Say you’re a cyclist training for your first 100-mile century ride. You’re Googling training plans, reading Reddit threads, and scrolling social media for inspiration. Your feed’s already populated with generic athletic ads, and none stand out to you. Then, you see an ad for creatine with a specific message for cyclists. It’s the first one you actually click on.
That’s exactly what dynamic advertising is for—delivering relevant messaging to the right person at the right time. Display ads are digital ads in many formats, like banners, images, and videos. Dynamic ads are automatically optimized based on your audience’s behavioral data, so you don’t have to manually adjust each ad individually.
Learn more about what dynamic display ads are, how they work, and how to set them up on Google.
What are dynamic display ads?
Dynamic display ads automatically personalize content based on behavioral data like browsing history or demographic information. In other words, you may have several versions of the same display ad, each with slightly different but relevant messaging for your target audience. The version a user gets will cater to their interests, based on their online activity.
As you dive into the world of display ads, you might notice overlapping language. Here’s how dynamic display ads differ from other ad types you may encounter:
Dynamic display ads vs. static ads
Static ads use creative assets (images and copy) that don’t change. They generally use one ad message with broad appeal, as opposed to dynamic, interchangeable parts. For example, every websitevisitor might see the same running shoe ad, rather than personalized versions tailored to trail runners or marathoners.
Dynamic display ads vs. dynamic search ads
Dynamic display ads use visuals, while dynamic search ads are completely text-based, like the sponsored text-based results at the top of your Google search. They show distinctive copy based on a user’s search history and what they’re looking for in the present moment.
Dynamic display ads vs. responsive display ads
Whereas dynamic ads change the visuals and messaging, responsive ads simply change the size and layout to fit the ad space. Most digital ads are responsive these days, given how interchangeably people use desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones to engage with content.
Remarketing vs. dynamic remarketing
Remarketing is a marketing strategy that sends targeted ads to previous visitors of a website or product page. Dynamic remarketing gets more specific with the exact products a visitor has viewed on your website or added to their cart and serves them dynamic ads showing that particular product. This can make your ads more persuasive to people who have previously not taken action.
How do dynamic display ads work?
You can set up dynamic display ads wherever you build your dynamic display campaign, such as ad platforms like Google Ads or Facebook Ads. Each ad platform provides a display network, which is a collection of websites, apps, and any other digital destination where your ad may show up.
Dynamic display ads are personalized based on customer behavior on each of these platforms, like viewing a product page or adding a product to a cart, but not checking out. This kind of behavioral data comes from small snippets of code called tracking pixels or tags installed on your website.
The ads that customers are served can either come from uploaded creative assets, like images and headlines you provide, or they can be pulled from a product feed (sometimes called a product data feed). Product feeds are a list of products from your ecommerce store, often in a format like an Excel spreadsheet.
For example, Google has its Google Merchant Center, where ecommerce owners can create and manage a product feed that informs ads. Google uses the product feed to createads with product images, pricing, and availability.
Who can and cannot use dynamic display ads?
Whenever you create a campaign on any platform, it’s important to review both the platform’s privacy policy and how it aligns with the laws of the country where the campaign runs. Google, for example, has an extensive list of restrictions for personalized advertising, which dynamic display ads fall under. At an even larger scale, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sets the rules and regulations for advertising in the US.
While most businesses can leverage dynamic display ads, here are some of the personalization restrictions Google implements:
- Advertising to minors. According to the US Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), advertisers cannot target anyone under the age of 13. Google’s policy expands that restriction to anyone under 18.
- Sexual content. Ads need to respect user preferences and can’t show anything sexually suggestive.
- Alcohol. You can run ads for alcohol on Google, but you can’t imply health benefits, advertise to minors, or promote irresponsible consumption of any kind.
- Copyrights. You can’t advertise copyrighted content that you’re unauthorized to use.
- Health care and medicine. Unless you certify your services with Google and advertise only in approved locations, you can’t display ads about health care or clinical trials.
- Financial products. You can’t advertise personal loans, loan modification, or credit repair services on Google.
