What Is Google DV360 for Car Dealerships? Your Complete Guide

Your Google Ads are working, but you’re hearing whispers about DV360 from other dealers and marketing partners. Is this the next big thing in automotive advertising, or just another shiny ad platform?

Here’s what you need to know: Google Display & Video 360—DV360 for short—is gaining serious traction in automotive. It’s different from Google Ads. More sophisticated. More control. More inventory. But also more complex and certainly not right for every dealership.

The problem is that most explanations of DV360 sound like they were written by engineers for engineers. You don’t need a technical manual. You need straight answers to the questions you’re actually asking: What is it? How much does it cost? Will it work for my dealership? How is it different from what I’m already doing?

This guide cuts through the jargon and gives you exactly that. By the end, you’ll understand what DV360 for car dealerships actually means, whether it makes sense for your advertising strategy, and how to think about it in the context of your overall marketing.

DV360 Explained: What Dealerships Need to Know

Let’s start with the basics. Google Display & Video 360 is Google’s enterprise-level advertising platform. It’s a DSP—demand-side platform—that lets you buy programmatic advertising across a massive range of inventory. We’re talking display ads, video ads, connected TV, audio, and native advertising across Google’s ad exchanges and third-party exchanges.

It used to be called DoubleClick Bid Manager before Google rebranded it as part of the Google Marketing Platform. If you’ve never heard of it, that’s because it was primarily used by big brands and agencies. Now it’s becoming accessible to automotive dealerships, especially larger groups.

Here’s how it’s different from Google Ads: When you run Google Ads, you’re advertising on Google Search, YouTube, the Google Display Network, and Gmail. Those are powerful channels, but they’re all Google-owned properties. DV360 gives you access to those same placements plus a whole world of premium publisher sites, streaming services, connected TV platforms, and third-party ad networks.

Think of it this way: Google Ads is like buying ad space in specific magazines you choose. DV360 is like having a media buyer who can instantly bid on ad space across thousands of publications, TV channels, and streaming services, automatically selecting the best placements for your budget in real time.

The key word here is “programmatic.” That means automated ad buying using data and algorithms. Instead of manually choosing where your ads appear, you define your target audience and let the platform bid on impressions in real time, placing your ads in front of the right people across whatever sites and apps they’re using.

For dealerships, this opens up some interesting possibilities. You can reach car shoppers beyond Google’s properties. You can access premium automotive publisher sites like Car and Driver or Edmunds. You can use your first-party customer data for advanced targeting, and you can advertise on connected TV, which is growing fast as more people cut the cord and stream everything.

If Google Ads is about capturing demand—people actively searching for cars—DV360 is about creating demand by reaching shoppers earlier in their journey, before they even start searching.

DV360 for Car Dealerships: Your Top Questions Answered

Here are the real questions we’re hearing from dealerships evaluating DV360. Let’s cut through the jargon and get to what actually matters for your advertising strategy.

Q1: How much does DV360 cost?

Here’s where it gets tricky. DV360 itself doesn’t charge you a platform fee. Google doesn’t take a cut just for using the tool. But—and this is a big but—you typically need to work through a Google Marketing Platform partner or an agency that has access to DV360.

Those partners charge fees, usually 10-25% of your ad spend. So if you’re spending $5,000 on programmatic ads through DV360, you might pay an additional $500-$1,250 in management fees. That’s on top of your actual ad spend.

There are also practical minimum spend requirements. Technically, you could spend $1,000 a month, but it wouldn’t make sense. The platform complexity and management fees mean you need at least $3,000-5,000 per month in programmatic spend to make it worthwhile. Below that, you’re better off sticking with Google Ads.

For smaller dealerships spending $2,000 total on digital advertising, DV360 is probably off the table. But if you’re spending $10,000+ per month and looking for more sophisticated targeting capabilities, the economics start to work.

Q2: Is DV360 better than Google Ads?

This is the wrong question, but everyone asks it. DV360 isn’t “better” than Google Ads—they’re different tools for different jobs.

