Joshua Franklin Wiedeman

Google Dynamic Search Ads

Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) match search queries to pages on your website instead of to keywords you write. Google crawls your site, picks the best page for a query, and writes the headline from that page. Google is folding DSA into AI Max for Search campaigns, so check whether your account has been moved before you build new DSA campaigns. The same approach applies either way.

How it works

No keyword list covers every relevant search. Google has said that about 15% of daily searches are new. DSA uses your site content as the keyword source: when a query matches a page, Google generates a headline from it and sends the user to that page. This works best for sites with many pages, such as large product catalogs, where writing keywords and ads for every page is not practical.

How to do it

  1. Make sure your pages have clear titles, headings, and body copy. DSA headlines come from this content.
  2. Create a DSA campaign (or turn on the AI Max equivalent) and set ad targets by URL (for example, URLs containing “/shoes/”), by page category, or by all pages.
  3. Write three or four descriptions that are true for every page they might appear with. You control descriptions; Google writes headlines.
  4. Add negative ad targets for pages you do not want to advertise, such as the privacy policy, careers page, and out-of-stock products.
  5. Review the search terms report every week. Move converting queries into keyword campaigns and add irrelevant ones as negatives.

What to measure

  • Net-new search terms: converting DSA queries that are not already keywords in other campaigns.
  • Cost per conversion, DSA vs keyword campaigns: compare CPA for the same date range.
  • Keywords promoted: DSA queries moved into keyword campaigns each month.

Best practices

  • Run DSA alongside keyword campaigns, not instead of them.
  • Give your most important page groups their own ad targets and descriptions. Use one broad target for the rest.
  • Add negatives every week. Broad matching always pulls in some irrelevant queries.

Common pitfalls

  • Targeting all pages with no exclusions, which can put your blog or refund policy in front of searchers.
  • Ignoring the search terms report, which is where most of the research value is.
  • Running DSA on a site with thin or duplicate content, which produces poor matches and weak headlines.