Growing your PPC account with Dynamic Search Ads

Dynamic Search Ads are often under-utilised, but they can have a huge impact on your AdWords traffic. In this blog we’ve looked at how these ads can help you fill in the gap in your PPC.

Put quite simply, Dynamic Search Ads allow you to set up an advert that uses Google’s organic web crawling technology to automatically target relevant search queries, without providing any keywords.

Approximately 15 per cent of daily searches are completely unique, which makes it virtually impossible for an advertiser to list keywords that will capture this traffic and bring it to your site. Dynamic Search Ads help you target this area by automatically looking for search terms that match the content on your website. This data is then stored in the search terms report and can be used to grow your campaigns into new areas.

When looking at the different tools available to find new keywords for your account, the AdWords Keyword Planner is a great place to start. However, this data will only get you so far and it has become renowned for its inconsistent CPC (cost per click) predictions. If you feel that the Keyword Planner has provided enough new data to grow your account then a Dynamic Search Ads campaign can be a great addition.

Dynamic Search Ads in practice

We recently launched a Dynamic Search Ads campaign for a holiday cottage company and quickly found that there was a lot of search volume for properties with hot tubs:

This was not an area we were specifically targeting, but there was a page on site that advertised cottages with hot tubs available. The data from our Dynamic Search Ads campaign has now given us an area into which we can expand the account, to provide more specific messaging and further optimise to increase conversion rate.

We’ve also applied the same principal to a client who provides care services to the elderly. With searchers looking for different ranges of care, or care jobs in different locations across the UK, it can be difficult to build campaigns that reach all the traffic. Using Dynamic Search Ads we can make sure to reach this traffic and then expand our campaigns into the areas where we can see there is a lot of volume:

Dynamic search ads can also be combined with remarketing lists for search ads, to target users that have already been to your site. This makes sure you reach them again as their search becomes more specific. We have used this strategy for a major UK clothes retailer and by combining remarketing lists segmented by product type with Dynamic Search Ads we have been able to capture more traffic and increase conversion rate:

Whilst Dynamic Search Ads are a fantastic addition to most accounts it’s important to ensure they are controlled effectively by budget and that performance is closely monitored – with particular attention paid to the search terms.

The Adwords interface allows you to select which areas of your site you would like it to use when matching your ad to search queries, so if you are on a small budget you may wish to consider focusing on a selection of core pages and expand from there to avoid a large spend on untested traffic.

Need help with your PPC?

If you need assistance, speak to our PPC experts today on 023 9283 0281 and we’ll talk you through the various options – there are lots more than you might expect!