Ready to Scale? Auditing a Demand Gen Asset Group Before Raising Budget

Marketing Academy · Field Work●Paid Ads

All projects·From: Google Demand Gen Campaigns: The Mid-Funnel Performance Play

MiniAudit· 35 minutes

Allbirds

Objective: Given a real Demand Gen asset group export, diagnose whether the creative-variety and audience-seeding minimums from the lesson are actually met before recommending a budget increase.

You're the paid media analyst at Allbirds, the sustainable footwear brand, reviewing a Demand Gen campaign that's been live for three weeks. The brand team wants to double the daily budget next week; your job is to confirm the campaign is actually ready for more spend, not just tolerating it.

Pull the asset group export and the audience settings panel, check both against the lesson's minimum requirements, and write a go/no-go recommendation.

Before you start

What you'll need

Free path (everything below is enough to finish)

Google Ads

FreePull the asset group export and audience settings

Native reporting inside the ad account, no export tooling needed

Google Sheets

FreeLog the asset and audience audit checklist

Free, shareable with the brand team

The process

2 steps

Step 01 of 02

Creative format variety requirement

The lesson's Creative Requirements section says the algorithm needs contrast to test effectively: at least two videos in different aspect ratios plus three to four image variants. One video and two images is not enough.

The asset group export shows 1 landscape (16:9) video, 2 square (1:1) images, and nothing else. Is this campaign ready for more budget?

Google Ads— Campaign > Asset groups > the live Demand Gen campaign's asset list.

Procedure

Open the asset group and list every asset by format and aspect ratio
Count video formats separately from image formats
Compare the count against the lesson's minimum (2+ videos, different ratios; 3-4 images)
Flag any missing format as a blocker before budget changes

Sample output

Asset group: Allbirds — Wool Runners Prospecting
  VIDEO
    1x Landscape 16:9, 22s
  IMAGE
    2x Square 1200x1200
  MISSING: Portrait 9:16 video, second landscape/square video variant, portrait 960x1200 image

Healthy

At least 2 videos in different aspect ratios and 3-4 image variants, giving the algorithm real contrast to test.

Unhealthy

1 video and 2 images total, the exact under-supplied combination the lesson calls out as insufficient.

What this means

This asset group is under-supplied. More budget on the same thin creative set just spends faster into the same ceiling, it does not fix the ceiling.

So what do I do about it?

Symptom	Action	Effort
Only one video and two images in the asset group	Hold the budget increase and brief in a Shorts-format 9:16 video plus 2 more image variants before scaling spend	half day

YouYou can do this yourself, no engineering access required.

Step 02 of 02

Customer Match seed list as lookalike foundation

The lesson recommends starting with a Customer Match list of 5,000+ matched emails before building a lookalike, and warns Optimised Targeting is only safe for accounts with 50+ conversions a month.

The audience panel shows a Customer Match seed list of 1,200 matched emails, a lookalike built from it, and Optimised Targeting switched on. The account has averaged 12 conversions/month. What's the risk?

Google Ads— Campaign > Audiences > audience segment settings.

Procedure

Check the Customer Match seed list size against the 5,000+ recommendation
Check whether Optimised Targeting is enabled
Check trailing 30-day conversion volume against the 50+ conversions/month threshold for safely running Optimised Targeting

Sample output

Customer Match seed: 1,200 matched emails (recommended: 5,000+)
Lookalike: built from seed, size = narrow
Optimised Targeting: ON
Trailing 30-day conversions: 12

Healthy

A seed list of 5,000+ emails feeding the lookalike, with Optimised Targeting reserved for accounts already converting 50+ times a month.

Unhealthy

A 1,200-email seed list (too thin for a reliable lookalike) with Optimised Targeting on at only 12 conversions/month, letting Google expand reach on almost no signal.

What this means

Optimised Targeting on a sparse-data account lets Google guess at scale instead of learning from real signal. It should be disabled until conversion volume, or the seed list, is materially larger.

So what do I do about it?

Symptom	Action	Effort
Optimised Targeting is enabled with fewer than 50 conversions/month	Turn off Optimised Targeting and grow the Customer Match list toward 5,000+ before re-enabling it	5 min

YouYou can do this yourself, no engineering access required.

Final deliverable

A one-page audit memo recommending scale-now, fix-creative-first, or fix-audience-first, with the specific line-item fix for each flagged gap.

See a reference example

Sample output

Warby Parker, Demand Gen readiness audit (excerpt)

CREATIVE: PASS
  3 videos (16:9, 9:16, 1:1), 4 image variants — meets minimum contrast requirement

AUDIENCE: FAIL
  Customer Match seed: 2,100 emails (below 5,000 recommendation)
  Optimised Targeting: ON at 31 conversions/month (below 50 threshold)

RECOMMENDATION: Hold budget increase. Turn off Optimised Targeting and grow the seed list before scaling spend.

Success criteria

You're done when you can:

Correctly identifies whether the creative set meets the 2-video/3-4-image minimum
Correctly identifies whether the audience seed size and Optimised Targeting setting match the account's conversion volume