Dynamic Search Ads in AdWords

AdWords continues to roll out a stream of new features all the time. Last week, we saw another one of these features in the form of Dynamic Search Ads. This is one more great addition to the growing arsenal of options available in AdWords.

The way they work is quite a bit different then your average ad as you won’t be using keywords and keyword lists. Instead this type of ad will be dynamically generated based on whether the content from your website is relevant to the user’s search query. Sound familiar? Well it should because it is based on the same technology Google uses for organic search. When using these new ads, if Google finds a match between the search query and your site content, it may automatically show your ad. Google will also dynamically generate a headline for the ad (based on the search query and the content from your site), then use a description which you will have created in advance in the form of a template.

To help Google understand when to show the ads you’ll be using Dynamic Ad Targets. This allows you to decide whether to show these ads for the entire site or for only just a specific subsection of the site. Likely you’ll want to use them as just one part of your overall strategy alongside the current keyword campaigns. You’re not going to have to worry about dynamic search ads competing against keyword targeted ads as the keyword targeted ad will always be given the priority.

While many advertisers can benefit from this new option, it will be especially useful to companies with large, ever changing inventories. It’s difficult to keep up with constant changes in stock so this will help ensure visibility for your entire product list and keep opportunities from slipping through the cracks. Sites selling books or car dealerships are just a couple of examples where these ads can be taken advantage of. While this feature isn’t going to make keyword targeting obsolete, it can be used to help strengthen your overall account. Dynamic Search Ads are still in Beta, but it’s diffidently something that many companies will want to test out.