Getting the most out of dynamic search ads in a PPC campaign
First released by Google in February 2015, give or take, Dynamic Search Ads takes the fuss of manually picking keywords and ads for PPC Campaigns into its stride. Used by PPC-ers to help them effectively and effortlessly create ads, as well as update them with just a few clicks, Dynamic Search Ads can take the strain out of what was previously a hectic job.
Rather than writing it off as a ‘cheats’ solution, the PPC experts at Embryo are here to help you get the most out of this platform. From using it in a strategy to off-the-cuff ideation, Dynamic Search Ads can help you get great results – with very little legwork.
But first: what are DSAs?
What are dynamic search ads?
What Are Dynamic Search Ads?In brief, DSAs are a type of PPC campaign that draws on your existing website content to automatically generate ads. Usually offered by platforms like Google Ads, DSAs can also be used alongside other keyword-targeting campaigns – giving you a catch-all solution to ad generation within a bigger strategy.
This now falls under Performance Max, the latest in Google’s machine learning algorithm when it comes to PPC. For more on how we incorporate this new platform into our strategies, click here for further information.
At-a-glance
1. Unlike traditional PPC research and search ads, DSAs completely skip over the part where they hand-pick specific keywords. Instead, it relies on your website’s content, using Google’s crawlers to identify the best keywords for your buyer’s intent.
2. From the information gleaned using your website’s content, DSAs automatically generate headlines and even landing pages based on what your website offers and the user’s search query
3. From here, it will collate a number of ads for you to choose from.
Click and you’ll miss it
As with anything controlled by a human, you can get errors. These usually present themselves as gaps, which isn’t great when you’re trying to create solid keyword research. Luckily, DSAs can help target relevant searches you might otherwise miss, by finding relevant searches based on your website content and potentially netting a wider audience.
The benefits of Dynamic Search Ads
DSAs are a great way to save time and energy on ad creation and keyword research – especially on larger build-outs and websites. It can also help you target relevant searches and audiences based on your content, ensuring that all your services are covered by useful – and relevant – ads.
Some of the key benefits include:
- Capturing more traffic by identifying new opportunities- there’s a chance you’re missing out on keywords that you could otherwise be targeting, so implementing DSAs can identify these missed opportunities.
- When creating a new ad, you don’t have to enter your display URL- instead, the display URL is based on the domain from your final URL.
- Improved relevancy- Google Ads will create a clear, relevant headline that relates to your most suited page for the user’s search.
However, this can be a Catch-22. As DSAs heavily rely on your existing content, you must make sure that any information it pulls is also relevant, high-quality, and informative. Otherwise, your ads are going to come off speaking absolute broken biscuits.
Is your site right for DSAs?
DSA campaigns are only effective if they work for your site.
If your website has constant, rapid changes, then DSAs aren’t recommended for your site. They also work best on sites with well-written content and HTML titles and on a generally well-structured site. DSAs don’t work for sites that use mostly images or visual content.
Setting up DSAs? Here’s what you need to know
Segmentation- Following the implementation of DSAs, Google now organises your website into categories and lets you bid individually on each segment – rather than simply targeting your whole domain or picking a particular page.
By utilising segmentation, Google also shows example search queries and recommended bids for each category alongside the text ads and landing pages, which is crucial for campaign performance. By pulling different categories into separate ad groups, PPC-ers can then target them using the most relevant ad text – in exactly the same way you would with keywords.
Domain and language- If you want to target a campaign, you’ll need to select a website domain and language for each one. That means multiple domains – and languages – have to be separated.
Ad copy- As with any standard search campaign, make sure to create multiple versions of your ads. This guarantees that you’ll see the highest possible CTR, with another perk of DSAs meaning that a dynamically inserted headline can be longer than the standard.
Tracking- To track the effectiveness of your ads, make sure that the appropriate channels are activated – you don’t want to miss this!
Expert PPC insights
Even though it’s nearly ten years since its initial release, Google is still continually updating and improving its DSA offering. As such, it’s crucial for any PPC – or marketing experts at large – to understand and utilise it in their strategies.
By choosing the appropriate match type based on your specific goals, and targeting the right audience to avoid catching irrelevant searches – you can easily glean fantastic results time and time again.
But if you need a little extra help, our PPC experts are on hand to help. Whether you need a PPC campaign starting from scratch or want some more support in handling your existing build-outs, look no further than Embryo.
To start your journey, why not get in touch for a personalised PPC audit from our consultants?
FAQs
Answered by Chelsea Powell
Do dynamic search ads offer the same level of quality as other types of ads?
Yes DSA quality and ranking work the same way as search ads
What is performance max?
Performance Max is a campaign that uses AI to help advertisers reach more customers across multiple Google channels including YT, shopping, search etc.
What type of content do dynamic search ads work well for?
DSAs work well on sites that have a lot of content & work particularly well with search ads as you can identify converting search terms & add these are keywords to your campaigns
How do I track the success of my DSAs?
You can track DSAs the same way as search ads by using UTMs and auditing the campaign
