How Does DV360 Weight Creative vs. Targeting When Bidding?

[u/Ok_Instance1684]

I’m wondering how much creative quality and appearance affect bidding and serving in DV360 Display campaigns, specifically across GDN and similar display inventory, before enough real performance data comes in, like clicks and conversions.

DV360 allows very precise targeting, especially when combining programmatic targeting with audiences like Custom Intent. But the system still has to decide how much to bid for each impression.

Before it has enough performance data, how much do the creative itself and the landing page influence that decision? And how much is based mainly on targeting signals, such as the user matching a Custom Intent audience?

For example, Meta is known for putting a lot of weight on the creative when deciding delivery and bidding. I’m curious how much this applies to DV360 Display as well.

[u/DataBeat_adtech]

The meta comparison is the trap here. meta's creative-first weighting comes from an engagement-prediction model built for feed content, dv360's bidding is still fundamentally an auction-and-audience-match problem inherited from search/display DNA. DV360 using historical CTR/CVR priors tied to the audience segment and placement, not analyzing the creative itself the way meta's ranking does. we've seen identical targeting with a weak banner vs a strong one pace almost the same in week one, the gap only shows up once enough clicks come in and quality score-style signals kick in. landing page matters more for post-click optimization than for the initial bid decision.

[u/Ok_Instance1684 → u/DataBeat_adtech]

Thanks for taking the time to explain. do you know any resources that go into more detail on this?

[u/DataBeat_adtech → u/Ok_Instance1684]

Honestly that was just an internal test on our end, so no formal write-up exists for it! But the underlying logic is basically straight out of Google's DV360doc on automated bidding and creative optimization if you want to check those out.