Google Ads Campaign Manager 360 is Google’s advertising management tool for enterprise teams. Learn the cost, benefits, mistakes to avoid, and steps to use it for your business.

Here, you’ll find:

Enterprise advertisers and agencies often need a more robust tool than the standard Google Ads platform to manage cross-channel campaigns. With Google Ads Campaign Manager 360, you can manage everything from ad serving and audience targeting to verification and reporting.

In this article, we’ll cover the benefits of this platform, how to use it, and when to choose Campaign Manager 360 vs. Google Ads for ad management.

What is Campaign Manager 360?

Google Ads Campaign Manager 360 is a powerful tool that simplifies campaign management for Google Ads. Formerly known as Campaign Manager (and before that, DoubleClick), it’s part of the Google Marketing Platform suite for enterprise users.

From media planning to reporting, this Google product allows enterprise advertisers to oversee all pay-per-click (PPC) campaign efforts on one powerful and easy-to-use platform. Its core feature is an ad server, which gives advertisers a centralized platform for hosting, managing, and serving ads. It also offers robust trafficking, PPC analysis, and verification features.

How much does it cost?

Unlike Google Ads, Campaign Manager 360 is a paid product that requires a license. The cost depends on the advertising volume. In other words, the more impressions or clicks your ad campaigns generate, the more you pay to use the tool.

To get a custom quote for your business or agency, you have two choices: You can contact a sales representative for Google Marketing Platform or seek out one of the platform’s official sales partners.

Key benefits

Switching to Campaign Manager 360 helps you manage complex Google Ads campaigns more efficiently. Let’s look at some of the biggest benefits of this enterprise tool.

Unified, enterprise-scale campaign management

CMOs at enterprise-level organizations are looking for an integrated technology stack — and that’s exactly what Campaign Manager 360 offers. It works in harmony with the rest of the Google Marketing Platform and makes it simple to manage your cross-channel campaigns.

Campaign Manager 360 integrates with:

  • Display & Video 360 (DV360)
  • Search Ads 360 (SA360)
  • Google Analytics 360

You can create and manage the other Google Marketing Platform products using Campaign Manager 360. They can also be tracked and analyzed through Floodlight activities, which, as Google explains, “correspond to specific events you’d like to track, such as conversions on your website or adding users to audience lists.”

With a unified platform, enterprise marketers save time and resources, rather than switching between numerous tools. You can become more efficient by creating seamless workflows and getting a bird’s-eye view of your campaigns.

Data-driven creative

Many advertisers will tell you one of their biggest headaches is finding actionable insights from the huge volume of data they receive from their search engine marketing campaigns.

The human brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than textual information, according to the University of Minnesota. This makes data visualization a powerful tool for creating impactful campaigns and improving ROI.

Integrating Google Campaign Manager 360 with Google Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio) gives you the power to generate data-driven creatives. Your marketing team can create personalized ads at scale by integrating your data into the creative displayed with your ads.

Campaign Manager 360 gives you data on your ads, such as impressions, clicks, conversions, and ad spend.

The categories are:

  • Campaigns
  • Advertisers
  • Placements
  • Creatives
  • Devices
  • Geographies

By generating this data into colorful and easy-to-understand dashboards, you can quickly gain insights from your campaign structure, audience targeting, and creatives — and share this information with your team and stakeholders.

You can also keep working to improve the creativity of your ads based on A/B testing. Over 80% of marketers find an ad’s success is driven by the creative. So once you nail this, you’ll be on the path to Google Ads domination.

Advanced modeling and data-driven attribution

Google Campaign Manager 360 collects your data and reports together. If you’ve ever struggled to attribute revenue across channels, you know how helpful aggregated data can be.

With Campaign Manager 360, you can give conversion credit across channels to organize your business’s ad spend more effectively. Drive greater efficiency in your ad performance and leverage advanced data models to drive more accurate attribution.

What features are included?

Now we’ve looked at the key benefits of Google Campaign Manager, let’s dive into the features that deliver those benefits.

