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Anyone here leaning harder into YouTube Demand Gen for ecom? Seeing some weirdly strong results
Posted by on March 3, 2026 at 3:04 amHey all,
How many of you are using YouTube Demand Gen as a proper cold traffic channel for ecommerce rather than just a side test?… lately i’m seeing more accounts where YouTube kicks things off and Search/Shopping do the cleanup.
One setup I’m involved with (through a small performance shop called Vysta) has YouTube driving first‑touch traffic, then branded search and performance Max catch a lot of the conversions later. it’s not perfect, but it feels more stable than relying only on paid social.
Curious how you’re structuring it: pure prospecting, blended with remarketing, mixed audiences, etc.? And what do you look at to decide “this is actually working” vs just shifting conversions around?
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1 Reply
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I’m actually seeing the opposite, good conversions off youtube in PMax. It’s really strange and I’m a bit dubious as to how Google is actually tracking it, but it’s something I’ve noticed in the last week.
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I mostly use Demand Gen as creative testing. Cheap way to see which hooks grab attention, but I don’t treat it as a main acquisition channel yet. Tracking real incremental lift is kind of a mess.
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For most of my ecom clients, YouTube only works when it’s tied in with Search/Shopping and remarketing. Standalone DG campaigns just look noisy and volatile.
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My internal rule: if I can’t explain the role of YouTube in one sentence to the client, I don’t scale it. “Upper funnel” is way too vague for most people paying the bill
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What’s your starting point on budget for new DG campaigns? I always feel like I’m either starving it or overcommitting before I know if creative works.
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