| 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 |