Google Ads is expanding Checkout on Merchant to Demand Gen campaigns in the U.S. This direct-to-checkout experience was previously available to only Performance Max campaigns and organic shopping results.

According to Google, Checkout on Merchant is now available on Demand Gen campaigns that serve on YouTube In-stream inventory. Marketers running product-feed-based campaigns can now allow customers to move from ad impression to checkout with fewer steps—and without leaving the content they’re already watching.

When a user clicks a product featured in an ad—such as during a YouTube video—they will be taken to the checkout or cart page on the merchant’s website, not a middle page.

What marketers need to know about setup

Google allows two main options through Google Merchant Center: an account-level URL template that lets advertisers set a standardized link pointing users to the checkout or cart page, and a product-level template attribute for advertisers to define checkout URLs individually per product in their feed.

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