Dynamic Search Ads (DSA): A Guide for E-Commerce Websites

| Zafer Kavaklı

Dynamic Search Ads (DSA): A Guide for E-Commerce Websites

In the digital marketing world, there are many tools you can use to optimize and expand your advertising campaigns. Google Ads is one of the most important ones, and within Google Ads, Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) is a type of advertisement used to increase the volume of ad campaigns. So, what is DSA and how is it used? Here is your guide!

What are Dynamic Search Ads (DSA)?

Dynamic Search Ads are a type of advertisement that matches users' search queries with the content of your website using Google's algorithms. When a user searches for a word on the Google search engine, the ad of the relevant page of your website matching this word is automatically displayed. The title of the ad, the display URL, and the final URL are dynamically created. The only thing advertisers need to provide is the description lines in the ad text.

How Does DSA Work?

Google matches users' search queries with the content on specific pages of your website. This way, the dynamic elements of the ad are determined. For instance, if a user searches for "women's winter shoes" and this query matches a relevant page on your site, your ad is automatically displayed. The page matching the user's searched term is used as the final URL, and the content on the page is used dynamically to create the ad title and display URL.

Targeting in DSA Campaigns

When creating DSA campaigns, advertisers need to use specific targeting options to determine which web pages will be used for ads. Here are some popular targeting options:

Website Domain Specification

Advertisers specify a website domain and select the pages or content they want to target. Google scans these pages and matches the content with search queries.

Targeting Options:

  • URL Contains: This option allows you to target pages with a specific URL structure. For example, you can target only pages with the "/women-winter-boots" URL structure.
  • Custom Labels: You can assign custom labels to pages in your dynamic page feed and use these labels to target in your DSA campaigns. For instance, you can create labels like "best sellers" or "high conversion rate products".
  • All Web Pages: This option allows Google to scan all the pages on your website and match users' search queries with the content on your site. This can help you reach a broader audience but may slightly reduce control.
  • Category Targeting: Google Ads can automatically categorize the pages on your website. This option allows you to target specific categories, reaching a more specific audience.

Targeting Using Dynamic Page Feed

Dynamic Page Feed allows you to target specific pages or products. For example, an e-commerce site can create a dynamic page feed to target its best-selling products. This feed specifies which product pages will be used in ads, allowing advertisers to direct ads to pages with high sales potential.

Thanks to these options, you can ensure the display of dynamic search ads by targeting specific pages instead of all pages on your website. Using the dynamic page feed feature will particularly enable you to create more effective campaigns.

Pros and Cons of Dynamic Search Ads

Pros of DSA

  • Reaching New Audiences: DSA automatically crawls new and updated content on your website, helping you reach a wider audience. This is a significant advantage, especially for e-commerce sites when launching new products or services.
  • Keyword Discovery: DSA helps you discover new keywords that potential customers might use. This can aid in enhancing your SEO strategy and achieving higher rankings in organic search results.
  • Lower CPC: DSA generally offers lower costs per click (CPC). Your ads can automatically appear for keywords with low competition, reducing the CPC. This allows for more efficient use of your advertising budget and a higher ROI.
  • Time-Saving: DSA campaigns automatically create ad headlines and descriptions, eliminating the need to manually create many different ad texts. This saves time and allows the marketing team to focus on other essential tasks.
  • Dynamic Ad Texts: Thanks to dynamically changing ad headlines and descriptions, DSA responds better to users' search queries. This makes your ads more relevant and engaging, potentially increasing the click-through rate (CTR).

Cons of DSA

  • Lack of Control: Since DSA automatically creates ad texts, advertisers have less control over ad headlines and descriptions. This can sometimes prevent your brand message from being conveyed as you wish.
  • Low-Intent Searches: DSA allows you to reach a wide audience. However, this means that low-intent searches can also be targeted, leading to budget being spent on searches with a low likelihood of conversion.
  • Increased Ad Cost: DSA campaigns can increase ad cost as they generally appeal to a broader audience. This can be a problem, especially if your budget is limited.
  • Misleading Ad Headlines: Automatically generated ad headlines can sometimes be misleading or incorrect. If the page titles and descriptions on your website are not optimized considering SEO guidelines, the ad headlines and descriptions can also be incorrect.
  • Optimization Challenges: DSA campaigns are more challenging to optimize compared to traditional search campaigns. This means you need to spend extra effort and time to achieve better results over time. For instance, you may need to do quite a lot of negative keyword optimization initially when you launch a DSA.

Despite all these cons, a well-structured and optimized Dynamic Search Ads will greatly facilitate your business and increase the number of potential customers you reach.

