How to Run Performance Campaigns on DV360

Digital advertising has become one of the most powerful ways for businesses to reach new customers, generate leads, and drive sales. But success in digital advertising is not just about showing your ads to as many people as possible. It is about running performance campaigns that deliver measurable results such as conversions, purchases, sign-ups, or return on ad spend.

Google’s DV360 (Display and Video 360) is one of the most advanced platforms for running programmatic advertising campaigns. It gives advertisers access to premium inventory, advanced targeting options, and machine learning-driven bidding strategies. When used properly, DV360 can help you run high-performing campaigns that maximize efficiency and profitability.

In this blog, we will explore in detail how to run performance campaigns on DV360. We will cover everything from setting objectives, structuring campaigns, choosing the right bidding strategies, to analyzing and optimizing results. To make it practical, we will also walk through an example scenario.

Understanding Performance Campaigns

Before diving into DV360, it is important to understand what we mean by performance campaigns.

Performance campaigns are designed with a clear goal in mind, such as driving sales, increasing sign-ups, generating leads, or maximizing return on ad spend (ROAS). Unlike awareness campaigns that focus on reach and impressions, performance campaigns are all about measurable actions.

Key metrics in performance campaigns usually include:

• Click-through rate (CTR)
• Conversions (purchases, sign-ups, downloads)
• Cost per acquisition (CPA)
• Return on ad spend (ROAS)

Running such campaigns on DV360 means making use of the platform’s targeting, bidding, and reporting tools to ensure that every rupee spent translates into meaningful results.

Step 1: Define Your Campaign Objective

Every successful performance campaign starts with a clear objective. DV360 allows you to choose from different types of campaign goals, such as conversions, revenue, or engagement.

For example, if you run an e-commerce store, your objective may be to maximize sales at a profitable ROAS. If you are a subscription service, your objective might be to increase sign-ups. If you are a travel agency, it could be driving leads for holiday packages.

Having a clear objective helps you decide on the right bidding strategy, audience targeting, and measurement approach.

Step 2: Set Up Floodlight Tags for Measurement

Performance campaigns depend on accurate tracking. Without measuring conversions and revenue, you cannot optimize for performance.

DV360 uses Floodlight tags, which are tracking pixels that allow you to record when a user completes a desired action on your website, such as a purchase or form submission.

There are two main types of Floodlight tags:

• Counter Tags: Track actions like clicks on a button, sign-ups, or downloads.
• Sales Tags: Track transactions along with the value of revenue generated.

For performance campaigns, sales tags are particularly important because they allow DV360 to optimize not just for conversions, but for conversion value, which directly impacts ROAS.

Example: If you are selling both low-cost and premium products, sales tags will help DV360 understand which conversions bring more revenue, so the system can prioritize those.

Step 3: Choose the Right Audience

Audience targeting is the backbone of performance campaigns. DV360 offers multiple audience options:

• First-Party Data: Your own customer lists or website visitors.
• Google Audiences: In-market and affinity audiences built from Google’s massive data ecosystem.
• Custom Audiences: Audiences created using specific keywords, URLs, or apps.
• Lookalike Audiences: Expand reach by finding users similar to your best customers.

For performance campaigns, it is best to start with high-intent audiences. For example, people who have added products to their cart but did not purchase are far more likely to convert than broad-interest audiences.

Retargeting is also extremely powerful in DV360. Showing personalized ads to users who visited your website but did not complete a purchase often drives much higher conversion rates.

Step 4: Structure Your Campaign

In DV360, campaigns are structured in layers: Campaign → Insertion Order → Line Item → Creative.

• Campaign: The top-level container, where you set objectives.
• Insertion Order (IO): Groups of line items that share a budget and flight dates.
• Line Items: Where you define targeting, bidding strategy, and inventory.
• Creatives: The actual ads users will see.

For performance campaigns, it is recommended to create separate line items for different audience segments. For example, one line item for retargeting and another for prospecting. This allows you to track performance separately and allocate budget to the most profitable segments.

Step 5: Select the Right Bidding Strategy

Bidding strategy is one of the most critical factors in performance campaigns. DV360 offers multiple options:

• Maximize Conversions: Focuses on getting as many conversions as possible within your budget.
• Maximize Conversion Value: Prioritizes conversions that bring higher revenue.
• Target CPA: Aims to acquire conversions at a specific cost per acquisition.
• Target ROAS: Optimizes bids to achieve a specific return on ad spend.

For pure performance campaigns, Target CPA and Target ROAS are the most effective. If you want to control acquisition costs, choose Target CPA. If your goal is to maximize profitability, Target ROAS is ideal.

Example: A fashion retailer sets a Target ROAS of 500%. This tells DV360 to spend only where it expects to generate at least five times the return on the ad spend.

Step 6: Create High-Impact Creatives

Even the best targeting and bidding strategies will fail if your creatives are not engaging. For performance campaigns, creatives must be designed to drive action.

Best practices include:

• Clear headlines that highlight value.
• Strong call-to-actions like “Shop Now,” “Sign Up Today,” or “Get Your Free Trial.”
• Dynamic creatives that personalize based on user behavior (for example, showing products the user has viewed).
• Consistency between the ad and the landing page so that users see the same offer after clicking.

Video creatives also perform strongly on DV360, especially when combined with a call-to-action overlay.

Step 7: Manage Frequency and Viewability

For performance campaigns, you want to maximize efficiency. Showing the same ad too many times can lead to wasted spend and lower engagement. DV360 allows you to set frequency caps so that each user sees the ad only a limited number of times per day or week.

Additionally, you should prioritize high-viewability inventory. An ad that is not seen cannot be clicked, and low-viewability impressions will drag down campaign performance.

Step 8: Monitor, Test, and Optimize

Running performance campaigns on DV360 is not a one-time task. You need to constantly monitor, test, and optimize.

Here are some optimization practices:

• A/B Testing: Test different versions of creatives, calls-to-action, or offers.
• Bid Adjustments: Use bid multipliers to increase bids for high-performing audiences, devices, or geographies.
• Shift Budgets: Allocate more spend to line items or placements that deliver higher conversions or ROAS.
• Exclude Poor Performers: Remove sites, apps, or placements that deliver impressions but no clicks or conversions.

DV360’s reporting dashboard gives you detailed insights into performance by device, location, audience segment, and creative. Use these insights to make data-driven decisions.

Example: Running a Performance Campaign for an E-Commerce Brand

Let us consider an example of an online fashion retailer that wants to increase sales using DV360.

• Objective: Achieve a Target ROAS of 400%.
• Floodlight Setup: Implement sales tags to track purchases and revenue.
• Audience: Use retargeting for cart abandoners and prospecting with custom audiences built from fashion-related keywords.
• Campaign Structure: Create separate line items for retargeting, prospecting, and lookalike audiences.
• Bidding Strategy: Apply Target ROAS bidding.
• Creatives: Dynamic ads showcasing products the user viewed, along with offers like “Flat 20% Off on Your Next Purchase.”
• Optimization: Monitor performance daily, adjust bids for mobile devices that show stronger conversion rates, and reallocate budget from low-performing placements to high-performing ones.

As a result, the brand achieves a ROAS of 450%, exceeding its target.

Best Practices to Keep in Mind

1. Always start with clear objectives and measurable KPIs.
2. Ensure Floodlight tags are properly implemented for accurate tracking.
3. Use dynamic creatives to personalize ads and increase conversion rates.
4. Continuously test, learn, and optimize.
5. Be patient, as machine learning bidding strategies need time to gather data and improve.

Running performance campaigns on DV360 can feel complex at first, but with the right approach, it becomes a powerful engine for growth. The key is to combine clear objectives, accurate tracking, smart bidding strategies, and engaging creatives.

DV360 is not just about reaching people; it is about reaching the right people with the right message at the right time. By following the steps outlined above, you can build campaigns that do more than generate impressions. You can build campaigns that drive clicks, conversions, sales, and ultimately, profitable business outcomes.