It's 2025, and DV360 still has one of the best UI/UX

This is a guest post from Vlad Chubakov at Programmatic 101. He is doing “UI Breakdowns” of some of the most popular tools in advertising.

Previous break-downs:

• What's wrong with TTD's Kokai UI/UX? 

• Amazon DSP Facelift: Exploring Its New UI/UX Experience  

I’ve already briefly reviewed DV360 UI/UX in an X thread (you can read it here), but here I want to dive deeper into all of the aspects.

Display & Video 360 was officially announced on July 18th, 2018 as a part of DoubleClick Bid Manager rebranding.

And here is how DBM user interface looked like in 2018 (found it on YouTube - DoubleClick Optimization View):

…and here is the short video that I just recorded in the platform:

Reminds you of something… right?

DV360's interface (and overall experience) hasn't had any significant changes in over six years. But is that bad? Let’s unpack it.

• Overall experience: ‘stable’ would be the best word to describe it. No changes, no surprises - you open the platform, and you can be sure you know how to do a certain task there. I had a thread on X called "It seems that Google has forgotten it even has a DSP," where I mentioned that the platform has barely changed since I first opened it around seven years ago.

• User interface: DV360 UI has everything you need for trading: easy-to-follow dashboards, simple navigation between Campaigns / IOs / LIs, and clear navigation for other features like reporting, settings, and so on. Every table is customizable, allowing you to create custom views with your preferred KPIs. You can then view IOs/LIs with the parameters you require (pacing, CPM, CPA, etc.). At the Insertion Order level, you have a fully customizable view so you can use performance metrics that are important to you and even change some settings, like Bid Strategy, Pacing, Freq. Cap, etc.:

At the Line Item level, you see all targeting parameters and settings and can edit them right away, which is convenient. This is a classic view, and you'll find something very similar in Google Ads and other DSPs, including TTD Solimar, which also had a classic DSP interface with customizable views and the ability to see all Ad Group targeting when you opened it:

However, it lacks visualization. TTD Kokai set a standard here, so now the DV360 interface feels empty without features like Base/Max bid visualization, frequency, etc. To get all of this, you would have to pull a standard report and manipulate this data on your own.

• User experience: In general, it's positive. Navigation is clear, and there are no distractions. To make changes, you have plenty of options (i.e., change targeting directly, use SDF, use bulk changes). Optimizations don’t take much time - there are no additional steps and actions, which saves time. In a fast-paced agency environment, this is a big plus for actual traders who just need to implement new campaigns, QA them, optimize them, and then report on them.

• Hierarchy: Advertiser → Campaign → Insertion Order → Line Item. A ‘classical’ DSP structure. However, in practice, a structure without ‘Campaign’ (in the case of DV360, it's just a ‘wrapper’ without almost any function for the Insertion Order, where you input your budgets and have your Line Items with all the important targeting parameters) shows better operational efficiency, especially during the budgeting process (it's worth noting that it depends on how you allocate budgets - if using SDF and automations, it doesn’t impact workflow; if manually in the platform, it does).

• Bulk Changes: DV360 supports campaign management via SDF. SDF (or Structured Data File) is a Google Sheet containing all campaign/IO/LI parameters and targeting, allowing you to create new campaigns/IOs/LIs, pause/activate them, change budgets and pacing, and modify targeting parameters. It also enables bulk changes to hundreds or thousands of line items simultaneously, streamlining traders' workflows, making them fast and highly effective. SDF allows you to create automations, such as automated budget allocators and campaign QA checkers. Additionally, there's a comprehensive library of solutions called 'Startthinker' that offers numerous API integrations, enabling you to manage your DV360 campaigns via Google Sheets without even opening the DV360 UI. (I know that similar solutions are possible for other DSPs, but they would require additional resources). However, comparing it to other DSPs, i.e., Amazon DSP can offer a more user-friendly approach, where you have drop-down menus and comments, making it much easier to navigate.

• Customization: Views are highly customizable, giving traders the opportunity to tailor IO/LI views to their needs and KPIs.

• Reports: For some reason, Google has changed its approach to reporting - migrating from ‘Offline Reporting’ (which is basically standard reporting where you choose the needed type of report, then metrics and dimensions, and wait until it generates an Excel file with the data) to ‘Instant Reports’:

And this reporting works perfectly for some simple reports, like if you want to pull general campaign information (i.e., spend, impressions, clicks, conversions, etc.), and you get this information much faster versus Offline reports. However, if you want to pull more complicated reports (i.e., inventory, or mix different dimensions), it can just show you an error message, and after a few attempts, you would get your report.

Conclusion?

I'm not sure if it's intentional or not, but Google hasn't changed almost anything in the DV360 interface. It seems like this tool isn't their priority (given the amount of new changes in the last 3-4 years), but actually, it's become a benefit. Clearly, from a UI/UX standpoint, the DV360 interface has all the basics, it’s stable, people know how to work there (+ some elements are similar to Google Ads), it works without any major issues, and it gives you the opportunity to get your things done fast. Would this platform benefit from adding additional features and visualizations? I think yes, if they add them gradually, without significantly interrupting the user experience. But still, this 'classical' DSP interface just 'works,' and whether intentional or not, it currently provides one of the best UI/UX experiences in the industry.