{"id":4270099,"date":"2016-06-08T09:00:49","date_gmt":"2016-06-08T07:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/insight\/gdn-vs-adx-right\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T13:44:49","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T11:44:49","slug":"gdn-vs-adx-right","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/en-au\/insight\/gdn-vs-adx-right\/","title":{"rendered":"GDN vs. AdX: Which is right for you?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\n\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tBack to all articles\t\t<\/span>\n\t\n<\/button>\n\t\tGDN vs. AdX: Which is right for you?\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/picture>\n\t\n\t<\/div>
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\n\t\tJoseph Kerschbaum\t\t
\n\t\tSVP, Search & Growth Labs\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t
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\n\t\tWhen it comes to display advertising, there is no shortage of inventory sources. There are DSPs and DMPs, ad exchanges and ad networks, and trade desks and site-direct buys.

Most people who have worked in digital media, specifically display advertising, are familiar with the always-evolving landscape and all the different options available.\t<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n
\n\t\tBecause of all these options and choices, unfortunately, there is always the risk of inventory overlap when purchasing millions of impressions across the web. It\u2019s in a website or publisher\u2019s best interests to sell as much inventory as possible, therefore they will often make their inventory available across multiple networks and exchanges. To maximize media dollars and drive efficient ROI metrics, it\u2019s in our best interest to minimize accessing overlap and potentially competing against ourselves.

This brings up a huge point related to a huge player in the display game: Google. What\u2019s the difference between the Google Display Network and AdX, Google\u2019s DoubleClick ad exchange? Isn\u2019t there an inventory overlap there? Should we be buying both, accessing the GDN through AdWords and AdX through DSPs? Won\u2019t we be bidding against ourselves, going after the same customer or ad space \u2013 just from different angles? The short answers are: yes there is inventory overlap, and to potentially be present on both.

Truth be told, GDN and AdX are very similar. Both have advantages and disadvantages. The biggest difference is that AdX is the larger of the two, offering more scale and reach in terms of inventory. The GDN\u2019s entire inventory is available in AdX, along with other inventory sources and ad networks. On the other hand, GDN offers some more advanced targeting capabilities. To help decide if you should be using only one or both, I\u2019ve broken out more information (and the pros and cons) of each below.\t<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t