Optimizing DSA Campaigns

Optimizing DSA campaigns will help you achieve better results. Here are some strategies for optimizing DSA campaigns:

  • Selecting Relevant Pages: Choosing the most relevant pages can enhance the success of your campaign. For example, focusing on your best-selling products or most popular services can increase conversion rates. You can exclude landing pages with low conversion rates according to Google Analytics data from your targeted pages. Static pages on your website (help, terms of use, cart, contracts, career, etc.) should also be excluded from Dynamic Search Ads.
  • Creating a Smart Structure: By wisely selecting ad groups and keywords, you can enhance your campaign's performance. For instance, creating separate ad groups for different product categories offers more specific targeting and customization options.
  • Using Negative Keywords: By using negative keywords, you can reduce unwanted clicks, ensuring a more efficient use of your budget.
  • Continuous Testing and Improvement: Continuously testing and improving DSA campaigns can yield better results over time. Using Google Ads' Experiments feature to conduct A/B tests can help determine which strategies work better.
  • Optimizing Ad Texts: Regularly reviewing and optimizing your ad texts can achieve higher click-through and conversion rates. For example, you can write strong texts to make description lines more appealing. Updating description lines during specific campaign periods will keep your ads current.
  • Landing Page Optimization: Optimizing the landing pages users will be directed to after clicking your ad can enhance the user experience and increase conversion rates. For instance, fast loading times and mobile compatibility can improve the user experience.

Using DSA Campaigns with Dynamic Page Feed

To further strengthen Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) campaigns, using Dynamic Page Feed will provide a significant advantage. Let's take a deep look at this topic and understand the role of Optifeed in this area well.

What is Dynamic Page Feed?

Dynamic Page Feed is a page feed file that allows you to target specific pages or products; thus, advertisers can direct dynamic search network ads to the correct pages. This is a significant advantage, especially for e-commerce sites, because you can target specific product pages and ensure that your ads are automatically directed to landing pages determined according to specific rules.

For example, you want to create dynamic search ads for the product detail pages of your e-commerce site. You can use dynamic page feed to separate dynamic search ads according to specific brands or categories using these product pages.

You can also create DSA campaigns for product detail pages that meet specific rules based on the data in your products' Google Analytics 4 e-commerce reports.

With the "Products with a conversion rate greater than 3% and in stock" filter you can create with Optifeed (this is just an example, you can create your filter), you can ensure that only these products are included in the dynamic page feed and publish dynamic search ads for these product detail pages. Moreover, thanks to Optifeed, this filter will run many times a day, continuously checking the products in stock and updating the product data file.

Creating Dynamic Page Feed with Optifeed

Optifeed allows users to easily create dynamic page feeds. This feature helps e-commerce sites manage and optimize large amounts of product data.

Integration of Optifeed with Google Analytics 4

Optifeed works integrated with Google Analytics 4, allowing users to optimize dynamic page feeds using product detail page conversion rate data. This can enhance the performance of dynamic search ad campaigns.

Optimize Your Dynamic Search Network Ad Campaigns

Using Optifeed, you can determine which product pages perform best and target these pages in DSA campaigns. This can help you achieve higher conversion rates and better ROI.

Easy to Use

Optifeed has a user-friendly interface, meaning creating and managing dynamic page feeds is extremely easy. This saves time and makes your operations more efficient.

Take Your DSA Campaigns to the Next Level

Using Optifeed, you can take your DSA campaigns to the next level. Dynamic page feeds make your ad campaigns more target-focused and effective, allowing you to achieve better results.

Conclusion

Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) are an effective way for e-commerce sites to reach potential customers. The dynamic nature of DSA saves advertisers time and offers the opportunity to discover new keywords. However, the correct optimization strategies must be applied for these campaigns to be successful.

Optifeed is revolutionizing this field. Thanks to its Dynamic Page Feed creation feature, e-commerce sites can easily manage product data and optimize dynamic page feeds using conversion rate data through Google Analytics 4 integration. This makes DSA campaigns more target-focused and effective, allowing you to achieve better results.

Lastly, the combination of DSA and Optifeed enables e-commerce sites to optimize their advertising efforts and grow their businesses. This powerful combination can help you achieve higher conversion rates and a better ROI, allowing your business to grow even more.

Get to know Optifeed, click here to create an account.

About the author
Zafer Kavaklı - Optifeed

Zafer Kavaklı

Co-Founder at Optifeed

Zafer Kavaklı is co-founder Woom Digital and Optifeed. He is an experienced digital marketer who has been working in the field since 2012. He started his career as digital marketing intern at Teknosa and then he worked at Modanisa as digital marketing specialist. After that he worked as digital marketing manager at ebebek. Following these roles, he ventured into entrepreneurship by establishing his own performance marketing agency named Woom Digital. This agency offers performance marketing services; operations, reporting, and consulting to companies operating in various sectors. Zafer has embarked on a new business venture in the SaaS sector, creating a product management tool named Optifeed. This tool facilitates e-commerce sites with a large array of products and categories to create, manage, and optimize product data feeds from a single dashboard for use across different advertising channels.