How to Set Up and Run a Campaign in DV360

Display & Video 360 (DV360) provides a comprehensive platform for managing digital advertising campaigns. Offering advanced features for media planning, audience targeting, and optimization, DV360 is designed for creating impactful programmatic ad campaigns. 

Here’s a detailed guide on how to effectively set up and manage a DV360 campaign, focusing on best practices and actionable insights.

What Is DV360?

DV360 is designed for enterprises and agencies looking to manage cross-channel campaigns with greater control over audience segmentation, creative optimization, and performance tracking.

The DV360 Campaign Hierarchy

Understanding the hierarchy within a DV360 campaign is essential for structuring and organizing advertising efforts effectively. 

The DV360 platform is built around a tiered structure that allows for precise management of budgets, targeting, and ad creatives. Here is a breakdown of the key components:

1. Advertiser: This is the highest level in the hierarchy, representing the brand or business that owns the campaigns. All campaign activities are managed under the advertiser account.
2. Campaign: Below the advertiser level, the campaign houses all of the activity for a specific marketing initiative. Campaigns are where overall objectives, budgets, and timelines are defined.
3. Insertion Order (IO): The insertion order acts as a container for line items and defines how budgets are allocated. It is used to organize and manage the delivery of ads across different channels. Multiple IOs can exist within a single campaign, each with its own targeting and pacing strategies.
4. Line Items: Line items are the specific ad placements within an IO. This is where ad formats are selected, such as display, video, or native ads, and targeting criteria like audience demographics and behaviors are set. Line items control how and where ads are shown.
5. Creatives: Creatives are the actual ads that are served to users. These can be images, videos, or other ad formats, and they are linked to line items within an insertion order. Creatives should be tailored to align with the targeting and objectives of each line item.

This hierarchical structure ensures that campaigns are organized logically and that budgets and strategies are aligned at each level for optimal performance.

Setting Up and Running a DV360 Campaign

Launching a successful campaign in DV360 requires a structured approach, starting with the initial setup and progressing through continuous management and optimization. 

The following steps provide a streamlined process for setting up and running a DV360 campaign:

1. Campaign Creation: Begin by creating a new campaign in the "Advertiser" view. Input essential information, including the campaign name, planned spend, and campaign dates. Define key campaign goals, such as increasing brand awareness or driving conversions.
2. Create Insertion Orders (IOs): In the campaign view, create an insertion order by clicking on “New Insertion Order.” Configure the IO by setting the budget, start and end dates, and pacing strategy. Segment the budget if necessary, using options like weekly allocations. Targeting options, such as geographic location and brand safety settings, can also be added at the IO level.
3. Define Line Items: After setting up the IO, create line items within it. Choose the ad format (e.g., display, video, or YouTube), and set specific targeting parameters, such as audience demographics and behaviors. Allocate a portion of the IO’s budget to each line item based on the overall campaign strategy.
4. Select Inventory and Set Bidding Strategies: Within each line item, select inventory sources that align with the campaign’s goals. For example, use premium video inventory for brand awareness efforts. Set appropriate bidding strategies based on the campaign’s objectives—higher bids for retargeting and lower bids for prospecting, for instance.
5. Assign Creatives: Assign creatives to line items, ensuring that the ad formats and messages align with the targeting criteria. Multiple creatives can be tested to avoid ad fatigue and improve performance.
6. Optimize and Monitor: Once the campaign is live, ongoing optimization is essential. Regularly review campaign performance and adjust targeting, pacing, and bids as needed. Exclude underperforming segments or adjust creative formats to improve results. DV360’s reporting tools can help identify areas for improvement, such as low-viewability placements or ineffective bidding strategies.

Here’s an example of DV360 campaign setup parameters Marketing Data Governance can validate:

• Keywords added for the insertion order;
• Position selected for the insertion order;
• A specific number of deals selected for the insertion order;
• A specific amount of public inventory chosen;
• Geographical targets set for the insertion order;
• Keyword exclusions are used (Display & Video);
• Third-party brand safety partner solution is integrated; 
• Sensitive content placements were removed.

Such automated approach to setup monitoring streamlines launching multi-regional and multi-brand campaigns, reduces risks, and provides a framework for safe campaign scalability.

Optimizing the DV360 Campaigns

Optimization is an ongoing process in DV360 that drives better performance throughout the campaign. Key practices include:

• Audience Targeting and Segmentation: Use advanced audience management to segment audiences based on behaviors, demographics, and intent. Prioritize budget allocation to high-value segments like retargeting users with purchase intent.
• Bidding Strategies: Align bidding with campaign goals, optimizing for conversions in retargeting and focusing on reach or clicks in prospecting. Adjust bids in real-time based on performance data.
• Viewability and Brand Safety: Set viewability thresholds to ensure ads are seen, and use brand safety measures like blocklists and third-party verification to protect ad placements.
• Creative Testing: Regularly test creative variations to prevent ad fatigue and optimize formats that resonate with specific audience segments.

For a detailed breakdown of these strategies, refer to our comprehensive guide on DV360 optimization.

This strategic adjustment capability enhances the likelihood of achieving higher ROAS by ensuring that campaigns are continuously optimized for the best possible financial outcomes.

Here’s an example of DV360 metrics guidelines you can track with Marketing Data Governance: 

• Advertiser Account is at or less $X Avg. CPC,
• Advertiser Account is at or above X% Clicks,
• Insertion Order is at or above X% Interaction Rate,
• Line Item is at or less $X CPM,
• Line Item Target CPA is at or below $X.

Troubleshooting and Reporting

Troubleshooting and reporting in DV360 are critical for maintaining optimal campaign performance and ensuring accurate insights. 

For troubleshooting, DV360 offers several tools to diagnose issues with ad delivery, pacing, or bidding strategies. Advertisers can investigate problems such as under-delivery, incorrect targeting, or discrepancies in bid strategies by using delivery insights that show exactly where campaigns are falling short. 

The platform also provides alerts when there are creative approval issues, budget pacing problems, or other errors that may hinder performance. These troubleshooting features allow for swift adjustments, helping to ensure campaigns stay on track.

In terms of reporting, DV360 offers highly customizable reporting features that give advertisers deep insights into campaign performance across multiple dimensions, such as impressions, clicks, conversions, viewability, and engagement.

Reports can be segmented by audience, geography, device, and more, allowing for granular analysis. Additionally, DV360 integrates with Google Analytics 360 and Campaign Manager 360 for cross-channel performance tracking, offering a unified view of how users interact with ads across platforms.

Attribution models in DV360 go beyond last-click, providing multi-touch attribution that shows the influence of various touchpoints in the customer journey. This allows advertisers to understand the full impact of their media spend and make more informed decisions on budget allocation and optimizations. 

Efficient Campaign Execution in DV360

DV360’s flexibility and scale make it a powerful platform for executing complex, data-driven campaigns with precision.

Setting up and running a campaign in DV360 requires a strategic approach, leveraging its advanced tools for audience targeting, real-time bidding, and performance optimization. 

By carefully structuring campaigns and continuously monitoring performance through its robust reporting features, advertisers can maximize their media spend and achieve better results across multiple channels. 

For better control over campaign execution and greater optimization capabilities, integrate Marketing Data Governance.

It is a powerful solution for campaign, brand and data compliance, governing campaigns on Display & Video 360, Google Display Network, Google Ads, and many other advertising platforms.

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