GDN (Google Display Network) is an advertising network of more than 2 million websites, videos, and apps where you can place ads through Google Ads display campaigns. It delivers image, video, and text ads across Google's own services, including YouTube and Gmail, as well as a wide range of partner properties such as news sites and apps. Unlike search ads, which are triggered by search keywords, GDN serves ads based on users' browsing history and interests. This lets you reach potential customers who have not yet searched for your products or services.
Source: Google,
Google Ads Help, "About the Google Display Network", describes GDN as "a group of more than 2 million websites, videos, and apps where Google ads can appear." It also states that websites on the Display Network can show ads to "over 90% of internet users worldwide," based on Comscore research. This article organizes practical information on the differences between GDN and YDA, placements, banner sizes and asset requirements, targeting options, setup steps, and ways to improve stalled performance.
GDN vs. YDA (Yahoo! JAPAN display ads)
When considering display ads, marketers often compare Google's GDN with YDA (Yahoo! JAPAN display ads). As stated in LY Corporation's official announcement, Yahoo! JAPAN Ads was integrated into LINE Yahoo Ads in April 2026, and YDA is now offered as "LINE Yahoo Ads Display Ads." For the background to the integration and the current product lineup, see "What is LINE Yahoo Ads? (Formerly Yahoo! JAPAN Ads)." To make this article easier to find through search, we use the familiar name YDA when explaining its features. Both offer display ads centered on images and video, but they differ in their operators, placements, and strengths in targeting data. For details on YDA placements, ad submission requirements, and getting started, see What is YDA.
Item | GDN (Google Display Network) | YDA (Yahoo! JAPAN display ads) |
|---|---|---|
Operator | LY Corporation | |
Ad management dashboard | Google Ads | LINE Yahoo Ads (formerly Yahoo! JAPAN Ads) |
Main placements | Google services such as YouTube and Gmail, plus more than 2 million partner websites and apps | Major services such as the Yahoo! JAPAN homepage and news, plus LY Corporation's partner sites and apps |
Targeting strengths | Usage data from Google Search, YouTube viewing, and Google accounts | Age, gender, and interest data based on Yahoo! JAPAN IDs |
Main ad formats | Primarily responsive display ads. Also supports uploaded image ads and video ads. | Primarily static banner ads. Also supports ad inventory that automatically adjusts the size to fit the placement. |
Best suited for | Running ads alongside Google search ads and using machine learning for automatic optimization | Strengthening reach among users in Japan, especially Yahoo! JAPAN users |
If you already run Google search ads, you can add GDN using the same dashboard and conversion tracking system, making it easier to maintain consistent operations. If your budget allows, using both GDN and YDA can broaden your reach because their placements have limited overlap. To avoid showing ads too often to the same users, check the frequency cap (maximum number of impressions) on each platform to help reduce wasted ad spend.
GDN placements and reach
GDN placements fall into two broad categories. The first is Google's own services, such as YouTube and Gmail. The second is more than 2 million partner websites and apps, including news sites, blogs, comparison sites, and mobile apps. Google states that this combined network can reach over 90% of internet users worldwide, based on Comscore research (Google Ads Help).
Because GDN covers such a wide range of placements, performance can vary significantly between sites depending on your industry and target audience. You can check where your ads appear in the "Content" section of the Google Ads dashboard. Identifying and excluding placements that do not deliver results is an essential part of management. This view shows not only impressions and clicks but also costs and conversions for each placement. Reviewing it regularly helps you identify wasted delivery early. This is covered in more detail in the later section, "How to improve performance when results fall short."
GDN banner sizes and asset requirements
Asset requirements for responsive display ads (RDAs)
Responsive display ads (RDAs), which Google recommends, are now the main GDN format. When you submit assets such as images, headlines, and descriptions, Google automatically combines them to fit the size of each placement. The text asset requirements are as follows.
Asset | Character limit | Number of assets | Required |
|---|---|---|---|
Short ad headline | Up to 30 half-width characters (15 full-width characters) | 1–5 | Required |
Long ad headline | Up to 90 half-width characters (45 full-width characters) | 1 | Required |
Description | Up to 90 half-width characters (45 full-width characters) | 1–5 | Required |
Business name | Up to 25 half-width characters (12 full-width characters) | 1 | Required |
Use the following sizes as the standard for image, logo, and video assets.
