Launching on Google Ads (PMax, Demand Gen, YouTube, App)
Last updated September 16, 2026Auf Deutsch lesen
Google Ads works differently from Meta and TikTok. uplads launches into four Google channels, each with its own shape:
- Performance Max runs on asset groups: bundles of images, texts and videos that Google mixes into ads across Search, YouTube, Display, Gmail and Maps.
- Demand Gen runs classic ads on YouTube, Discover and Gmail, and takes 9:16 creatives natively.
- YouTube video campaigns run your videos as in-stream and in-feed ads.
- App campaigns promote an app install across Google's surfaces from a set of images, videos and texts.
Start a launch
- Open the Ad Launcher and pick your Google Ads customer in the account picker at the top. A Google customer is its own row in the picker.
- Choose the channel: Performance Max, Demand Gen, YouTube video or App.
- Click Load Media and pick creatives from your media library, up to 20, which is Google's limit per asset group or ad.
- In the Ad Sets card, pick where the ads go:
- Performance Max, new asset group. Creates one asset group with your creatives and texts in every selected campaign.
- Performance Max, add to existing asset groups. Links the selected creatives into asset groups that already run. No texts needed.
- Demand Gen. Creates one image ad (and one video ad, if you selected videos) per selected ad group.
- YouTube video. Creates one video ad per selected ad group from each video you loaded.
- App. Adds your creatives and texts to the selected App campaign's ad group.
- Fill in the texts under Ad Setup, then click Launch.
Texts for a new asset group
Google requires a minimum text set per asset group; the launcher enforces it before it lets you launch:
| Field | Count | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Headlines | 3 to 15 | 30 characters |
| Long headlines | 1 to 5 | 90 characters |
| Descriptions | 2 to 5 | first 60, rest 90 characters |
| Business name | 1 | 25 characters |
Demand Gen, YouTube video and App campaigns have their own, shorter text sets. The AI copy buttons under Ad Setup know each channel's counts and limits and write to them.
Images, logo and videos
- Performance Max wants images in 1.91:1, 1:1 or 4:5; Demand Gen additionally takes 9:16 natively. Anything else is center-cropped automatically to the nearest ratio, the same idea as the TikTok 9:16 auto-resize.
- Google requires at least one landscape image, one square image and a logo for Performance Max. Pick a real logo from your library under Ad Setup, or let uplads derive the missing slots from your best-fitting image so the launch never fails on a technicality.
- Video files upload automatically. Google only serves YouTube-hosted videos, so uplads uploads your video files (unlisted) to the YouTube channel of your connected Google login, then attaches them. This needs the YouTube permission; if your connection is older, click Reauthorize in Configuration once. You can also paste up to 5 YouTube links under Ad Setup. Without a video, Performance Max auto-generates one from your images. YouTube video campaigns need at least one video.
After the launch
New asset groups and ads are created paused by default, so nothing spends until you enable them. Flip the Launch ads as Paused / Active toggle under Ad Setup to launch active. Track progress in the Ad Launches tab below the launcher or under Launch history, and retry any failed items with one click.