S. No. Google Display Network Programmatic
1. GDN is an ad network, a product of google which has millions of sites as an inventory (these inventories are the same ones signed up to google Adsense) An automated media buying platform where inventory is huge, it has a collection of ad networks, ad exchanges or direct publishers as their inventory base.
2. Does not support too many ad formats, customization is not possible. It supports customization plus huge inventory for rich media units
3. GDN is an amazing tool and supports all the basic targeting capabilities not as much as programmatic networks Too much detailed targeting capabilities what GDN can’t give
4. GDN does not provide detailed insights on the audience Audiences insight availability is amazing, we can always detail out the audience to whom the ads were served
5. Audience base is too much but not as huge as programmatic Audience base is huge which makes the reach numbers high (i.e. unique users)
6. For video advertising, we only get youtube Lot many inventory sources other than youtube
7. By using GDN we can only buy GDN inventory We can buy GDN (AdX) inventory using different DSPs whereas from other options are also open. This gives flexibility and higher reach
8. Important to note is that GDN is a media buy network Programmatic buying is a technology or an ecosystem which facilitates media buying using multiple platforms like DSP, SSP, DMP, Network, etc.
9. GDN is dependent on Google data for targeting audiences We can make use first, second and third party data to target audiences.
10. GDN charges the advertiser only basis campaign delivery and no extra fee is charged plus no minimum money criteria to run a campaign Maximum DSP has some fee involved or commission percentage plus they have some minimum fund criteria which could be from $100 to $10000 or even more.
11. Bid adjustment has lag of 2-3 hours Bid adjustment is real time
12. CPC, CPA or CPM Bidding methodology possible though the backend is based on impressions only Only CPM i.e. based impressions