Asset | Size guidelines (aspect ratio) | Number of assets | Required |
|---|---|---|---|
Landscape image | Recommended: 1,200 × 628 px / Minimum: 600 × 314 px (1.91:1) | 1–15 | Required |
Square image | Recommended: 600 × 600 px / Minimum: 300 × 300 px (1:1) | 1–15 | Required |
Logo (landscape) | Recommended: 1,200 × 300 px / Minimum: 512 × 128 px (4:1) | 1–5 | Optional |
Logo (square) | Recommended: 1,200 × 1,200 px / Minimum: 128 × 128 px (1:1) | 1–5 | Optional |
Video | 16:9 (landscape) / 1:1 (square) / 2:3 (portrait); 30 seconds recommended | 1–5 | Optional |
Source: Google Ads Help, "Responsive display ad specs and format requirements"
Main sizes supported for image ads (uploaded banners)
If you want to prepare a single image with a fixed design and serve it as is, you can choose uploaded "image ads." Supported file formats are GIF, JPG, and PNG, with a maximum file size of 150 KB. The main supported sizes are listed below.
Type | Supported sizes (px) |
|---|---|
Square and rectangle | 200 × 200 / 250 × 250 / 300 × 250 / 336 × 280 / 240 × 400 / 250 × 360 / 580 × 400 |
Skyscraper | 120 × 600 / 160 × 600 / 300 × 600 / 300 × 1,050 |
Leaderboard | 468 × 60 / 728 × 90 / 930 × 180 / 970 × 90 / 970 × 250 / 980 × 120 |
Mobile | 300 × 50 / 320 × 50 / 320 × 100 |
Source: Google Ads Help, "Image ad requirements"
To check submission requirements alongside banner sizes for other platforms, such as Meta Ads, also see "Meta Ads size reference."
GDN targeting options
GDN targeting is broadly organized around content targeting, audience targeting, and location and language. Google Ads Help describes content targeting as a feature that "shows ads on relevant sites on the Display Network based on factors such as keywords and topics."
Content targeting
This targets ads based on the content of the sites or pages where they appear. In Google Ads, settings such as topics, placements, and display ad keywords can be managed together in the "Content" view.
Topics: Narrow placements by the page's main subject, e.g., "Travel" or "Fitness."
Placements: Specify individual sites, apps, YouTube channels, or other placements where you want to show ads.
Display ad keywords: Show ads on pages related to your specified keywords.
Exclusion settings: Exclude specific topics, placements, or keywords from ad delivery.
Audience targeting
This targets users based on their demographics, interests, and behavioral history. According to Google Ads Help, display campaigns primarily support the following segments.
Affinity segments: Segments based on users' interests and habits
Custom segments: Segments advertisers create by specifying keywords, URLs, and app names
Detailed demographics: Shared attributes such as age, gender, and parental status
Life events: Users at life milestones such as graduation, moving, or marriage
In-market audiences: Users who are considering buying a product or service
Your data: Remarketing and Customer Match using website visitor data or customer lists
You also set locations and languages at the campaign level. Prioritizing segments that fit your offering can improve results. For example, a B2B service might focus on "Detailed demographics" or "In-market audiences," while an ecommerce business might focus on "Remarketing" to its website visitors. These are only examples; the actual fit varies by industry and offering. If you are new to GDN, start by combining one content targeting option with one audience targeting option, then narrow them based on results to make adjustments easier.
How to set up GDN ad delivery
To set up GDN, create a "Display campaign" in the Google Ads dashboard. The main steps outlined in Google Ads Help, "Create a Display campaign", are as follows.
Choose the campaign goal and type: Choose a goal such as "Sales Promotion," "Leads," "Website Traffic," or "Brand Awareness and Reach," then select "Display" as the campaign type.
Configure the basic campaign settings: Specify the locations and languages for ad delivery, ad schedule, devices, content exclusions, and other settings.
Set the budget and bidding strategy: Enter the average daily budget and choose a bidding strategy such as "Target CPA" or "Maximize Conversions."
Set the targeting strategy: Enable or disable "Optimized targeting" and add targeting signals, such as audiences, as needed.
Submit assets for responsive display ads: Upload assets, aiming for at least 5 images, at least 2 logos, 5 ad headlines, 5 descriptions, and 1 video.
