If you work in digital marketing you’ve likely spent some time with Google Ads, or similar platforms, putting together search campaigns in order to reach people actively searching for your product. Google and other advertising platforms all work largely the same. You bid on certain keywords, users search those keywords, then your website and company are shown in the search results.
However, with a certain type of ad called a Dynamic Search Ad you’re able to capture more users who are searching for things related to your business, rather than what keywords you’re bidding on. This can be a big help in generating more leads in competitive markets, as well as capturing more relevant traffic.
What Are Dynamic Search Ads?
Firstly, let’s establish what a dynamic search ad is. A dynamic search ad is an ad that runs based on the content that is on your website. Google will crawl your site and take inventory of the different content that’s on it, then match it to search terms that are closely related to the content on your website. From this point, the headlines and landing pages are dynamically generated by Google to match up with what was searched.
How Do Dynamic Search Ads Work?
The best way to illustrate how dynamic search ads work is through an example. Let’s say we are operating a landscaping company. We currently run a search campaign on Google and we bid on terms “landscaping services” and “grass cutting company”. So far our leads have been good but we think we can do better so we decide to use a dynamic search ad.
We set up the ad settings in Google and we decided our targeted category should be “yard care”. Now whenever someone searches for something related to “yard care” our ad will show up with a piece of content from our blog. Titles like “10 tips for a greener yard” or “how to get rid of moles” will be able to show up in our ad because they fall under the “yard care” category. Headlines will say “How to get rid of moles” and the landing page will be a blog from your website about actions you can take to protect your yard from pests.
How To Set Up A Dynamic Search Ad?
To set up a dynamic search ad you’ll need to go to your Google Ads dashboard. Once you’ve logged into Google Ads you can go to any search campaign and set up a dynamic search ad group. You’ll set it up largely the same as other ad groups except there are no keywords, just categories.
The different categories will be compiled based on the pieces of content from your website. Google has crawled your site already and will know what content is there. These categories will be used to match up users’ search terms with your site’s content. It will try to connect users with a page on your site that can best answer what the user searched for.
Once these categories are chosen, you’ll be able to write up just two descriptions to go along with your dynamic headlines. You’ll want them to be more focused on a call to action, or to provide very base level information about your company. Once these ads are created they are very similar to how smart campaigns run, you won’t have much control over them as Google will be deciding who sees these ads.
The Takeaway
The takeaway is that while being focused on specific keywords in your search campaigns is typically the best way to run ads, dynamic search ads can help you capture similar search traffic. Users who may be more top of the funnel, or just looking for answers could be served your content and subsequently choose to contact your business.