How to set up Google dynamic display ads
- Gather your creative assets
- Create a Google Ads account
- Choose your campaign goal
- Navigate to display campaign
- Select your campaign settings
- Set your budget and bidding
- Add targeting
- Select responsive display ad
- Preview your placements
- Review and publish your campaign
Creating display ads on Google gives you access to the Google Display Network, which includes Gmail, YouTube, and more than two million partner websites. Here’s how to set up a dynamic display campaign on Google Ads:
1. Gather your creative assets
You’ll need headlines, product descriptions, images, and logos that Google AI will arrange in multiple ways, optimizing for performance. For in-depth best practices from Google, explore its help page. Here’s a brief explanation of each asset:
- Headlines and text. Google recommends using clear and simple text that’s easy to understand. Your text should also work with any image or video you upload.
- Images. You can add up to 15 images, up to 5120 KB in size, and in horizontal, square, or vertical format.
- Videos. Videos are optional and can be uploaded or pulled from your YouTube account. Google recommends portrait or landscape, and around 30 seconds for optimal performance. If you don’t have videos, Google will automatically generate them using the other creative assets in your campaign.
2. Create a Google Ads account
To get started on Google Ads, you need an account, which is easy to create. Head to the Google Adswebsite and click “Start now.”
Enter your business information, including your business name, website, and a description of your business type. Link additional accounts like your YouTube channel.
3. Choose your campaign goal
Google lets you select from business goals, like purchases, lead views, page views, promoting your app, generating leads, and closing sales. You can only select one, so pick the one that best aligns with your desired business outcome. Click “Next” when you’ve made your selection.
Note that “Brand awareness” and “App downloads” are the only goals that will lead to a page where you can clearly select a display campaign. For all other goals, Google automatically defaults to a “Performance Max” campaign. You will need to manually navigate to the page where you can select a display campaign, which is covered in step four.
4. Navigate to display campaign
Getting to the page where you can select a “Display” campaign has different paths depending on the goal you selected.
If your goal is anything other than “Brand awareness” or “App downloads,”follow this path:
Selecting any of these goals takes you to the“Add search themes” page. This is where you will manually need to navigate to “view other campaign types” to access display campaigns.
Once you click “view other campaign types,” you will then go to the “Choose campaign” page where you can select “Display.”
If the goal you selected is “Brand awareness” or “App downloads,” you will automatically go to the “Choose campaign” page, where you can select “Display.” You can then click “Next.”
5. Select your campaign settings
Select where your ads will run, what language they will be in, and whether you’re running European Union political ads, which Google is required to ask.
6. Set your budget and bidding
Your Google Ads budget is the total amount of funds you want to allocate for a campaign. A bid is the maximum amount you want to pay for specific actions, like cost-per-click (CPC). Google Ads sets recommended bidding strategies, which you can manually adjust.
7. Add targeting
On the targeting page, Google says it will automatically optimize targeting. However, you have the option to add in more details like audience segments, demographics, keywords, topics, and placements. This information helps steer your Google Ads campaign to reach the right people. You can also save these customizations for future use in the business data section of your Google Ads account.
8. Select responsive display ad
To upload all of the creative assets you have prepared, click “New ad.” You’ll then see a few options for how to build your campaign: responsive display ads, upload display ads, or copy existing ads.
Click “Responsive display ad.” Per Google’s help center, a responsive display ad is an ad that “shows personalized content—including ads with products people already viewed on your website or app—to customers from a feed you add and control.” In short, it’s a dynamic display ad.
You can now add all of the information and creative assets you have ready from step one.
9. Preview your placements
You can preview the ad placements by clicking through the display ads in the preview section to the right of where you’ve dropped in all your information and creative assets. While Google doesn’t show you every single variation, it gives you a good idea if your imagery and copy work together, no matter the combination.
When you’re ready, click “Next.”
10. Review and publish your campaign
Review all the information for your campaign. You can also give your campaign a name so it’s easier to keep track of within your Google Ads profile. You can do the same for the ad group that makes up the campaign. This can be useful if you decide to create a dynamic remarketing campaign in the future.
Lastly, add in your payment details to launch your campaign.
Dynamic display ads FAQ
What does dynamic mean in advertising?
Dynamic ads automatically personalize themselves according to user data and behavior. Each viewer sees a version of the ad that’s most relevant and persuasive for them, based on what they’ve searched for, clicked on, or shown interest in.
What is a dynamic display ad?
A dynamic display ad is a banner, image, or video that automatically personalizes its content and messaging based on how users have interacted with your brand.
What is the difference between static and dynamic display ads?
Static ads show the same fixed image and message to everyone. Dynamic ads automatically change the visuals and messaging for each person based on their individual behavior and interests.