Review and publish: Review the settings, then select "Publish campaign" to submit it for review.
Bidding strategies include pay per click (Maximum click bid) and impression-based bidding (viewable CPM). For the CPM formula and typical rates by platform, see "What is CPM?" For how pay per click works, what drives costs up, and how to lower them, see "What is CPC?" Many advertisers consider a gradual transition: choosing "Maximize Clicks" early on when conversion data is limited, then switching to "Target CPA" or "Maximize Conversions" after enough data has accumulated. According to Google Ads Help, actual daily ad spend can vary up to twice the set average daily budget, but the monthly bill will not exceed 30.4 times that average budget.
How to improve performance when results fall short
Because GDN covers a broad range of placements, leaving the initial settings unchanged can send budget to ineffective sites. When performance stalls, reviewing these three areas in order can help improve results.
1. Review and exclude placements
Use the placement report in the "Content" view to identify sites and apps with many impressions but few clicks or conversions, and exclude them individually. If your industry sees heavy delivery in specific categories, such as gaming or news apps, category-level exclusions can also be effective.
2. Review targeting settings
If you have not added audience settings, start by gathering data through remarketing to your website visitors or targeting in-market audiences. Then shift budget toward segments that deliver results. Regularly reviewing exclusion lists and audience priorities helps reduce wasted delivery and concentrate spending on audiences more likely to perform.
3. Adjust budget allocation and bidding strategy
When running multiple campaigns or ad groups at the same time, you need to decide when to move budget toward better-performing campaigns. Manually checking performance by placement and audience every day also takes considerable operational effort. Ad management AI agents such as Cascade offer features that automate suggestions for excluding ineffective placements and optimize budget allocation across campaigns. They are an option for reducing the workload of this ongoing tuning. For more on automating ad operations with AI, see "Ad operations and AI automation (2026)."
Related reading: For an overview of display ad types, including GDN, and when to use them versus search ads, see Display ad types, placements, and differences from listing ads (paid search ads).
To advertise in apps outside GDN, see SmartNews Ads: Types, costs, and how to advertise.
Frequently asked questions
Is GDN free to use?
There is no fixed fee to use GDN itself or open a Google Ads account, but it is a paid advertising service that charges for ad impressions or clicks. You can freely set an average daily budget, and there is no minimum ad spend requirement. However, actual daily costs may vary up to twice your average daily budget, while the monthly bill will not exceed 30.4 times that budget. Setting your budget extremely low reduces delivery volume and makes it harder to collect the data needed for machine learning optimization.
Should I advertise on GDN or YDA?
Choose based on your audience and objectives. If you already run Google search ads, you can add GDN using the same dashboard and conversion tracking, making it easier to maintain consistent operations and coordinate with YouTube. YDA is an option if you want strong reach among Yahoo! JAPAN users or prioritize targeting based on Yahoo! JAPAN ID data. If your budget allows, running both in parallel can expand your reach because their placements have limited overlap.
Should I choose responsive display ads or image ads?
If you prioritize automatic optimization for each placement, Google's recommended responsive display ads (RDAs) are the standard choice. Submit assets such as images, headlines, and descriptions, and Google automatically combines them into ads that fit each placement. Uploaded image ads are suitable when you want to preserve your brand's look with a fixed design or reuse existing banner creative as is. In practice, many advertisers use RDAs as their main format and supplement them with image ads in key sizes.
What is the difference between GDN and DGC (Demand Generation)?
GDN (Google Display Network) is a network of placements where ads appear, while DGC (Demand Gen campaigns) is a campaign type. Google describes Demand Gen campaigns as campaigns that run across YouTube (including Shorts), Discover, Gmail, Maps, and the entire Google Display Network. The distinction is between using a Display campaign to advertise on GDN and using Demand Gen to advertise across placements that include YouTube and Discover. For guidance on choosing between them, see Demand Generation campaigns explained.
What is the difference between listing ads and GDN?
Listing ads (search ads) appear in search results, while GDN ads appear as users browse websites, apps, YouTube, Gmail, and other properties. In its explanation of display ads, Google says that the Search Network reaches users who are searching for specific products or services, while the Display Network reaches users relatively early in the buying cycle.
Display campaigns are also being integrated into Demand Gen. For an explanation of the campaign type they are transitioning to, see "What is Demand Generation (Demand Gen)?"
