DSA can be a great tool for all account types. Check out this preso to see best practices for set up, account structure, lead gen vs ecom account tactics, and more.

1. DSA: A Tool for All
Accounts
Michelle Morgan
Director of Accounts | Clix Marketing|

2. Michelle Morgan
Director of Accounts at Clix
Marketing• PPC Pro for 6+ Years
• Australian Shepherd owner
• Lover of Legos

3. Today’s Agenda
We Have 4 Main Areas of Focus:
• The Set Up
• Strategies for Account Types
• Analysis and Optimizations
• The Future

4. Intro to DSA

5. What are Dynamic Search Ads
(DSA)?The Rundown:
• DSA is a campaign type by Google that utilizes Google’s Organic Search technology
to analyze your website content, make determinations about what you’re selling,
and then dynamically match to keywords not currently in your account.

6. What are Dynamic Search Ads
(DSA)?The Rundown:
• DSA is a campaign type by Google that

7. What are Dynamic Search Ads
(DSA)?The Rundown:
• You control 2 features:
• Body text.
• Display URL.
• Google controls the other two:
• Headline.
• Final URL.

8. Why Use DSA if I Don’t Have
Control?

9. Time

10. Why Use DSA?
People are constantly typing new, crazy stuff into Google.

11. <tangent>
</tangent>

12. Not All New Queries are Junk
• People are constantly finding new ways
to ask Google for help, whether buying
something online or looking for
information.
• Voice Search is changing what we search
for even more.
• DSA allows you to match some of these
new queries to your existing page
content, to get in front of new users.
It’s Not All About Dinosaurs and Spiders:

13. What About Broad Match Modified?
• But even with BMM terms, you could
be missing out on quality queries
based on what words you anchor.
• But what if I do something like this?
• “+buy +shoes online”
• “buy +shoes +online”
• I’m clever with my anchors.
• I mean, have a blast. But DSA will save
you a ton of time and you won’t have
to build out lists of tons of keywords
that might not ever amount to
anything. So…your call.
Yes! Of Course Do That:

14. • By all means, continue to use Exact,
Phrase, and Broad Match Modified
terms where relevant in your account.
• Utilize DSA as a substitute for regular
broad match on your core terms or as
an extension for BMM on lower
priority pieces of the business.
Change in the Match Type Hierarchy:
Use DSA as Broad Match
Replacement

15. Set Up

16. Vetting Your Website
Spoiler Alert:
• Not all websites are right for DSA.

17. Let’s Use an Example
Amazon: Because Duh.
• Item: Lego Super Star Destroyer. (Because, also duh. Legos are awesome.)

19. Amazon Super Star Destroyer
Page

20. Signs Your Site is Right for DSA
Your Page Has Good Content Describing the Product/Service:
• Descriptions and specifics about the product are easy to find on the site.

21. Signs Your Site is Right for DSA
Your Page Has Good Content Describing the Product/Service:
• Descriptions and specifics about the product are easy to find on the site.

22. Signs Your Site is Right for DSA
Your Content is Up to Date:
• Your content on the page reflects exactly where your company/the product,
etc. stand at that given snapshot in time.

23. Signs Your Site is Right for DSA
Your Site Has Clear Calls To Action:
• Easily identifiable and understandable. And you’re tracking them all.

24. Signs Your Site is Right for DSA
BONUS: You Also Have a Good Mobile Site:
• All of the above pieces are important
to have on websites, but it’s officially
the time of mobile.
• Having each of these features
displayed in a compelling way on your
mobile site will make you that much
more competitive on those devices.

25. Signs Your Site is Wrong for DSA
Hold Off on DSA If:
• You have no clear call to action.
• Your site is mostly images or the text on
the page isn’t very helpful in describing
your offering.
• Your site is woefully out of date when it
comes to what you’d like it to say about
your business.
• Your site is only buzz words with no real
outline of your product/service.
By the way, all of these things also mean your
site is kind of junk, and you might want to
rethink paying to send traffic to it. Just sayin’…

26. Choosing Your Pages

27. Determining the Pages You Use
You’re in the “Good Fit” Category, Now What?
• Next you need to identify which pages
you actually want to use DSA for.
• Your whole site?
• Only specific pages?
• There’s no right or wrong answer here,
so choose what you want, then vet
them for success.

