Google Search Campaigns: Standard Search vs Dynamic Search

According to ThinkwithGoogle, 60% of smartphone users have contacted a business directly using the search results.

79% of marketers say that PPC is hugely beneficial for their business.

Last but not least, 75% of users say paid ads make it easier to find the info they’re searching for.

As you can understand, paid ads and Google search ads, in particular, are a big driver of qualified visitors to your website. Now you want to know which type of search ad to choose to grow your business – standard or dynamic?

Keep reading to learn about standard and dynamic search ads best practices and get answers to your question in our article.

Standard Search Ads

Standard search ads appear in search results with an “Ad” note on the left hand. You choose keywords for your campaign, set bids, create a headline, add a meta description and wait for searchers to become website visitors.

Let’s discuss all the major pros and cons below:

Pros

Standard search ads allow you to add keywords that are relevant to your business. You decide after which queries your ad will show in search results. You can also add negative keywords to tell Google after which queries not to show your ad.

Another advantage of standard ads over dynamic ads is that you control your ad headlines. It’s you who should come up with an action-triggering headline and encourage searcher to visit your website.

Search ads are perfect for service-based businesses (software development companies, medical practices, accounting and tax preparation services, etc) that have fixed services and separate landing pages for each of them. You choose which keywords to bid on and to which landing page to direct the searcher.

Cons

The main drawback of standard search ads is that it’s usually time-consuming. You might end up spending a long time doing keyword research and creating ads for each landing page. The process will be exhausting for businesses with hundreds of services and landing pages.

Besides, even during a long keyword research process, you might skip some important keywords that could drive quality traffic to your website. Not to mention that new keywords are emerging every day and it will take time until they appear in keyword research tools.

Another drawback refers to the consistency between the search query and your ad headline/description. If you have the keyword on your landing page but haven’t included it in the headline/meta description, searchers might not consider clicking.

Dynamic Search Ads

Dynamic search ads look and work almost the same way as standard ads. The same setup, bidding, and analytics process, the same structure. But the difference is in the details. Let’s observe some of the dynamic search ads best practices.

Unlike standard search ads, dynamic search ads don’t require a keyword base and also create the ad headlines automatically.

So how do they show relevant ads if not with the help of keywords?

This type of Google search ads “read” your website content and decide for which queries your website will be the best answer. In other words, Google picks the keywords from your website itself so you don’t add them manually and don’t spend long hours creating hundreds of ads.

Google says that during a pilot testing, DSAs provided up to 10% increase in clicks and conversions for advertisers. However, not all advertisers should use this type of paid advertising.

Let’s discover the main dynamic search ads pros and cons below:

Pros

Dynamic search ads allow you to save tons of time. You don’t have to create ad headlines, upload or remove products every time you launch a new campaign/ad group.

This is great news for websites with rich and constantly updating list of products – eCommerce, real estate, car dealership.

However, Google says that “DSAs aren’t recommended if your website changes rapidly with for example, daily deals”.

Though you have limited control over what ad the searcher sees, there’s still much that depends on you.

First, you have full control over the description of the ad.

Second, you choose which pages Google will show – your whole website or specific URLs.

Third, you are still allowed to set negative keywords so Google doesn’t show your ad for specific queries.

Google pulls the headline directly from your page and matches the query to what already exists on your site. That’s why according to dynamic search ads best practices websites with search-engine-optimized and top-notch copy will see better results than websites with poor design.

DSAs “can help fill in the gaps of your keyword-based campaigns”. That’s what Google announces through Google Ads Help. Meaning that running dynamic ads shouldn’t be your one and only ad strategy. Instead, they should complement standard search or display ads that you already run.

This type of Google search ads will give you a helping hand when

1. you have missed important keywords and haven’t included them in your list,
2. some keywords with low search volume are missing from your list,
3. searchers are using brand new keywords that you couldn’t identify through a keyword research tool.

Cons

As promised, this article should show you dynamic search ads pros and cons. So, here are a few disadvantages of dynamic search ads.

Though Google is getting smarter day after day, it’s still prone to making mistakes. Google might create headlines that you’d never like to deliver to searchers.

Besides, there might be newly emerging keywords that Google will consider relevant for the search query, though they actually won’t satisfy the searcher’s need. Remember that 15% of daily searches on Google are entirely new. It means that you couldn’t identify some keywords with a keyword research tool and mark them as negative.

With DSAs, you give Google control over the majority of the ad delivery process. The system will decide which landing page to direct the searcher based on what content you have on your page.

Final food for thought

If you want to learn more about Google standard and dynamic search ads best practices and know how to set up an ad, contact the Andava team. We will understand which option will best suit your business needs and work on your upcoming revenue-generating Google search campaigns.

P.S. Remember that the final conversion happens on your website and not on Google search results. So to really have a successful search ad campaign, you should take care not only after your ad campaign optimization but your website conversion optimization as well.