Google Campaign Manager offers a wide range of features. By understanding the ins and outs of the platform, you can effectively manage your time and resources by focusing on the features that’ll deliver the best results for your unique ad campaigns.

Centralized tracking

Campaign Manager 360 uses the Floodlight tracking pixel. This lets you track conversions and sales. You can also add your data from digital channels and create a single view of your campaign performance.

Trafficking

The Trafficking features let you manage and run ads in a way that aligns your ad campaigns with your business’s larger marketing goals and objectives and tracks your KPIs.

It’s a pretty extensive element of the platform, so here are useful ways to get started:

  • Trafficking workflow: Get a fully comprehensive view of the campaign management process.
  • Start Trafficking: Go through the basic steps to create campaigns, ad placements, and creative.
  • Edit creatives: Discover the different creative types you can use for your campaigns and edit them to suit your needs.

Attribution modeling

The data-driven attribution in Campaign Manager 360 is run by a powerful modeling tool. It enables you to compare different attribution models to more accurately attribute conversion to campaigns based on how your business manages its ads.

Attribution models that you get with the tool include:

  • Last and first interaction
  • Linear
  • Time decay

These models ensure your channels are assigned accurate values. You learn the role that specific channels have played in your conversions. Then you continue to invest your ad spend in the ones delivering the best ROI.

View channels outside the Google ecosystem

We’ve talked a lot about the Google Marketing Platform integration. But what about channels outside Google’s ecosystem?

You can measure those too. Campaign Manager 360 offers features that bring all your digital data into the platform, such as social, email, and SMS. You can do this through click and impression trackers or an additional integration.

Centralize audiences

Campaign Manager 360 allows businesses to create their own first-party audiences, which they can then use in the media buying platforms (Display & Video 360 and Search Ads 360).

Verification

One of the most valuable features of Campaign Manager 360 is its verification. Why should your business care about verification? Because it stops you from throwing money away on ads no one sees or that are displayed to irrelevant audiences.

Tracking and verifying ads builds trust and transparency between your business (the advertiser) and publishers. You can have peace of mind knowing your ads are displayed with vetted publishers and in the correct brand-safe location.

With the verification feature, you can verify your ads and the chosen tags to ensure the right audiences see your campaigns.

Google verification includes excellent spam filtering and fraud detection, so your ad spend never goes on fraudulent impressions. The content labels and classifiers then give you full control of your tracking. You decide where to serve or not serve your ads using a movie-like rating system.

You can also track the type of content to serve or not serve ads close to, which prevents your brand from being associated with unwanted topics, such as politics, gambling, or tobacco.

Reporting

If you work in marketing, you probably love a good report. Having your campaign data neatly displayed in an easy-to-digest report makes it easy to assess how well your strategy is performing and make the necessary adjustments.

Campaign Manager 360 has all the reporting elements you want, and where you want them to be. The features enable you to view your data for ads trafficked through the platform and organize their performance data in the most useful way. You have many options and can make your reports as simple or complex as you need.

The summary tab in the reporting features is the best place to start. It gives you an overview of your campaign performance.

You can also go into the Report Builder, where you can create custom reports.

Options include:

  • Standard
  • Floodlight
  • Path to Conversion (P2C)
  • Reach
  • Cross-Dimension Reach

How to create a campaign in Campaign Manager 360

Campaign Manager 360 is a ‘premium’ platform, so you don’t hear about it as much as Google Ads Manager. It’s typically aimed at enterprise businesses with large ad spend.

Get access to Campaign Manager 360

There are two ways your business can get access to the platform.

Directly through Google:

If you have a large enough ad spend, your businesses may qualify to purchase the platform directly from Google. However, it’s not as simple as just adding to the cart and getting started. To ensure you’re using it correctly, work with one of Google’s implementation partners.

Through a reseller:

In the U.S., several Google partners are authorized to sell the 360 platform. When you purchase the platform from a reseller, they hold the contract. This can transfer later if your business becomes eligible to buy directly from Google.