28. Using Your Whole Site

29. Using Your Whole Site

30. Using Your Whole Site: A
WarningYou Don’t Always Know All the Pages on Your Site:
• If you want DSA to have the run of your site, you need to fully understand
what that entails.

31. Get Yourself a Clear Sitemap
Layout the Full List of Pages Eligible:
• You can get your sitemap from Google
Webmaster Tools or you can create one.
• I’ve always had good luck with this:
https://www.xml-sitemaps.com/crawl.html
• Limit of 500 pages for free.
• Download your URL list via .txt file.
• You can also get an unlimited number
of pages for $20.
• Vet every page? No. But know what’s there.

32. Be Proactive with Exclusions:
Easy List of Pages/Folders to Exclude:

33. Tools for Analysis
Google Keyword Planner:
• What better than having Google tell you
what it thinks about your page?
• Use the URL section and run your pages
through to see suggested keywords.
• You can also use any of the other filters on
the bottom of this form just the same way
you would with normal keyword research.
• Run each of the pages you’re planning to
use through this tool to determine their
viability for using in DSA.

34. What You Get
Continuing with the Amazon Page from
Earlier:• The tool analyzes your page and
essentially shows you exactly what it
think it’s about. Gold.
• This will also most likely give you
a large list of negative keywords
you can add right off the top
without having to have shown for
them in the first place.

35. More Advanced
Market Muse:
• Paid tool that analyzes your
page content and tells you
how strongly related your
content is to a particular
topic.
• This can be used to vet pages
or to help develop pages for
future use.

36. Campaign Structure

37. New Example:
Lets Use the Lego.com Site:

38. Creating Your Ad Campaigns:
You’re Given 3 Options in the Builder:
• Each has it’s own specific uses.

39. All Pages in One Ad Group:
Targeting All Pages:
• Easiest of all the set ups.
• Should always exclude non-relevant
pages.
• Best for:
• Sites with a limited number of
pages but are all decent quality.
• Using as secondary layer with
limited bid.
• When more granular set ups
don’t render any traffic.

40. All Pages in One Ad Group:
Targets
Ad Group
Campaign
Search -
DSA
All Pages
All Pages

41. One Category in Each Ad Group:
Using Recommended Categories:
• Google will recommend categories
for you based on the content they
find on your homepage when it’s
crawled at set up.
• Best for:
• Sites with strong natural
segmentation/map.
• Quicker set ups but large
audiences.

42. One Category in Each Ad Group:
Using Recommended Categories:
• They’ll then show you examples of what the queries, headlines, and landing
page might look like.

43. One Category in Each Ad Group:
Targets
Ad Group
Campaign Search -
DSA
Themes
/themes
Minifigures
/minifigures
Games
/games

44. Sub Category in Each Ad Group:
Categories within Categories:
• Taking one step beyond the suggested categories by Google or
your natural categories on your site.
• Best for:
• Sites with differing product sets within categories.
• Pages highlighting individual features of a whole offering
(i.e. Shoe stores have sections for men, women, and kids).

45. Sub Category in Each Ad Group:
Targets
Ad Group
Campaign Search - DSA
Star Wars
/themes/star-
wars
Ninjago
/themes/ninjago
Friends
/themes/friends

46. Individual Pages by Ad Group:
One Page Per Ad Group:
• This is the most specific of set ups.
• Best for:
• High quality pages with loads of quality, relevant content.
• Lead gen accounts that have only one page that is a good fit for DSA.
• High volume pages that have performed well in existing DSA campaigns
that you would like more control over.

