What is DV360? Key Features and Benefits Explained

Understanding DV360: Google’s Advanced Advertising Platform

You might have heard whispers about Google DV360. But what is DV360? Well, it’s a powerful Google platform that’s causing a revolution in the way advertisers approach programmatic advertising. As part of Google’s suite of marketing tools, Display & Video 360 (DV360) offers a comprehensive solution to manage your digital campaigns across various channels and devices.

You’ll find that DV360 has an impact on how marketers plan, execute, and analyse their advertising efforts. This article will delve into the key features of Google DV360, exploring its role in DSP marketing and advertising. We’ll also break down the benefits it brings to advertisers, helping you understand why it’s become a go-to tool for many in the digital marketing landscape. By the end, you’ll have a clear picture of what DV360 is in digital marketing and how it can boost your advertising game.

 

What is DV360?

Display & Video 360 (DV360) is Google’s advanced advertising platform designed to revolutionise the way advertisers approach programmatic advertising. It’s a powerful tool that allows you to plan, execute, and manage digital campaigns across various channels and devices. DV360 offers a comprehensive solution for large advertisers looking for more control over their campaigns. 

As part of the Google Marketing Platform, DV360 integrates seamlessly with other Google tools, enabling you to create multichannel media plans, link creative strategy with data, manage audiences, and find high-quality advertising inventory. This integration allows for a unified and holistic view of advertising efforts across channels, making it easier to manage and optimise campaigns.

Is DV360 The Same As Google ads? 

The short answer to this question is, no. Google Ads and DV360 are both Google tools that advertisers utilise to market their products or services. But both of these services allow for advertisers to use digital assets to increase online visibility throughout the internet, however, DV360 grants much more control than Google Ads. 

How DV360 differs from Google Ads

While both platforms are used for digital advertising, DV360 offers several advanced features that set it apart from Google Ads:

1. Targeting Options: DV360 provides more sophisticated audience targeting capabilities, including first-party and third-party data segments, custom audiences, and more granular options for precise targeting.
2. Ad Formats: DV360 focuses on display and video ads, offering a wide range of rich media and interactive ad formats. This makes it ideal for brand-focused campaigns and more advanced programmatic advertising strategies.
3. Inventory: Unlike Google Ads, which primarily uses Google’s search and display networks, DV360 accesses a broader range of inventory sources, including the Google Display Network, YouTube, and various third-party exchanges.
4. Campaign Complexity: DV360 is better suited for larger enterprises and agencies handling complex programmatic campaigns with multiple targeting parameters.

Key components of DV360

DV360 is organised around five main sections that work together to simplify the managed campaign process:

1. Campaigns: This component allows you to create, optimise, and monitor campaigns, order lines, and media insertion orders. You can plan campaigns based on coverage and frequency forecasts, considering budget and audience.
2. Audiences: DV360 offers advanced audience management features. You can create and manage audiences using various functions, such as audience profile analysis, activity-based audience builder, and frequency limits based on audiences.
3. Creative: This component helps you adjust your creative strategy to align with your media and data plan. You can visually design ads with real-time previews, use innovative formats and templates, and create data-driven creatives that appeal to different audiences.
4. Inventory: DV360 allows you to discover and manage high-quality inventory from chains and publishers. You can explore new opportunities in marketplaces and negotiate deals through the ‘Marketplace’ feature.
5. Statistics: This component provides access to all the campaign metrics you need, offering comprehensive reporting capabilities for in-depth analysis of your advertising efforts.

How to gain access to DV360

Gaining access to DV360 requires a substantial investment and is typically reserved for larger advertising campaigns. The platform is designed for companies with significant media budgets, with a minimum spend of GBP 39,281.51 per month.

To access DV360, you’ll need to have a Google Account registered with your email address. However, DV360 can’t be used by affiliated individuals and may require strong reference support. Only limited companies are allowed to associate with DV360, including marketing agencies, trading desks, and firms of large individual advertisers.

If you’re interested in setting up a DV360 account, it’s recommended to reach out to Google’s sales team. They can guide you through each phase of the process, ensuring a smooth and seamless experience. Keep in mind that using DV360 effectively requires a certain level of expertise and skill, so it’s advisable to seek guidance and support from experienced DV360 experts when running media campaigns for the first six months.

Powerful Features of DV360

Data-driven targeting capabilities

Display & Video 360 (DV360) offers some of the most advanced targeting options in programmatic advertising, allowing you to connect with specific audiences across multiple channels. These targeting capabilities help you deliver more relevant ads, improve campaign performance, and maximise return on investment.

One of the key features of DV360 is its ability to leverage a combination of first-party, second-party, and third-party data for highly granular targeting. This allows for precise audience segmentation based on demographics, interests, behaviours, and real-time signals.

First-party audience targeting in DV360 relies on data collected directly from user interactions with your brand’s digital properties. This is crucial for re-engaging users who have already shown interest in your products or services. By using Google’s Floodlight conversion tracking pixel, you can create tag-based audiences and retarget them with specific offers or reminders.

DV360 also enables you to create first-party audiences based on campaign activity. For example, you can create audiences that include users who have engaged with a specific ad or exclude users who have been overexposed to certain ads. This targeting helps optimise ad frequency, ensuring that users are exposed to the right amount of ad impressions without leading to ad fatigue.

Access to premium inventory

DV360 provides access to a diverse range of premium digital inventory across devices and screens, including mobile web and app, and connected TV. This includes high-quality TV inventory via over-the-top video streams and traditional linear TV.

With DV360, you can access YouTube, Gmail, and Waze inventory alongside cross-exchange display and video inventory in a single buying tool. YouTube inventory includes all TrueView formats and YouTube Reserve inventory, including Google Preferred.