Google Ads excels at capturing search intent. Someone types “Honda Accord for sale near me” and boom, your ad appears. That’s powerful. That’s someone actively looking to buy, and you’re meeting them at exactly the right moment.

DV360 excels at programmatic display and video campaigns that reach people earlier in the journey. They’re not searching for cars yet, but they fit the profile of someone who might be in-market soon. You’re planting your dealership in their mind with video ads on streaming services, display ads on the sites they visit, and connected TV ads while they’re watching their favorite shows.

The most successful dealerships don’t choose one over the other. They use both strategically. DV360 creates awareness and consideration at the top of the funnel. Google Ads captures that demand at the bottom of the funnel when people are ready to buy.

Here’s when DV360 makes sense: You want to reach people before they search for cars. You need cross-device, cross-platform campaigns. You have strong first-party data to leverage for targeting. You’re going after specific audiences like equity customers, past buyers, or high-value segments.

Here’s when to stick with Google Ads: You’re focused on capturing search intent. Your budget is under $5,000 a month. You want simplicity and something you can manage in-house. You need immediate, measurable results.

Q3: What kind of ads can I run on DV360?

DV360 gives you access to multiple ad formats across different channels:

Display ads are your standard banner ads that appear on websites and mobile apps. Think automotive review sites, news sites, lifestyle publishers—anywhere your target audience spends time online.

Video ads run as pre-roll or mid-roll on streaming content. This includes YouTube, but also third-party video content across the web. You can serve video ads on premium publisher sites, in mobile apps, and across streaming services.

Connected TV (CTV) is the format getting the most attention in automotive right now. These are ads that appear on smart TVs, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, and other streaming devices. As more people cut cable and stream everything, CTV advertising lets you reach them with traditional TV-style commercials in a programmatic, targetable way.

Audio ads run on streaming radio services and podcasts. This is still emerging in automotive, but it’s an option if audio advertising makes sense for your market.

Native ads are sponsored content placements that blend into the publisher’s site design. They look like editorial content rather than traditional ads.

For automotive dealerships, the big opportunities right now are connected TV and video. Cord-cutters still watch plenty of video content, they’ve just moved from cable to streaming. CTV lets you reach them with targeted messaging based on your customer data, something traditional TV advertising never allowed.

Display retargeting with dynamic creative is also powerful. Someone visits your website and looks at three different RAV4s. They leave without converting. Later, they’re browsing a news site and see a display ad featuring those exact vehicles with current pricing and a compelling offer. That’s DV360 pulling data from your site and serving personalized ads programmatically.

Q4: How does targeting work in DV360?

This is where DV360 really shines, but it’s also where having good data becomes critical.

Audience targeting lets you upload custom audiences from your Customer Data Platform (CDP). Past customers with positive equity. Service customers who haven’t purchased in five years. Website visitors who looked at trucks but didn’t convert. You define the audience in your CDP, export it to DV360, and the platform serves ads specifically to those people across all the channels they use.

Contextual targeting places your ads on specific types of content. Automotive review articles. Car buying guides. News about new vehicle releases. You’re reaching people while they’re actively consuming car-related content.

Demographic targeting is straightforward—age, income, location, household characteristics. You can get granular here, targeting households making over $100k within a 30-mile radius of your dealership.

Behavioral targeting uses Google’s data about user behavior. In-market audiences for vehicles. Recent visitors to your site or competitor sites. People who’ve engaged with automotive content recently.

Lookalike audiences take your best customers and find people with similar characteristics and behaviors. You upload a list of your highest-value customers, and DV360 identifies prospects who look like them.

Geo-targeting can be hyper-local (specific ZIP codes around your dealership) or broader (entire DMA/metro area). You control exactly where your ads appear geographically.

Here’s the reality: DV360’s power comes from feeding it quality first-party data. Without a Customer Data Platform providing clean, unified shopper data, you’re just buying impressions based on Google’s general audience segments. With a CDP, you’re serving highly targeted ads to specific people based on their actual history with your dealership. That’s the difference between spray-and-pray and precision targeting.