47. Individual Pages by Ad Group:
Targets
Ad Group
Campaign Search - DSA
TIE Fighter
/TIE-Fighter-
75095
Death Star
/Death-Star-
75159
U Wing
/Rebel-U-
Wing-Fighter-
75155

48. Best Practices for DSA Set Up
Rule of Thumb: Be as Broad as You Can, While Being
Specific• The the only piece you have control over is
the body and display URL of the ad.
• For choosing your structure, go as broad as
you can while still being able to write a
compelling ad to a specific audience.
• For example, say you feel comfortable
writing compelling ad copy about Star
Wars Lego sets, but not when writing copy
meant for all themes.

49. Best Practices for DSA Set Up
Start Off on the Right Foot:
• Segmentation: Start with larger groups of pages, then break them out if
necessary for better control.
• Starting with too much segmentation can lock down the tool quickly.
• Add all of your current keywords as negatives.
• Google claims you shouldn’t need to do this, but the system isn’t fool
proof. Just add these at the campaign level. Shouldn’t take long and
will ensure stronger query mapping in your account.
• Test using Enhanced CPC for bidding.
• Exclude easy sections of the site that have nothing to do with what you’re
advertising:
• blog, about us, careers, etc.

50. Strategies for Ecommerce

51. It’s Like Shopping Campaigns…
…But Without the Product Feed:
• DSA is arguably best suited for
Ecommerce websites with lots of
products.
• It can fill holes in your search campaigns
the way Shopping can, but based on
page info rather than feeds.

52. It’s Like Shopping Campaigns…
…But Without the Product Feed:
• Utilize DSA the same way you
might with Shopping.
• Set campaigns with specific
groupings and appropriate bids.
• Then layer in a “catch all” All
Webpages ad group (with
appropriate negatives) and set a
low bid.
Targets
Ad Group
Campaign
Search -
DSA
Star Wars
$1.00 Bid
/Star-
Wars-Sets
Catch All
$0.50 Bid
All
webpages

53. Page Filters
Excluding Out of Stock Items:
• You’re able to exclude some of your
pages from showing based on the
content found on that page.
• Use the same terminology on your
site “Unavailable”, “Out of Stock”, etc.
to exclude items that you don’t
currently have in your inventory.

54. Premium vs Bargain Products
Segment by Product Price:
• If your site is organized accordingly, segment your ad groups by price.
• Write ads differently based on the price point to best match with user intent.

55. US Targeting: Location & Income
Use Household Income Targeting:
• If you’re targeting folks in the USA, you can also layer in household income
targeting to your Premium/Bargain strategy for additional control.

56. Strategies for Lead Generation

57. Be Pickier
Likely, Less Pages are Good for DSA:
• Ecommerce sites have the benefit of giving
the ability to purchase on nearly every
page. Lead gen doesn’t.
• Be very particular when vetting your
landing pages and only include those that
have appropriate calls to action.

58. Add Additional Exclusions
Exclude More Pages:
• Be vigilant of additional pages that might
not be good for new visitors:
• Member/User Interfaces.
• Pricing.
• Log In pages.
• Awards pages, etc.

59. Content Amplification
Get in Front of Relevant Folks Fast:
• Many lead generation companies are
moving away from demos and free trials
and moving to higher funnel, content
amplification with gated content.
• Using DSA, you can get in front of these
folks quickly, not matter how fast the
content churns out.
• That said, it’s important to make sure each
page published is vetted before turning live.
• Using templates for publications works
well for this.

60. Create Long Form Pages
They’re Useful in Other Places As Well:
• The biggest challenge most folks run into is the quality
of their page content.
• Individual pages focus on one aspect of the
product/service, but don’t really say much.
• Stop. Using. Buzzwords.
• Solution: Make one long form landing page with all
relevant content and appropriate calls to action and use
that.
• Can later be used for generic remarketing or brand
advertising.

61. RDSA

62. Remarketing + Dynamic Search
AdsRDSA: Put Those Audience Lists to Use:
• Whether you’re ecommerce or lead generation, RDSA can be a great tool.
• Layer your remarketing lists on top of a DSA campaign to bring them back based
on what they did before.
• Get creative with custom Audiences in Google Analytics, then import to AdWords.

