Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is one of the most effective ways to attract relevant online visitors. Placing ads strategically and paying a fee only when is the users click on the ad is not only cost-effective, it’s also trackable, efficient and, most importantly, fast.
However, in a world where every respectable marketer uses PPC routinely, the battle for attracting visitors is even more competitive. Dynamic search ads (DSAs) are not exactly a novelty. They have been around for quite some time, but they’re still not widely used by the majority of advertisers. Even those that are well versed in all things PPC, often don’t utilize their full potential.
Major search engines like Google offer DSAs as an option to automatically generate PPC ads for search campaigns, but contrary to popular belief, the DSA feature offers many additional benefits beyond simple automated ad creation.
Read on to find out more about the benefits of DSAs as well as how to set up an effective Dynamic Ads marketing campaign.
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What Is A Dynamic Search Ad?
Dynamic search ads are Google-generated ads, based on users’ search queries and the content on your website.
What does that mean exactly and how do DSA ads differ from regular PPC/text campaigns?
Creating targeted ads, researching and uploading a list of keywords can be time-consuming. There are plenty of unique search terms that you cannot know nor utilize properly.
Google dynamic search ads can help you reach your audience on Google SERPs and present them with the most relevant offer for their unique needs.
You can achieve this by selecting relevant landing pages from your website to target them with.
There are two different methods to set up said targeting:
- Targeting a group of URLs or
- Targeting specific URLs.
When you opt for dynamic ad targeting, Google bots crawl your website and match search terms to your content to create a Google dynamic ad.
Google creates the headlines for these ads using dynamic generation based on search terms and the information pulled from your site.
DSA ads are ideal for advertisers that have a sizeable product/service offering.
How To Set Up DSA Ads?
Setting up dynamic search ads in Google Ads is fairly simple. Just as you would create any other campaign, go through the process of creating a text campaign. Proceeding through the campaign settings, you’ll be met with a box to check “Enable Dynamic Search Ads for this campaign”.
Before you start a campaign, you can pull keywords from your chosen web page by inserting your URL.
Google offers three targeting buckets:
- URLs
- Categories
- Factors like page title and/or page content
With any one of these, you can set up a relevant DSA ad group.
If you want to target specific URLs, Google dynamic search ads’ URL targeting enables you to go broad (with “URL_Contains” function) or narrow down depending on your preference/needs (“URL_Equals” function).
For categories, you can set up specific criteria for your targeting. For instance, you can target only the landing pages from your standard ad groups that you use across all marketing campaigns, which serves dynamic search ads for all queries that include search terms relevant to said pages.
Whichever targeting method you opt for, dynamic search ads will be the main weapon in your marketing toolset to convert more prospective customers and boost sales.
6 Benefits Of Using Google Dynamic Search Ads
Since more and more marketing initiatives already are or are getting automated, advertisers are rightfully wondering if writing ad copy should be part of that automation. Speeding up the process of posting ad campaigns is one perk of DS ads – but they bring a number of other benefits beyond automating time-consuming tasks.
Here are some of the main advantages dynamic search ads can bring to the table:
1. Filling Gaps In Keyword-Based Campaigns
Accurate keyword targeting is the foundation of every successful marketing initiative, especially PPC campaigns.
However, even with the most comprehensive keyword research and listings, these campaigns are likely to miss some relevant search queries and not use the full potential of the target audience.
DSA’s automatic capabilities independently scan your landing pages for suitable terms to target and fill any gaps in your keyword-based targeting campaigns.
With dynamic search ads, you don’t need to dig into long-tail keyword research as they will automatically provide trending keywords based on your website’s content.
Another great benefit of Google dynamic search ads is that they can show up for keywords with a low(er) search volume, which helps you hunt those searches not being targeted by traditional text campaigns. In other words, you’re offered a chance to satisfy that unexplored customer-specific, niche needs.
2. Relevant And Efficient Ad Copy
A traditional ad targeting that uses conventional, manmade headlines and copy may be more compelling, but it is difficult to cover all relevant keywords in an ad group.
DSAs offer a unique opportunity to create the most relevant headlines automatically, every time, based on your chosen landing pages’ copy and the exact search queries people use.
3. More Quality Traffic
Dynamic search ads are generally more relevant and competitive. They reach a larger audience of people beyond conventional keyword targeting.
Automatically generated ad copy matches user search terms more efficiently which increases clickthrough rates (CTRs), ensures visitors are directed to the most relevant landing pages, ultimately encouraging them to convert.
No matter how well researched, keywords don’t necessarily align 100% with the users’ search intent which may hinder high-quality lead generation.
Google dynamic search ads help you improve both the quantity and quality of leads you attract by considering search queries’ relevance and your landing page’s content.
4. Automatic Updates
A major challenge PPC advertisers face is keeping their ads updated when their offering changes. Updating the ads to reflect these changes can take too much time.
Dynamic search ads address this issue by crawling your site on a regular basis and adjusting themselves according to your page’s exact content. They change and push upfront the widest net, most applicable and personalized results based on the prospective consumers’ search terms.