Set up an ad in Campaign Manager 360

To start using Campaign Manager 360, open the dashboard and go to the “Campaigns” menu. Click “New” to build from scratch or click “Copy” to duplicate an existing campaign.

Then choose campaign properties:

  • Campaign settings: Confirm the advertiser, billing profile, billing invoice code, external ID, and campaign name.
  • Ad schedule: Choose start and end dates for your campaign report. Any digital media placements you create must fall within these dates.
  • Landing pages: Select campaign landing pages from a list in Google Campaign Manager 360, add a new one, or upload in bulk.
  • Event tags: Set up event tags that third-party tools and partners can use to track metrics like ad impressions and clicks.
  • Creative settings: Establish creative groups and choose the creative rotation option that drives optimal results for your digital marketing campaigns.
  • Audience targeting: Segment your target audience based on cookies or users’ device IDs and add weights to prioritize impressions.
  • Conversion windows: Override account-level conversion windows by setting specific windows for each marketing campaign.
  • Third-party measurement: Set up optional third-party verification via DoubleVerify or Integral Ad Science to measure viewability.

Integration with Google Marketing Platform

We’ve already mentioned that Campaign Manager 360 is just one platform in the wider Google Marketing Platform stack. Let’s dive deep into what all of the possible integrations look like and when you’d want to use them.

The Google Marketing Platform’s features can be used in isolation. However, when businesses use the full stack (Display & Video 360, Analytics 360, and Search Ads 360), Campaign Manager 360 becomes the central hub for tracking, audiences, and reporting.

Display & Video 360

Integrate with Display & Video 360 to streamline digital campaign management across formats. You get a faster setup and seamless synchronization between platforms to give you a comprehensive overview of your ads.

Analytics 360

Get a full picture of the customer journey by integrating with Analytics 360. This integration gives you a complete customer view and the ability to analyze Campaign Manager 360 data in Google Analytics.

Some of the advantages of this integration include:

  • Campaign Manager 360 reports in the Acquisition section of Analytics — data from these reports include impressions, clicks, and view- and click-through sessions
  • Acquisition reports that separate Campaign Manager 360-trafficked Display advertising
  • Multi-Channel Funnels and Attribution reports that show Display clicks and impressions

Search Ads 360

A Search Ads 360 integration shows your Search ad data right next to your Display and Ads data for a comprehensive view of ad campaigns. You can also use the Search Ads 360 API upload or update conversions.

Every Search Ads 360 advertiser and its associated Campaign Manager 360 account share their Floodlight settings, activities, and tags. You can then track conversions on both the Display and Search networks with the same tags.

Tag Manager 360

With a Google Tag Manager 360 integration, you can add, measure, and update Google or third-party tags. Because it’s an enterprise tool, this integration comes with security and collaboration features for large businesses.

Who should use Google Ads Campaign Manager 360?

Campaign Manager 360 is designed for enterprise-level advertisers and agencies. The ideal users are large businesses and agencies with complex advertising needs, like third-party verification and cross-channel ad management.

Small and medium-sized businesses are better off using standard Google products like Google Ads. It’s simpler to manage, lacks unnecessarily complex features, and is free to use (aside from ad spend).

Is Google Ads Campaign Manager 360 worth it?

Enterprise-level users who need to scale advertising efforts across Google networks typically find Campaign Manager 360 worthwhile. Users report generally positive feedback, especially in terms of:

  • Accurate data: Thanks to its third-party verification options, Campaign Manager 360 data is considered remarkably reliable, which allows advertisers to prepare more accurate reports and better optimize campaigns.
  • Integrations with other Google products: Advertisers can leverage Google Analytics 360 data from search engine optimization (SEO) teams to generate more comprehensive digital marketing reports.

Common mistakes to avoid

To build successful ads with Campaign Manager 360, keep these expert tips in mind.

Failing to plan ample onboarding time

This digital advertising platform has a relatively steep learning curve. To maximize your PPC ROI and get the most out of Campaign Manager 360, plan ample time to learn and master the system.

