Demand Gen campaigns for healthcare advertisers

Demand Gen is the Google Ads campaign type built for image and video ads on YouTube (including Shorts), Discover, Gmail, Maps and the Google Display Network. Google is also moving Display campaigns into it. For a medical practice, the appeal is reaching people before they search. The catch is that Demand Gen leans on audiences, and Google’s health rules take away the audience types the campaign is best known for.

This guide covers where Demand Gen ads run, the restrictions Google lists for sensitive categories, which audiences a health advertiser can and cannot use, the ad quality rules for YouTube and Discover, and the patient data and tracking limits that apply. For related topics, see our guides to Performance Max for healthcare advertisers, running a YouTube channel for a medical practice, uploading patient lists to ad platforms and Google Ads for med spas.

This is general information, not legal advice. Sources cited were checked on November 1, 2026: the Google Ads Help pages About Demand Gen campaigns, Create a Demand Gen campaign, Use Lookalike segments to grow your audience, Demand Gen FAQ and Google Display Ads campaigns have a new home in Demand Gen (no date shown on these pages, apart from the rollout dates they list); the Google Ads policies YouTube and Discover Feed ad requirements, Healthcare and medicines, Health in personalized advertising and the Customer Match policy (no date shown); the HHS OCR bulletin on online tracking technologies (content last reviewed June 26, 2024, with its note on American Hospital Association v. Becerra), read through an archived copy dated October 22, 2026, because hhs.gov does not load from our server; 45 CFR 164.501, 164.502(a) and 164.508(a)(3); and 15 USC 45(a)(1) and 52. Google changes these pages without notice, so check the current versions before you launch. We found no federal rule or agency guidance written for Demand Gen campaigns by medical practices as such. State rules differ, so have a health care attorney review your advertising.

The short version

Demand Gen runs image, video and carousel ads on YouTube, Discover, Gmail, Maps and the Google Display Network. Google is moving Display campaigns into Demand Gen in stages that began in June 2026.
Google’s own Demand Gen page says ads in sensitive categories are generally restricted to YouTube and are not eligible to serve on Gmail or the Google Display Network.
The same page says sensitive category campaigns must target only predefined Google audiences, such as affinity or in-market segments.
If your ads fall in Google’s Health sensitive interest category, Customer Match, your data segments, audience expansion and lookalike segments are off the table.
Location defaults to all locations at the ad group level. A local practice has to set it.
YouTube and Discover ads carry extra rules against exaggerated health claims and misleading before-and-after images.
HIPAA limits on patient lists and tracking tags apply no matter which campaign type you choose.

What Demand Gen does

Google’s About Demand Gen campaigns page describes the campaign as capturing engagement and action across YouTube (including Shorts), Discover, Gmail, Maps and the Google Display Network. You supply image assets, video, headlines and descriptions, and you can build carousel ads with 2 to 10 image cards. You can pick channels by hand, such as YouTube Shorts only, or choose all Google channels with the Display Network as an optional add-on.

Google’s comparison table on the same page sets Demand Gen apart from Performance Max on audiences. Performance Max uses audience signals with no hard targeting. Demand Gen lets you target audience segments, including lookalike segments. That difference is the reason a health advertiser needs to read the audience rules below before building a Demand Gen plan around them.

Google’s page Google Display Ads campaigns have a new home in Demand Gen says a migration tool began a phased rollout in June 2026, that new Display campaigns will later be created only within Demand Gen, and that remaining eligible Display campaigns will later be migrated automatically. If your practice runs Display ads today, they will end up in Demand Gen, and the rules in this guide will apply to them.

What changes for sensitive categories

The About Demand Gen campaigns page has a section titled Important policy restrictions for sensitive categories. It says three things.

Inventory. Ads in sensitive categories are generally restricted to YouTube inventory and are not eligible to serve on Gmail or the Google Display Network. Google adds that the majority of sensitive categories, though not gambling, alcohol or political content, may serve on Discover if they do not target personalized audiences or predefined Google audiences.
Targeting. Sensitive category campaigns must exclusively target predefined Google audiences, such as affinity or in-market segments.
Product feeds. Alcohol advertisers cannot use product feeds. That line does not affect a medical practice.

Read together, the first two lines mean a health ad that targets predefined Google audiences stays on YouTube, and a health ad that reaches Discover does so without audience targeting. The page does not list which categories count as sensitive for this purpose. Google’s Health in personalized advertising policy, covered next, calls Health a sensitive interest category, so we plan Demand Gen for health services on the assumption that YouTube is the main placement. If your campaign shows placements on Gmail or the Display Network, check the ad’s policy status before you count on them.

Audiences a health advertiser can and cannot use

The Health in personalized advertising policy defines Health as a sensitive interest category. It includes physical or mental health conditions, products, services or procedures to treat or manage chronic conditions, health issues associated with intimate body parts or functions, invasive medical procedures including cosmetic surgery, surgical procedures or injections, and disabilities. Its examples include treatments for chronic conditions, counseling for mental health issues, and pregnancy and infertility treatments.