For example, for eCommerce Google will never show ads for products that are out-of-stock. For your prospective customers, clicking on ads that lead to the page with an unavailable product is a very frustrating experience – you would risk losing them for good.
With DSA ads, when you make changes to your landing page content and product descriptions, they will be automatically reflected in dynamic advertising.
5. Campaign Targeting Control
Dynamic Search ads are automatically updated, but they are not a “set and forget” marketing tactic. After all, there is no successful advertising without at least a little bit of control
DSA ads still offer control over who you target and what content you use. In fact, they use several options for targeting:
- All web pages you’re using for search ads across your accounts
- Specific landing pages that are grouped them into categories based on a common theme
- Individual landing pages that you choose to target
6. Time Efficiency
As is the case with most marketing automation technologies, Google dynamic ads save time.
As previously noted, researching and creating comprehensive keyword lists and matching them to relevant pages on your website is time-consuming – and so is creating relevant headlines and ad copy that best match keyword categories.
Just like with AI/machine learning technologies, dynamic ads help with tedious, repetitive tasks such as these, freeing up advertisers’ time to focus their efforts on campaign targeting, measuring performance and distilling tangible results that drive business goals.
The Cons Of Using Dynamic Search Ads
Dynamic Search ads can come with certain drawbacks, especially for beginners facing DS ads for the first time.
1. Limited control
While DS ads do offer a good degree of control over how Google targets your audience, that may still not be enough control in some cases. Since you can’t influence which type of queries are matched to and served (such as negative keywords), you must ensure your structure is foolproof and that you have accounted for appropriate negatives wherever possible.
If you do your best to define your ad target, you’re guaranteed to get better results.
2. Not useful for small(er) websites
Dynamic search ads were created for large websites. If you have a small website or not a lot of traffic, you will not be able to take full advantage of DSAs capabilities. Before utilizing them, work on your SEO first and the overall website ranking on SERP.
3. Headlines don’t always match the ads
Headlines generated for dynamic targeting can be challenging for advertisers that want to have full control over which specific headline is shown to the customers. If this is the case, DS ads may not be the best fit for your needs.
4. Wasting budget on low-performing search queries
Dynamic search ads rely heavily on the quality of your landing pages and work best with well-structured pages where Google can clearly identify themes and key terms in the content.
Another reason why proper structuring is so important is that sometimes, DSA can have a few queries that eat up your budget before the stronger converting products/services are even searched for.
How Do You Pay For Google Dynamic Search Ads?
So, now that you’re aware of all the benefits Google dynamic search ads provide the question is - how do you pay for them?
Luckily, as an advertiser, you should already be familiar with the process. For the uninitiated, it’s very much the same as running a campaign via Google Ads (formerly known as Google Adwords).
Dynamic search ads run via a bidding system and operate on a cost-per-click system. Costs are determined by taking the total number of clicks you have received and multiplying that number by the maximum cost per click (CPC) limit that you have previously set.
Unlike regular text campaigns, you do not apply bids to specific keywords, but rather to the auto-target level.
Simply put, auto-targets are the list of different landing pages on your site that you can target.
Although they are typically set to auto-target, you can also bid manually. This option offers a more hands-on approach to the process.
Besides auto-target and manual bidding, there’s also the Smart Bidding option which is essentially a variation of automated bidding that uses machine learning to optimize for conversions throughout every auction.
To properly control your costs, you need both sharp copy and accurate targeting. One cannot work without the other or you either won’t convert or the right audience won’t see your ad.
Ad personalization is essential. In fact, over 90% of consumers say they are more likely to purchase from brands providing offers and ads relevant to them and that is exactly what you get with dynamic search ads.
Are Dynamic Search Ads Right For You?
No marketing strategy guarantees success - however, there is a reason why dynamic search ads may be a great addition to your advertising strategy.
We’ve already gone over the benefits they offer, but is there a way to know whether they’re right for you specifically?
If you have dozens of pages on your website or have an eCommerce store with hundreds of products, DS ads are a suitable solution for you. They beat manual campaigns by a long shot; however, they are not recommended if your site is going through rapid changes e.g., daily deals/offers/discounts, etc.
They work best for well-structured websites with well-written HTML page titles and clearly-written content.
If you are growing a website, they can help out immensely but they shouldn’t be your primary advertising focus. When it comes to creating any ad, the headline is the crucial factor, more than the page description.
They grab attention and DSAs can take care of that for you.
Dynamic Search Ads Takeaways
Dynamic search ads are a perfect way to expand your existing advertising campaigns, as long as you do them properly. They give you the option to “catch” searches not covered by traditional text ads.
Besides their automated nature, they offer a plethora of additional benefits including:
- Filling gaps in keyword-based campaigns
- Relevant, up-to-date and efficient ad copy
- More quality traffic on your website
- Automatic updates
- Targeting control
- Saving time
If implemented correctly DSA ads can help you utilize your budget to the fullest, increasing your brand awareness, conversion rates and boosting sales!
So, whether you have a large account and are looking to fill the gaps in your current structure or you simply want to boost your website’s traffic and attract quality leads dynamic search ads are at least worth testing. Right now!
