In the high-stakes circus of modern advertising, marketers have no shortage of acts to choose from. From programmatic platforms and AI-powered engines to omnichannel orchestration, the digital media tent is packed.
But in 2025, the challenge for many advertisers is mastering the AI-driven tightrope act between features in Google Ads and features in Display & Video 360 (DV360).
Both platforms offer scale. Both are evolving fast. And both now include AI-powered features. But use them interchangeably or without coordination, and you risk tumbling off the rope into inefficiency, wasted spend and signal loss.
Success today isn’t about picking one ring to perform in. It’s about knowing how to balance across platforms, audiences and creative, using each to complement the other in a well-rehearsed, AI-enhanced strategy.
Google Marketing Live 2025: New Acts, New Stakes
At this year’s Google Marketing Live, Google didn’t just introduce new features. It reshaped the show entirely.
With their launch of the Power Pack and deeper integrations across Google Ads and the Google Marketing Platform (GMP) stack, advertisers now have more tools than ever to drive performance. But with greater capability comes greater complexity.
That’s why the real challenge in 2025 isn’t choosing between platforms. It’s choreographing how they work together. Google Ads and DV360 aren’t competing acts. They’re part of the same performance, and it’s all about crafting the perfect act.
Google Ads: Simplicity and Scale With a Spotlight on Performance
Google Ads remains the crowd-pleaser: fast, focused and easy to operate. It gives advertisers direct access to Google’s owned and operated stages: YouTube, Gmail, Discover, Search and the Google Display Network, with automation doing much of the heavy lifting.
What’s new in 2025 is how much AI is now center stage:
- Smart(er) bidding leans on real-time signals to drive performance.
- Generative AI now builds image and text assets on the fly from product feeds, helping campaigns scale faster than ever.
- Performance Max (PMax) unifies Google surfaces into a single, outcome-focused campaign engine.
- AI Max enhances Search with AI-powered ad copy, keyword expansion and smarter landing page selection all in one click.
- Demand Gen targets discovery-heavy placements like YouTube and Gmail to drive mid-funnel impact.
Standard Display Options in Google Ads
Beyond its AI-powered campaign types, Google Ads still supports flexible display formats that let advertisers balance automation with full creative control.
| Format |
What It Does |
Best For |
| Responsive Display Ads |
Google automatically adjusts creative (images, headlines, logos, descriptions) to fit available ad spaces. |
Broad reach with minimal setup. |
| Uploaded Display Ads (incl. HTML5) |
Upload fully custom creatives, including interactive or animated formats. |
Brands wanting complete design control or advanced functionality. |
| YouTube Video Ads |
Run in-stream, in-feed and bumper ads across YouTube. |
Awareness and consideration with video storytelling. |
Whether you lean into automation or take a hands-on approach, Google Ads is still a performance-first platform. The power lies not in its simplicity, but in how you configure each campaign to align with your funnel strategy.
DV360: The Ringmaster of Omnichannel Advertising
If Google Ads is your spotlight performer, DV360 (alongside the broader GMP) is the ringmaster, coordinating a much larger stage that stretches far beyond Google’s own properties.
Built for enterprise-scale campaigns, DV360 provides unmatched reach and flexibility across:
- Inventory: 90+ programmatic exchanges, premium CTV and YouTube, mobile apps, DOOH, podcasts and top publisher placements
- Integrations: Deep connections across the GMP stack for streamlined workflows and measurement
But reach is only part of the act. DV360’s evolution lies in how it now uses AI to orchestrate complexity:
|
Feature
|
What It Does |
Best For |
Custom Bidding
|
Script exactly how value is assigned to impressions. |
Tailor bidding to business goals. |
| AI-Powered Pacing & Forecasting |
Prevents budget burnout or underspend. |
Keeps campaigns efficient. |
| Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO) |
Serves personalized ads at scale. |
Boosts engagement and relevance. |
| Optimized Targeting |
Refines audience reach and intent signals. |
Improves precision and performance. |
| Brand Safety AI |
Filters out unsafe or low-quality inventory. |
Protects brand reputation. |
| Unified Frequency Caps |
Manage reach across YouTube and the open web. |
Avoids oversaturation and wasted spend. |
If you’re managing complex funnels, multiple teams or high media spend, DV360 is more than a display tool; it’s your enterprise-grade control center for omnichannel media strategy. When used to its full potential, it doesn’t just execute campaigns; it drives cohesive results.
The Power Pack: Your AI Strongman Trio
Every great act needs support, and in 2025, the Power Pack is exactly that. Unveiled at Google Marketing Live, the Power Pack is Google’s AI suite of PMax, Demand Gen and the emerging AI Max, designed to work seamlessly across platforms to unify your media efforts.
Using Google Ads? You can activate the Power Pack in a single platform, providing all the basic creative, activation and optimization tools you need to start your AI campaign journey.
Or, you can find the Power Pack in two places within the GMP: Demand Gen via DV360 or Search Ads 360 (SA360), and PMax and AI Max via SA360 — all connected and measured through the agnostic Floodlight pixel.
With Floodlights integrated, the Power Pack gives you powerful capabilities:
- Cross-channel conversion tracking and attribution
- Privacy-safe conversion modeling to fill data gaps
- Unified reporting across Google Ads, DV360, SA360 and CM360
- Smarter attribution and incrementality insights, including detailed path-to-conversion analysis
- Full-funnel visibility into the customer journey
Why it matters: The Power Pack delivers strongman results. Advertisers have seen 10%+ more conversions with Performance Max, a 27% lift in beta with AI Max for Search and 26% more conversions per dollar with Demand Gen. By leveraging the full suite, marketers can turn coordinated performance into compounding results efficiently, intelligently and at scale.
Demand Gen vs. PMax: Distribute the Weight
A common mistake we see is running Demand Gen and PMax side by side with the same creative, targeting and expectations, essentially asking two acts to perform the same trick at the same time. The result? Signal overlap, AI confusion and unclear attribution.
Instead, consider assigning Demand Gen and PMax different roles.
- Demand Gen = Attention Getter → Spark interest and create emotional resonance at the mid-to-top funnel. Lean into storytelling creatives, interest-based audiences and broader messaging.
- PMax = Conversion Closer → Push warm audiences over the line with high-intent signals, direct-response messaging and strong CTAs.
Guardrails For Success
| ✅ Dos |
❌ Don'ts |
| Use distinct audiences/signals: affinity/custom intent for Demand Gen; converters/retargeting for PMax |
Copy-paste the same assets across both Demand Gen and PMax |
| Differentiate creatives: emotive storytelling for Demand Gen; clear, conversion-driven assets for PMax |
Leave optimized targeting on in Demand Gen if you want clean separation |
| |
Don’t forget brand exclusions in PMax to avoid overlap |
When each campaign type sticks to its role, you avoid wasted signals and let automation do its best work — creating balance instead of competition.
Bring It All Together Under the Big Top
Your success is less about choosing a single platform and more about creating a cohesive, AI-powered ecosystem. Google Ads and DV360 aren’t competitors but complementary performers, each bringing unique strengths to your media mix.
Mastering this integrated approach means knowing your funnel, assigning clear roles and letting each platform perform to its strengths. When your funnel works together seamlessly, you avoid wasted spend, control complexity and elevate campaigns from isolated acts into a well-coordinated performance.
The AI-powered tightrope is here to stay. Don’t simply watch; master it. By embracing your options strategically, you transform balance into performance and the spotlight is yours to command. Looking for more ways to steady your footing? Let’s talk.
