Introduction

Google’s Display & Video 360 (DV360) ecosystem thrives on the conversion measurement and remarketing tracking by the Floodlight tags.  Ensuring a precise and compliant setup allows user interactions to be captured accurately, providing reliable signals for audience building and campaign optimisation. We implemented a streamlined DV360 Floodlight remarketing setup for a client, balancing simplicity with robustness. The primary goal was to get the fundamentals right—base pixel deployment, event-level tagging, custom parameter integration, and strict consent compliance.

Background

The client wanted to leverage advanced display campaigns using DV360 (Display & Video 360). Floodlight tags were to be properly implemented across their web properties to enable remarketing and conversion tracking. The integrations get complex with custom variables and tracking. This implementation was done straightforwardly to ensure that base pixels and event-level Floodlight counters were implemented correctly, without overengineering the setup. We conducted thorough QA using tag debugging tools to ensure the setup worked as intended. 

Project Goals

The DV360 implementation aimed to:

• Enable Remarketing: Accurate Floodlight remarketing tags implementation to ensure tracking across all KPIs.
• Maintain Tag Sequencing: Prioritise the Base Pixel loading before triggering any other tag.
• Support Custom Parameters: Configure custom variables to send specific required values (like the u1 variable) directly into DV360 for campaign optimisation.
• Preserve Data Quality:  Confirm all the advertiser and campaign values (Advertiser ID, Activity Tag String, Group Tag String) match the DV360 platform settings.

Implementation Steps

Floodlight Base Pixel Deployment

• The DV360 Base Pixel was the parent tag to initialise tracking.
• All event tags were sequenced to fire only after the base tag, ensuring proper dependency handling.

Event Tag Setup

• Floodlight counter tags were created for specific user interactions.
• To guarantee the correct load order, each counter is referenced to the base pixel.

Custom Variable Handling

• The client’s request, a custom variable (u1), was mapped to capture campaign-specific values.
• This parameter was necessary for this client’s optimisation workflows in DV360, but these parameters are optional.
• The parameter was passed exactly as provided by the DV360 platform to avoid any mismatch in reporting.

Advertiser Configuration Alignment

• Key fields—Advertiser ID, Group Tag String, and Activity Tag String were copied directly from DV360 to GTM.
• Accurate data matching is achieved between the site tracking and the DV360 campaign dashboard using these Key fields.
  

Consent Integration

• Built-in consent checks (ad_storage, ad_personalization, ad_user_data) were enabled.
• The CMP and Consent Mode setup guarantees that Floodlight tags are only fired when legally permitted.

Results and Benefits

• Seamless Remarketing – The traffic segment is consistently captured across all targeted web pages via the DV360 remarketing tags.
• Error-Free Sequencing – In the configuration, dependency is established between Base Floodlight pixels and other tags so that the latter only trigger after the former to avoid data loss.
• Custom Data Flow – The custom parameter is successfully passed into DV360, providing campaign managers with the additional value they require.
• Accurate Reporting – To ensure accuracy and avoid any discrepancies between the site activity and DV360 reporting, the Advertiser IDs and Activity Tag Strings must match.
• Compliance-Friendly – Applied approved conditioning to limit tag triggering only when the conditions are met.

Conclusion

Among all other complex custom tagging implementations, this DV360 setup shows that even a streamlined Floodlight approach is both effective and efficient without overcomplicating the configuration. We were able to deliver a robust DV360 integration without unnecessary complexity, with a lightweight, compliant and reliable remarketing foundation.