What You Need to Know about DV360 vs CM360.

Campaign Manager 360 (CM360) and Display & Video 360 (DV360) are part of the Google Marketing Platform, but they serve different purposes within the digital advertising ecosystem. Here are the key differences:

Functionality:

• CM360: CM360 is an Ad Server primarily focused on ad serving, trafficking, and managing ad campaigns across various channels, including display, video, search, and social. This is used for Hosting Creatives, Reporting, Tracking & Planning
• DV360: It is a more comprehensive platform designed for programmatic buying, encompassing features like real-time bidding, audience targeting, and creative optimization across display, video, and audio channels. DV360 also supports hosting creatives, reporting, Tracking, and planning but primarily focuses on Media buying in real-time through Real-time bidding.

Ad Buying and Programmatic Capabilities:

• CM360: While it supports programmatic buying integrated with DV360, it is not as specialized in programmatic features as DV360.
• DV360: Specialized in programmatic advertising, allowing advertisers to buy ad inventory in real-time auctions, leveraging advanced targeting and optimization capabilities.

Integration and Unified Ad Buying:

• CM360: Offers integration with other Google Marketing Platform products such as providing a more unified solution for advertisers managing various aspects of their campaigns.
• DV360: Integrates seamlessly with CM360 and other Google Marketing Platform products, providing a unified and comprehensive solution for programmatic buying, ad serving, and campaign management.

Inventory Sources:

• CM360: Gives advertisers the freedom to manage and serve ads and run digital campaigns via direct buys, social media, paid search, and programmatically through DSPs
• DV360: Specializes in programmatic buying, enabling advertisers to access a vast array of publishers’ inventory through ad exchange.

Targeting Capabilities:

• CM360: Offers a range of targeting options but may not have the same level of granularity as DV360 for programmatic and audience targeting.
• DV360: Provides advanced audience targeting capabilities, including first-party and third-party data integration, allowing for more precise targeting in programmatic campaigns.

It is also important to note that CM360 plays a major role in terms of unified accurate reporting and attribution. Let’s understand this with an example, if a user is viewing an ad on Google Ads but does not click on it, and the same user is again viewing an ad assigned to a DV360 line item, and this time the user clicked on it and converted in conversion. In unified reporting and attribution, CM360 will report all conversions that can be attributed to that advertiser, while DV360 will only report conversions for floodlight activities that are assigned to line items.

With CM360, you can easily track your ads and assign creatives to multiple agencies and advertisers through a centralized creative hub. This hassle-free solution is not available in DV360, giving you a clear advantage in managing your marketing campaigns on a multichannel.

In summary, CM360 is more focused on ad serving and campaign management across various channels. At the same time, DV360 is a specialized platform for programmatic buying with advanced features for real-time bidding, audience targeting, and optimization across multiple ad formats. The choice between the two depends on the advertiser’s specific needs and campaign objectives.

I believe this article has empowered you with the knowledge to distinguish between CM360 and DV360. But still, your insights and suggestions are always welcome.

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