For ads in this category, the policy says advertiser-curated audiences cannot be used, because they may contain sensitive user signals. It lists Customer Match, your data segments, audience expansion and lookalike segments as advertiser-curated. Predefined Google audiences such as in-market segments, affinity, life events and demographics can be used, with exceptions the policy lists, because Google says sensitive user signals are automatically excluded from them. A footnote says custom segments using sensitive creative assets or pointing to sensitive landing pages will serve only with Display campaigns to non-sensitive audiences or contextually, and that other campaigns using them will not be eligible to serve. Users under 18 are not eligible for personalized ads of any kind.

Lookalike segments deserve a note of their own, because Google promotes them as a core Demand Gen feature. Google’s page Use Lookalike segments to grow your audience says that during 2026 lookalikes in Demand Gen are moving to a suggestion mode, in which your seed list acts as a signal and the system may reach people outside the similarity thresholds. For a health advertiser the mode does not matter. A lookalike is built from a seed list of your customers or site visitors, and the Health policy bars lookalike segments for health ads.

Optimized targeting is the other setting to check. Google’s Create a Demand Gen campaign page recommends it and says that, when it is on, demographic expansion also takes effect and may target beyond the age, gender, household income and parental status you selected. The page adds that advertisers with sensitive content will still comply with the age restrictions. For more on demographic limits, see our guide to targeting healthcare ads by age, sex, race and language.

Location settings for a local practice

Google’s Create a Demand Gen campaign page says targeting is set at the ad group level by default, with language set to all languages and location set to all locations. You can switch to campaign-level location and language targeting to set a radius around a location, and Google notes you cannot switch back to ad group level after the campaign is published.

No federal rule we found tells a practice how to set its ad locations. A practice that sees patients in one area pays for each impression outside it, so we recommend setting a location or radius on each ad group, or at the campaign level before you publish, and checking the location report after the first week.

Ad rules for YouTube and Discover

Google’s YouTube and Discover Feed ad requirements apply on top of the standard Google Ads policies. Under exaggerated or inaccurate claims, the page bars false or exaggerated claims about curing diseases or other health conditions, and its examples include promising a secret cure, guaranteeing unrealistic personal transformation, showing a misleading before-and-after image and claiming a product is “100 percent effective”. It also bars ads that use language meant to create a strong negative emotional reaction or a false sense of urgency. User testimonials are allowed if they contain no exaggerated or inaccurate claims and no content meant to provoke strong negative emotions. Ads must also meet Google’s editorial standards, and blurred, distorted or poorly cropped images can fail review.

The FTC Act covers the same ground. 15 USC 45(a)(1) declares unfair or deceptive acts or practices unlawful, and 15 USC 52 makes it unlawful to disseminate a false advertisement likely to induce the purchase of services or cosmetics. A short video built to stop a scroll is still an ad that needs support for each claim. For before-and-after content in particular, see our guide to patient testimonials and before-and-after photos.

The Healthcare and medicines policy applies to Demand Gen as to other campaign types. It restricts, among other things, prescription drug services such as online pharmacies and telemedicine providers that prescribe, prescription drug terms in ads, landing pages and keywords, speculative and experimental treatments, clinical trial recruitment and addiction services. Prescription drug services and addiction services are among those that require Google certification first. For how disapprovals work, see our guide to why healthcare ads get disapproved.

Patient lists and Customer Match

Google’s Customer Match policy says you may upload only customer information collected in a first-party context, you must disclose in your privacy policy that you share customer data with third parties to perform services on your behalf, you must obtain consent where required by law, and you may not upload information about anyone under 13. It also says the personalized advertising rules on sensitive interest categories apply to remarketing with Customer Match, and that you cannot use Customer Match data to identify sensitive interest categories related to your customers.

For a HIPAA covered entity, the list itself is the larger question. Using protected health information to encourage patients to buy a service is marketing under 45 CFR 164.501, 45 CFR 164.502(a) permits uses and disclosures only as the Privacy Rule allows, and 45 CFR 164.508(a)(3) requires the patient’s written authorization for marketing, with narrow exceptions. A patient list uploaded as a Customer Match list or as the seed for a lookalike tells the platform that each person is a patient of your practice. Our guide to uploading patient lists to ad platforms covers this in detail.

Conversion tracking and health data

Google’s Demand Gen page tells advertisers to set up conversion tracking with the Google tag and suggests optimizing for lightweight conversion events such as a site visit. Each tag you add raises the questions in our guide to tracking pixels on practice websites.

The HHS Office for Civil Rights bulletin on online tracking technologies is still posted, with a note. On June 20, 2024, in American Hospital Association v. Becerra, the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas vacated the bulletin to the extent it said HIPAA obligations are triggered when a technology connects an IP address with a visit to an unauthenticated public page about specific health conditions or providers. The rest of the bulletin stands, including its guidance on authenticated pages such as patient portals. We recommend keeping tags off patient portals, appointment request confirmations and pages that would reveal a visitor’s condition, and counting a conversion from a page that shows only that a form was sent, without the reason for the visit.