63. Remarketing + Dynamic Search
AdsEcommerce:
• Targeting Lists:
• High ROI Purchasers.
• Previous Purchasers.
• Revenue over $500.
• Revenue under $50.
• Visitors to multiple pages within the
site without a purchase.
• Purchasers of specific Brand items.
• Exclusions List:
• High bounce rate.
• Targeting Lists:
• All visitors.
• Users of “basic” products then send
to “premium” pages.
• Content downloads.
• High site engagement, but no
conversion.
• Exclusions:
• Customer lists.
• High bounce rate.
Lead Generation:

64. Analyzing & Optimizing
Performance

65. What’s Missing?
Getting the Data You Need
• DSA Does 2 Things Automatically for You: Headline and Landing Pages
• Can we get that data?
• For Landing pages: Of course we can!
• For Headlines: Of course we can get a couple examples!
• Tools of the Trade:
• Google Analytics
• Excel

66. Google Analytics Set Up
Custom Segments
• To start off, you’ll need to
ensure you have clear naming
convention for your AdWords
campaigns. This will make
creating the segment easier.
• I use “DSA” in all my DSA
campaigns. It’s the easiest,
honestly.
• Next, create a custom segment
highlighting only your DSA
traffic.

67. Ad Headlines
Acquisition > AdWords > Keywords
• Then change the Primary Dimension to Ad Content.
• All while having only the DSA segment chosen.

68. Landing Pages & Performance
Behavior > Site Content > Landing
Pages
• Keep the DSA segment as the only one active.
• You can view nearly every stat you would analyze for other pages.

69. Pivoting the Pages
Export to Excel:
• Regular reviews of top performing pages can be very valuable.
• Download your Landing Page report as a csv.
• Find and replace your domain name to remove it from lines if needed.
• Then rename each instance of “/” with “/homepage”.

70. Pivoting the Pages
Export to Excel:
• Then run Text to columns using “/” as your delimiter.
• Then rename each column to Path 1, Path 2, etc.
• End result: pivot table worth set of stats you’re able to analyze at each level within the
page based on your site structure.

71. Pivoting the Pages
Export to Excel:
• Create custom columns for
bounces, pages visited, based
on the values within the
spreadsheet:
• Bounces = Session x
Bounce Rate
• Pages per Session = Avg
Pages per Session x
Sessions.
• Use these stats to analyze
cumulative data for
folders/categories on the site.

72. The Ultimate Goal of DSA…

73. The Ultimate Goal of DSA…
…is to render it useless.

74. She’s Nuts…Right?
The topic is using DSA in EVERY account...
• You heard me.
• The ultimate goal is to render it
useless.
• My hope, however, is that you
find enough ways to use it that
it continues to be a long time
asset in your accounts.

75. How to Render it Useless
Regular Actions for DSA:
• Regularly mine search queries to find:
• New keyword variations to add to your regular search campaigns.
• New negatives to add to your campaigns/account.
• Regularly review landing pages to find pages to:
• Segment into their own ad groups for targeting.
• Exclude based on poor performance.

76. What’s Yet to Come?

77. ETAs for DSA
Expanded Text Ads:
• Work is ongoing with these.
• We can expect to have these in early 2017.
• Right around the time you’ll have to use them for all other campaigns.

78. Similar Audiences for Search
Finally:
• Announced earlier this year and
recently released in beta.
• Similar to what we’re doing with
display campaigns, test out
serving similar audiences to your
site via DSA.
• Look to create similar audiences
off of your further segmented
lists that we talked about earlier
(purchasers, big orders, repeat
customers, etc.)

79. Demographic Targets for Search
Leveraging Demographics:
• Announced earlier this year, no ETA on betas just yet.
• Use these as additional layers within your campaigns or break out campaigns
for different groupings to test out different messages based on these
demographic differences.

80. Questions?

81. THANK YOU!
Michelle Morgan
michelle@clixmarketing.com | @michellemsem