- Date
- May 26, 2026
- Kind
- Technology shift
- Significance
- High
On May 26, 2026, Google announced that Google Display Ads is moving into Demand Gen. Advertisers will manage their presence on the Google Display Network through Demand Gen campaigns, and Google says “Display advertisers can still serve ads exclusively on” the network. It expects the migration to be complete by 2027.
What Google says
- The Display Network reaches 2 million sites, videos and apps, according to Google’s post.
- Advertisers that add the Display Network to Demand Gen campaigns see, on average, a 9.5% increase in return on investment. Google attributes this to its own data from August 2025, so it is a company figure and not an independent result.
- The food-delivery platform GoFood saw a 24% lower cost per acquisition and 19% more conversions after adding the Display Network, Google says.
How the migration works
Google’s Help Center says a migration tool began a phased rollout in June 2026, letting eligible advertisers move existing Display campaigns. Migration is one-way: a migrated campaign cannot be reverted. New Display campaigns can later only be created inside Demand Gen, and Google will migrate the remaining eligible campaigns itself, with no dates given for either step.
What does not carry over
The Help Center lists features that are not supported in Demand Gen, including Manual CPC, bid adjustments, seasonality adjustments and portfolio bidding, combined audiences, and Brand Lift and Search Lift for Display Network inventory. Content-suitability exclusions are supported only at the account level, and uploaded HTML5 display ads are planned for late 2026.
Why it matters
This is another manual campaign type becoming a setting inside a more automated one. The gain is shared creative and bidding with YouTube, Discover and Gmail; the risk is in the controls that do not carry over. Advertisers who rely on bid adjustments, placement exclusions or manual cost-per-click bidding should check what survives before the automatic move.
What happened next
Google had not published dates for ending new standalone Display campaigns or for the automatic migration in the sources reviewed. Check the Help Center page for the current timetable.