Google offers marketers and advertisers two platforms for programmatic buying - Google Ads and Display & Video 360. However, these two platforms have vastly different features and capabilities.
Google Ads (Adwords) is Google's free standard advertising platform, which is usually used for paid search activity and offers display and YouTube advertising.
On the other hand, Display & Video 360 (DV360) is Google Marketing Platform's enterprise-level platform which is typically used for display, video, audio, data reporting and more.
In this article, we will explore the
- 6 Reasons to choose DV360 over Google Ads
6 Reasons to choose DV360 over Google Ads
1. Access to a greater inventory
Google Ads allows buyers to purchase inventory solely across the Google Display Network. Whereas, DV360 buys across all external inventory sources – providing significantly larger scale of buying.
In AUNZ, access to these additional inventory sources provides 2x the available impressions as buying solely via Google Ads. This increased scale provides advertisers with more opportunities to reach their target audience, as well as better optimisation capacity.
By connecting with these external supply sources, DV360 is able to buy across a much more comprehensive range of inventory formats, such as audio, rich media and Connected TV.
2. Leverage different buy types
Google ads only processes open auction buying - while DV360 gives you more options for how you transact with publishers.
DV360 enables the advertiser to create deals with publishers and to negotiate lower prices versus what is being sold via open auctions. It also provides the ability to pre-purchase inventory before the open auction, or access ad inventory that is not peddled at all in the open auction.
One of the primary types of private deal is Programmatic Guaranteed (PG) buying. PG deals essentially function as a traditional media direct buy, in that a publisher and advertiser agree on a set CPM and impression volume over a certain period of time. Transacting this type of buying via DV360 reduces the operational resource required from a booking and finance perspective as the process is integrated totally within the platform.
DV360's "Marketplace" allows advertisers to easily identify publishers and negotiate deals directly within the platform.
3. GMP Integration
Unlike Google Ads, DV360 integrates with the broader GMP stack, including Campaign Manager, Search Ads 360 & Google Analytics 360.
This integration provides DV360 with advanced cross-channel reporting and audience activation through Floodlight Activities. Floodlight activities are the GMP's conversion tracking system. It provides a framework to track cross-channel campaigns across digital media and the web.
• Build and activate audiences
DV360 uses this floodlight integration to enable segmentation of 1st party data - Either from a page level or more granular data extraction through u-variable setup. Once platforms are linked, floodlights and audience lists seamlessly push through for conversion tracking and campaign targeting.
Further to this, advertisers can build 1st party web & app audiences within GA360 push these into DV360 for activation purposes. Additionally, these audiences can factor in other data signals, such as interactions with SA360 activity.
• Track and report on conversions
Floodlight activities provide a centralised view for tracking and reporting on your digital media conversions, de-duplicated across all tracked digital channels, such as search, social and display.
The integration with Campaign Manager provides a feedback loop for DV360 conversions, enabling the platform to track attributed conversions more accurately. This improves the effectiveness of DV360's optimisation by removing "noisy" conversions, focussing the platforms' algorithms on more accurate conversion data.
• Analytics feedback
Organisations that have a GA360 license can leverage the consolidated reporting between both platforms by linking and importing campaign and cost data from DV360 to GA360.
4. Bidding
DV360 provides more algorithmic buying capabilities than Google Ads. In addition, you can independently optimise your manual bidding settings more widely than with Google Ads. Automatic bidding automatically adjusts your bid based on your set performance goals. It is based on Google's algorithms, which help you reduce manual optimisation work and therefore improves your time management.
5. 3rd party integrations
DV360 integrates with many 3rd party platforms – such as DMPs, CRMs & CDPs, allowing you to ingest advanced audience segmentation for activation. These audiences can help you to deliver more targeted campaigns and, therefore, better results.
DV360 can access all major third-party verification tools natively within the platform to further improve brand safety and ad fraud protection.
By connecting with these external supply sources, DV360 is able to buy across a much more comprehensive range of inventory formats, such as audio, rich media and Connected TV.
6. Frequency capping
DV360 allows frequency capping at a much more granular level than Google Ads. This provides advertisers far more control to ensure that their ads are displayed to their audiences the appropriate number of times while minimising ad fatigue and maximising total unique reach.
The integration with the rest of the Google Marketing Platform (GMP) also allows the advertiser to manage frequency capping across their different digital channels, combined with the ability to consolidate many different types of buying through DV360, such as CTV, Video & Audio, allowing advertisers to apply holistic frequency management across the entirety of their digital activation.
One of the primary types of private deal is Programmatic Guaranteed (PG) buying. PG deals essentially function as a traditional media direct buy, in that a publisher and advertiser agree on a set CPM and impression volume over a certain period of time. Transacting this type of buying via DV360 reduces the operational resource required from a booking and finance perspective as the process is integrated totally within the platform.
Resolution's PoV
The increased scale and functionality of DV360 makes a compelling case for advertiser's to move beyond the familiarity of Google Ads and licence Google's enterprise programmatic buying platform. With Google confirming that there is little difference in working media costs regardless of which platform is used, any marketer that has the capacity to learn the functionality of a new tool should strongly consider making this transition.
Have questions? Is DV360 the right buying platform for you? Contact us today and we’d love to help you to make the best choice.