You can also access digital audio ad inventory from various platforms, offering you the opportunity to bring audio, display, and video campaigns together in one place, and connect with audiences in various moments throughout the day.

To ensure you can reach people in all environments, DV360 gives you access to national, local, and addressable linear TV inventory through integrations with various platforms. You can also access premium TV content on connected TVs, such as programming from CBS, AMC, A+E, MLB.TV, and many more.

Advanced creative options

DV360 offers a range of advanced creative options to help you deliver engaging and effective ads. One of these options is data-driven creatives, which allow you to personalise your message for different customer segments. These creatives use dynamic rules to match each rule in your dynamic feed in priority order. If no rules are matched, a generic fallback creative with a general message is served.

HTML5 creatives are another powerful feature of DV360. These are ads built with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS that serve on web pages or in mobile apps. They can be either display or rich media, offering advanced features like video, audio, or other engaging elements.

Rich media ads in DV360 support more metrics to record rich interactions, giving you a clearer picture of how people engage with your ad. Supported rich media features and formats include in-banner video, full-screen expandable ads, and parallax creatives.

By leveraging these powerful features, you can create highly targeted, engaging, and effective advertising campaigns using DV360, making it a valuable tool in your digital marketing arsenal.

Benefits of Using DV360 for Advertisers

Enhanced audience reach and targeting

Display & Video 360 (DV360) offers advertisers unparalleled opportunities to connect with their target audience across multiple channels. With access to over 80 ad exchange networks and the ability to display ads on more than 90% of the Internet, DV360 provides extensive reach for your campaigns. This wide-ranging access allows you to engage with up to 3 billion monthly users, expanding your reach from YouTube to Discover and Gmail.

One of the key advantages of DV360 is its advanced targeting capabilities. You can leverage a combination of first-party, second-party, and third-party data to create highly granular audience segments based on demographics, interests, behaviours, and real-time signals. This level of precision helps you deliver more relevant ads, improving campaign performance and maximising return on investment.

DV360 also offers powerful features like lookalike segments, which allow you to reach audiences similar to those who already love your brand. This capability helps you expand your reach while maintaining relevance, potentially increasing your customer base.

Improved campaign performance and ROI

DV360’s sophisticated tools and features are designed to boost your campaign performance and return on investment. The platform uses Google AI for enhanced automation, which helps improve campaign performance by learning from click, conversion, and impression signals to predict the optimal bid for each impression. This automation takes time to train, typically 2-4 weeks, but can significantly enhance your campaign’s effectiveness.

Value-based bidding is another powerful feature that considers the value different Floodlight activities may have for your business. This allows you to optimise your bids to achieve more value, rather than simply aiming for a higher number of conversions. You can apply custom bidding strategies to YouTube video action line items, specifically maximise conversion value and Target ROAS, further refining your campaign performance.

DV360 also provides advanced creative options, including data-driven creatives and HTML5 creatives. These allow you to personalise your message for different customer segments and create more engaging ads with features like video, audio, or other interactive elements. Rich media ads in DV360 support more metrics to record rich interactions, giving you a clearer picture of how people engage with your ad.

Streamlined campaign management

One of the significant benefits of using DV360 is its ability to centralise the entire ad campaign management process. You can effortlessly handle all the important aspects of your campaign, such as audience targeting, budget allocation, performance monitoring, and creative assets, through a single interface. This streamlined workflow can help save time and resources while enhancing efficiency.

DV360 is organised around five integrated modules that work together to simplify the campaign management process: Campaigns, Audiences, Creatives, Inventory, and Insights. This structure allows you to design creatives, organise audience data, purchase inventory, and optimise campaigns all in one place.

The platform also offers advanced reporting capabilities, allowing you to see precisely how your money is being spent and know exactly where your ads are running. This transparency and control enable you to take steps to adjust your campaigns as needed, ensuring optimal performance.

By leveraging these powerful features and benefits, you can create highly targeted, engaging, and effective advertising campaigns using DV360, making it a valuable tool in your digital marketing arsenal.

Conclusion

Google’s Display & Video 360 (DV360) has a significant impact on the digital advertising landscape, offering a comprehensive solution for managing campaigns across various channels and devices. Its advanced targeting capabilities, access to premium inventory, and sophisticated tools for campaign optimisation make it a powerful asset for advertisers looking to boost their reach and performance. DV360’s integration with other Google tools also allows for a more unified approach to digital marketing efforts.

To sum up, DV360 stands out as a game-changer in programmatic advertising, providing advertisers with the tools to create more targeted, efficient, and effective campaigns. While it requires a substantial investment and expertise to use effectively, the potential benefits in terms of enhanced audience reach, improved campaign performance, and streamlined management make it a valuable consideration for large advertisers and agencies. As the digital advertising world continues to evolve, DV360 is likely to play a crucial role in shaping future strategies and approaches.

FAQs

What exactly is DV360?

DV360, or Display & Video 360, is a demand-side platform (DSP) that enables marketers and advertisers to programmatically purchase a wide array of online media, including display, video, mobile, and television advertisements.

How does DV360 differ from Google Ads?

Unlike Google Ads, which controls its inventory on platforms like Google Search and YouTube, DV360 provides access to a broad range of inventory across various ad exchanges and publishers. Think of it as the difference between having exclusive access to your private beach (Google Ads) versus being able to explore an entire ocean (DV360).

What are the main functions of DV360?

DV360’s roles include creating, optimising, and monitoring campaigns, order lines, and media insertion orders. It also involves audience creation and management, and adjusting the creative strategy to align with the media and data plans.

Why is DV360 considered the best DSP?

DV360 is highly regarded due to its extensive integration capabilities, diverse targeting options for different audiences, access to various inventory sources and creative formats, and the utilisation of advanced AI and machine learning technologies to enhance campaign effectiveness.