Q5: Can I track ROI like I do with Google Ads?

Yes, but it’s more complex. DV360 has robust reporting and attribution capabilities, but you need to adjust your expectations about what you’re measuring.

With Google Ads search campaigns, attribution is straightforward. Someone searches for “Toyota dealer near me,” clicks your ad, submits a lead form, and you can trace that entire path. Click to conversion. Easy.

DV360 campaigns typically focus on awareness and consideration, which means the conversion path is longer and less direct. Someone sees your Connected TV ad during a streaming show. Days later, they see your display ad on Car and Driver. A week after that, they search for your dealership by name and visit your website. Did DV360 drive that outcome? Absolutely. But it’s not a direct click-to-conversion path.

This is where view-through conversions matter. These track people who saw your ad (but didn’t click) and later converted through another channel. DV360 measures these, but you need proper analytics setup and longer attribution windows to capture the impact.

Realistic expectations are critical here. DV360 campaigns won’t show the same direct ROI as search ads. What you’ll see instead is branded search lift—more people searching for your dealership by name. Website traffic increases from people who saw your ads and decided to check you out. Overall pipeline growth as more shoppers enter your funnel at the top.

The dealerships seeing success with DV360 aren’t measuring it in isolation. They’re looking at how programmatic campaigns influence the entire customer journey and drive incremental results across all channels.

Is DV360 Right for Your Dealership?

Now for the practical question: should you actually use DV360? Here’s a realistic framework for deciding.

Budget is the first reality check. If your total digital advertising budget is under $5,000 per month, DV360 probably doesn’t make sense yet. You need a minimum of $3,000-5,000 monthly just for programmatic spend, plus management fees on top of that. Below that threshold, you’ll get better ROI by optimizing your Google Ads campaigns.

Marketing maturity matters. DV360 isn’t where you start. It’s where you go after you’ve built a solid foundation. That means you already have Google Ads performing well. Your website converts traffic effectively. You have proper tracking and analytics in place. You understand attribution and how to measure campaigns with longer conversion windows.

Jumping into DV360 before mastering the basics is like buying a race car when you just got your driver’s license. The tool is powerful, but you need the fundamentals down first.

Data readiness is critical. DV360’s effectiveness depends entirely on the quality of data you feed it. Do you have a Customer Data Platform or CRM with clean, unified data? Can you build audience segments based on behavior and characteristics? Are you actively leveraging first-party data for targeting?

If your data is scattered across multiple systems, full of duplicates, and not actionable, DV360 won’t magically fix that. You need the data infrastructure in place first.

Strategic goals should align with what DV360 does well. Are you trying to reach shoppers earlier in the buying journey? Do you want to build brand awareness in your market? Do you need to reach cord-cutters through Connected TV? Are you focused on sophisticated audience targeting that goes beyond search intent?

If yes, DV360 makes sense. If your main goal is capturing existing search demand and generating leads quickly, stick with Google Ads.

Scale considerations favor larger operations. Multi-rooftop dealer groups benefit most from DV360 because they can spread the platform complexity and management costs across multiple locations. A single dealership spending $15,000+ per month on advertising can make it work. But smaller operations should think carefully about whether the juice is worth the squeeze.

Here are some red flags that DV360 might not be right yet: Your total ad budget is under $5,000 monthly. Your website isn’t converting traffic well, so driving more top-of-funnel awareness doesn’t help. You don’t have a CDP or clean customer data to leverage. Your team is already overwhelmed managing current campaigns and adding complexity would make things worse, not better.

DV360 + Fullpath CDP: Better Data, Better Results

Here’s the reality about DV360 for car dealerships: the platform is only as good as the data feeding it. Generic audience segments and basic targeting won’t move the needle. What makes programmatic advertising work is feeding it rich, accurate first-party data about your actual customers and shoppers.