Questions to ask before your practice runs Demand Gen

Do our ads fall in Google’s Health sensitive interest category, and if so, are we planning for YouTube as the main placement?
Have we removed Customer Match lists, our data segments and lookalike segments from each ad group for health ads?
Does a custom segment use sensitive assets or point to a sensitive landing page?
Is optimized targeting on, and have we decided whether to limit demographic expansion?
Is a location or radius set on each ad group, or at the campaign level before we publish?
Can we substantiate each claim in our videos and images, including before-and-after content?
Does any landing page use prescription drug terms or describe a service Google restricts, and do we hold the certification it requires?
Which conversion action will the campaign optimize for, and does its tag sit on any page that reveals a condition or sits behind a login?
If we run Display campaigns today, who checks them after they move to Demand Gen?

Use and avoid

Use: predefined Google audiences such as in-market and affinity segments for health ads.
Use: a location or radius that matches where your patients come from.
Use: video and images that show the practice, the team and the visit, with claims you can support.
Use: a dated record of the assets you approved and the audiences you selected.
Use: the ad’s policy status to confirm where it is eligible to serve.
Avoid: patient lists as Customer Match audiences or lookalike seeds without a written HIPAA authorization from each patient.
Avoid: remarketing lists of site visitors for ads in the Health category.
Avoid: countdown language, cure claims and misleading before-and-after images in YouTube and Discover ads.
Avoid: conversion tags on pages that show a condition, a booked service or portal content.

An illustration

This example is invented. [Practice name], a chiropractic practice in [city], plans a Demand Gen campaign with short videos about what a first visit looks like, at [budget] a day. The first draft targets a lookalike segment built from the practice’s patient email list, runs on all Google channels plus the Display Network, keeps location at the default and counts a conversion when the booking confirmation page loads, which names the reason for the visit.

Before launch, the owner reviews the plan with their marketing contact. Because the ads promote treatment for back and neck pain, they treat the campaign as falling in Google’s Health category. The lookalike segment comes out, and the ad groups use a predefined in-market segment. The owner plans for YouTube as the placement and checks policy status after review rather than counting on Gmail or the Display Network. Location moves to a radius around the office. One video line that promised relief “in one visit” is cut. The conversion moves to a generic thank-you page that does not name the reason for the visit, and the owner saves a dated copy of each asset.

Checklist

Confirm whether your ads fall in Google’s Health sensitive interest category.
Plan placements around YouTube for health ads and check each ad’s policy status after review.
Remove Customer Match lists, your data segments and lookalike segments from ad groups for health ads.
Check custom segments for sensitive assets or landing pages.
Decide on optimized targeting and demographic expansion, and write the decision down.
Set a location or radius for each ad group, or at the campaign level before publishing.
Review videos, images and text against the YouTube and Discover Feed ad requirements.
Check landing pages for restricted drug terms and services that need Google certification.
Move conversion tags off pages that reveal a condition or sit behind a login.
Get written HIPAA authorization before any patient information goes to an ad platform.
Review Display campaigns again after they move to Demand Gen.
Keep dated records of settings, approved assets and reviews.

How we help

We build websites, local and organic search, Google Ads and lead generation and an AI front desk for independent practices. For Demand Gen, that means planning placements around Google’s sensitive category limits, keeping health ads to the audiences Google allows, producing video and image assets the practice can substantiate and setting up conversion tracking that leaves health details out. Our tools are built with HIPAA in mind. We confirm in writing what a BAA covers before any patient information flows through a tool, and if it is not covered, we do not route patient information through it. We are not a healthcare provider and we do not give legal or medical advice. Read our guide to healthcare marketing rules for the wider picture.

Can a medical practice run Demand Gen campaigns?

We found nothing in Google’s Demand Gen pages that bars healthcare advertisers. Google’s About Demand Gen campaigns page says ads in sensitive categories are generally restricted to YouTube and must target only predefined Google audiences, and the Healthcare and medicines and Health in personalized advertising policies apply as they do to other campaign types.

Can we use lookalike segments for health ads?

Google’s Health in personalized advertising policy lists lookalike segments as an advertiser-curated audience that cannot be used for ads in the Health category. Building a lookalike from a patient list also raises HIPAA questions, because using patient information for marketing needs each patient’s written authorization under 45 CFR 164.508(a)(3), with narrow exceptions.

Will our health ads show on Gmail and the Display Network?

Google’s Demand Gen page says ads in sensitive categories are not eligible to serve on Gmail or the Google Display Network, and that the majority of sensitive categories may serve on Discover only without personalized or predefined audience targeting. Check each ad’s policy status after review.

What happens to our Display campaigns?

Google says a migration tool began a phased rollout in June 2026, new Display campaigns will later be created only within Demand Gen, and remaining eligible Display campaigns will later be migrated automatically. Review targeting and placements after the move.

Are before-and-after images allowed in Demand Gen ads?

Google’s YouTube and Discover Feed ad requirements list a misleading before-and-after image as an example of an exaggerated health claim. Images that are accurate and supported are a separate question, and the FTC Act still requires support for the claim the image makes.

Google Demand Gen campaigns for healthcare advertisers: placements, audiences and limits