“Let me tell you, switching from HubSpot to Google Ads Campaign Manager 360 was not easy,” explains digital marketing expert Kartik Ahuja. “Navigating Campaign Manager 360’s complicated interface and comprehending all the various metrics and options was one of the biggest challenges I encountered.”

He explains it like attempting to put together a puzzle without all the parts. However, Ahuja says he overcame this obstacle by devoting time to thoroughly understanding the platform, consulting with experts, and trying new things.

Neglecting to test attribution models

“Transitioning to Google Ads Campaign Manager 360 was a strategic move for us,” shares Olivia Tian, Marketing Director at Raise3D.

“We switched from the standard Google Ads interface primarily because of the enhanced features and capabilities offered by Campaign Manager 360. The ability to manage complex campaigns with greater precision and efficiency was a major draw for us.”

Tian explains that the team’s biggest challenge with Campaign Manager 360 was adapting attribution models to account for all channels and touchpoints. For Raise3D, testing and experimentation proved essential.

“By experimenting with different attribution models and analyzing the results, we were able to fine-tune our approach,” she adds. “We developed a more accurate understanding of how different marketing channels contribute to our overall success.”

Underestimating its creative power

“When we first transitioned our marketing efforts to Google’s Campaign Manager 360 platform around a year ago, I was initially attracted by the operational benefits like centralized ad management, unified reporting, and seamless integrations with our analytics stack,” explains Ryan Robinson, founder and CEO of Right Blogger.

“What I didn’t anticipate was how this tool would unlock new creative opportunities for our campaigns.” For Robinson, ideation fatigue posed a major challenge. Campaign Manager 360’s dynamic tools automated part of this process and relieved some of this burden.

“The human designers on my team now focus more on providing a broad set of creative components and guidelines to feed the system,” Robinson adds.

“Then, Campaign Manager takes over, autonomously generating, serving, and optimizing hundreds of trillion ad combinations at a scale far beyond our manual capacity. We simply monitor the performance data and make tweaks based on what’s resonating best.”

Notes from our own PPC expert

We wanted a marketing pro’s POV on Campaign Manager 360, so we consulted with Katherine Kiraly, one of our seasoned SEM pros. Here’s what she thinks potential users and marketing managers should know about the platform:

  • This is a paid, enterprise-level service from Google for large companies spending millions a month on Google and other platforms.
  • You receive a dedicated Google Vendor team that helps implement certain things. They’ll pull reports for you and suggest keywords to implement. They’re salespeople, so their main goal is to get you to spend more on Google.
  • It’s a one-stop shop for managing and optimizing all of your ads from Google to Microsoft Advertising (formerly Bing) to Facebook and LinkedIn.
  • You can create values for down-funnel conversions (past lead inquiry) that you can optimize for across platforms using CPA (target cost per acquisition) or tROAS (target return on ad spend) bid strategies.
  • You can create budget-based bidding strategies to add your campaign verticals so you’re sure to spend your forecasted budget.
  • SA360’s automated bidding strategies are more robust than just Google Ads. According to Google, “By leveraging SA360 automated bidding with Google Ads auction-time bidding, advertisers can create a super-powered bidding solution to fit their exact needs.”
  • It allows you to use Google’s Data-Driven Attribution across all platforms you run ads on Microsoft Advertising, as well as social media apps like LinkedIn and Facebook/Instagram.

The takeaway

Google Ads management takes expertise, attention to detail, and regular monitoring to be truly successful. Campaign Manager 360 makes it simpler.

Quality management of your ads with full visibility across channels lets you create informed strategies that lead to higher ROI — and who doesn’t want that?

See the benefits of a platform like this but don’t have time to add yet another task to your to-do list? That’s why we’re here.

Our team of dedicated senior-level marketing scientists is ready to partner with you to take your paid search program to the next level — connect with us to find out how.

Shire Lyon

Shire Lyon

Shire is a passionate writer and marketer with over eight years of experience as a writer and digital marketer. She's well-versed in SEO, PPC, and social media, helping businesses both big and small grow and scale. On her downtime, she enjoys hiking, cooking, gardening, reading, and sailing.