By Luis Rijo
Publication Date: 2026-10-15 13:38:00
The Google Display Network (GDN) is the collection of websites, mobile apps and video pages, outside Google’s own search results, on which advertisers using Google Ads can place banner, image, native and video ads. Google’s Help Center defines it as “a group of more than 2 million websites, videos, and apps” and, citing Comscore, says those sites reach over 90% of internet users worldwide. It exists because most of the web is not a search engine. Publishers need a way to sell space next to their content without a sales team, and Google needed a way to sell advertisers reach beyond the moment someone types a query. The network joins the two: advertisers buy inside Google Ads, and publishers supply space through AdSense, AdMob and Google Ad Manager.
The name refers to inventory, not a product with its own login. As of October 2026 Google still uses it, but the campaign type that most advertisers used to buy it, Display, is being retired in favour of Demand Gen.