This is where Fullpath’s CDP becomes the difference between DV360 campaigns that generate expensive impressions and campaigns that actually drive dealership results.

Fullpath’s Customer Data Platform provides exactly what DV360 needs: unified, clean, real-time shopper data that creates powerful targeting audiences. Your website behavior, CRM history, service records, ad engagement, email opens, inventory interests—all of it flows into your CDP and becomes fuel for your programmatic campaigns.

Here’s what that enables: You can build custom audiences in your CDP and export them directly to DV360. High-equity customers who haven’t visited in six months? That’s an audience. Website visitors who configured a specific vehicle but didn’t convert? Another audience. Past customers who are approaching the typical trade-in window? Yep, that too.

Dynamic retargeting becomes truly dynamic. Someone browses your inventory, looks at three specific F-150s, checks pricing, and leaves. Later, they see a display ad or video ad featuring those exact vehicles with current offers and financing. That’s not generic retargeting—that’s personalized advertising at scale.

Lookalike audiences get dramatically better when built from real customer data instead of assumptions. Your CDP identifies your highest-value customers based on actual purchase behavior and lifetime value. DV360 finds prospects who match those characteristics and serves them awareness campaigns.

Equity-based targeting becomes possible. Your CDP calculates equity status for every customer. You can target positive-equity customers with upgraded messaging across connected TV, display, and video—reaching them before they start shopping and positioning your dealership as the natural choice.

The beauty of integration is that audiences update automatically. As shopper behavior changes in your CDP, your DV360 targeting adapts in real time. Someone moves from browsing to high-intent? Their targeting changes. A customer goes from equity-positive to equity-negative? The messaging shifts.

Fullpath’s Digital Advertising works alongside DV360 campaigns, ensuring your programmatic display, search ads, social campaigns, and email marketing all pull from the same unified data and work toward the same goals. No more disconnected campaigns competing with each other.

Measurement and attribution get better too. Connect DV360 performance back to your CDP to see which programmatic campaigns are actually driving showroom visits, leads, and sales—not just impressions and vanity metrics. You can track how awareness campaigns influence search behavior and eventual conversions across all channels.

The bottom line is simple: DV360 without good data is just buying impressions and hoping some of them hit the right people. DV360 powered by Fullpath’s CDP is precision targeting that reaches your actual prospects with relevant messaging at the right time, driving measurable dealership results.

Should Your Dealership Test DV360?

DV360 for car dealerships isn’t a replacement for your existing advertising—it’s an expansion. It’s not Google Ads 2.0 or the new platform that makes everything else obsolete. It’s an additional tool that extends your reach beyond search intent and into programmatic awareness and consideration.

If you’ve maxed out your Google Ads effectiveness, have the budget for sophisticated programmatic campaigns, and want to reach shoppers across connected TV, streaming video, and premium publisher sites before they even start searching for cars, DV360 is worth testing.

The key is having the right foundation in place: clean data through a CDP, proper tracking and analytics, enough budget to make programmatic spend meaningful, and a partner who understands automotive and can manage the technical complexity.

Without those pieces, even the most advanced advertising platform won’t deliver results. With them, DV360 becomes a powerful way to reach your market earlier, more effectively, and with better targeting than traditional advertising ever allowed.

The dealerships winning with programmatic aren’t the ones with the biggest budgets—they’re the ones with the best data and the clearest strategy. If that describes where you are or where you’re headed, it’s time to explore what DV360 can do for your dealership.

Ready to Explore DV360 for Your Dealership?

Fullpath is currently testing DV360 campaigns for select dealership partners. Our CDP provides the first-party data that makes programmatic advertising effective, and our team handles the technical complexity so you can focus on results.

Interested in learning whether DV360 makes sense for your dealership’s advertising strategy? Talk to our team at get.started@fullpath.com. Let’s have a real conversation about your current advertising performance, your goals, and whether programmatic is the right next step, or if there are better ways to deploy your budget first.