What is Google Display Network or GDN?

Google Ads is split into two networks - the Search Network and the Display Network. When an advertiser is placing ads on the Search Network it means that the ads appear on the Search Engine (for example, Google, Bing, Baidu, Yandex). On the Display Network, businesses place mostly banner ads on a huge network of sites across the web.

For example, what you see on the right side of The Washington Post is a display ad or banner ad.

What sites are on the Google Display Network?

According to Google, the Display Network reaches over 90% of global internet users expanding across 2 million sites! (Source: Google Support). So, if you’re searching for a complete list you won’t find one.

What it is important to note is that the display ads appear on Google search site (Google Play, Google Shopping, Google Maps) and Google Search partners (thousands of non-Google websites).

Is Youtube part of Google Display Network?

Yes, YouTube is part of Google Display Network and most of the display ads are video or banner ads.

How do you know if a banner ad is advertised through Google’s Display Network?

In an effort to provide clear information to users about the ads they see, Google shows an icon such as “AdChoices” or "Ads by Google". AdChoices is an industry-standard  Ad Choices icon that expands to expanded Ad Choices icon   when users move their cursor over the icon.

If we took as an example the ad from the Washington Post and click on the Ad Choices icon we’ll get this: