads on YouTube, Discover, Gmail, Maps and the Google Display Network.
Demand Gen is Google's answer to social feeds: visual ads shown to people who are browsing, not searching. It replaced the older Discovery campaigns from 2023, and Google has since added Display Network inventory, with a tool to migrate ordinary Display campaigns into Demand Gen rolling out from June 2026.
Arbitrageurs use Demand Gen as a traffic source in the same way they use paid social: buy a cheap, visual click, land it on a content page with related search terms, and earn from the search feed. When the feed is also Google's, the operator is buying from Google and selling back to Google's advertisers, which is why this route is sometimes grouped with Display-to-search.
The campaign supports Target CPA and value-based bidding, and lookalike segments. It needs conversion data to work well, so a reliable postback of feed revenue matters. Being on Google's own inventory does not relax anything: Google Ads policies apply to the ad and RSOC policies apply to the page.
Think of it like this
If Google Search is a customer walking up to the counter and asking for something, Demand Gen is the poster they pass in the corridor on the way in.
Related terms
Display-to-search (D2S)
Display-to-search is buying visitors with banner or image ads and sending them to a page that earns from search ads.
Performance Max (PMax)
Performance Max is an automated Google Ads campaign type that places one advertiser's ads across Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps from a single campaign.
Lookalike audience
A lookalike audience is a targeting group an ad platform builds by finding people who resemble a seed list you supply, such as past converters.
Target CPA (tCPA)
Target CPA is an automated bid strategy where the platform sets bids to win as many conversions as possible at an average cost you specify.
Google Ads
Google Ads is Google's advertising platform, where businesses bid to show ads on Google Search, its search partner sites, YouTube and other properties.
Value-based bidding
Value-based bidding is automated bidding that aims for the highest total conversion value, not the highest number of conversions, using values the advertiser reports.
Sources: Google Ads Help: About Demand Gen campaigns, Google Ads Help: Google Display Ads campaigns have a new home in Demand Gen