How to set up and optimize dynamic remarketing

Dynamic remarketing in Google Ads allows you to remind customers about your product, bring them back to your website, and encourage them to purchase. It’s so effective thanks to one of its key advantages: personalization.

In this article, I’ll explain what dynamic remarketing is, how to collect audience data for it, and detail how to set up and optimize dynamic remarketing in Google Ads.

What is dynamic remarketing?

Dynamic remarketing is an advertising format for displaying banners on the Google Display Network (GDN). It allows you to customize remarketing ads specifically for the product a user viewed on your website.

In dynamic remarketing, creatives are generated automatically using data transferred from the website. After visiting your site, the customer will see these ads on sites that are part of the Display Network (GDN). Typically, these are information portals and news sites.

This is what dynamic remarketing ads might look like:

An example of dynamic remarketing in Google Ads

An example of dynamic remarketing in Google Ads

An example of dynamic remarketing in Google Ads

The difference between dynamic remarketing and regular remarketing

Unlike standard remarketing, AdWords dynamic remarketing doesn’t display pre-prepared banners, but instead generates creatives featuring the product the visitor was interested in.

For example:

1. The customer visited the product page for “Phone Brand A”.
2. A separate banner will be automatically generated for it with the name, image of this phone, its price and, possibly, similar products.
3. The user will then leave your site and go to a site connected to the Display Network. There, they’ll see the same banner with the product they were already interested in.

If you’re running a standard remarketing campaign, the user will see a pre-designed banner that’s displayed to all website visitors—the one you created when setting up remarketing. In this case, there’s no guarantee the user will remember the product they viewed, become interested, and proceed to the website to make a purchase.

Dynamic remarketing is effective, but it’s not suitable for everyone. I would recommend it for companies with a large number of products or services. Small businesses are better off setting up standard remarketing. After all, if you have a small number of products, it’s much easier to create audiences and creatives manually than to outsource this to a system and ask a developer to add additional code to the page generation.

Benefits of Dynamic Remarketing

Dynamic remarketing has a number of advantages, the main ones being:

• Personalization. Users always see what’s relevant to them. Dynamic remarketing can also be used to notify potential customers about price reductions.
• Speed ​​of creation. Dynamic remarketing takes a while to set up, but the process of generating creatives and their variations is automatic, saving you time. The advertising platform will also automatically track which products are shown to which users.
• Ease of optimization. There’s no need to create separate audiences and creatives—the system will select everything automatically for each user.
• Room for experimentation. The system will automatically generate hundreds of creatives for each user, which will allow you to determine which ones the buyer responds to best, and then use this data for optimization.

Who is dynamic remarketing suitable for?

Dynamic remarketing is suitable for companies whose purchase cycle typically lasts more than one day or whose purchase decision requires more than one website visit. Otherwise, the sales cycle is short enough that running AdWords dynamic remarketing makes no sense.

To see what your purchase cycle is, check the Path Length report in Google Analytics.

This screenshot shows that 50% of users place an order on their first visit to the site. This means that the other 50% can be recaptured using AdWords dynamic remarketing. It makes sense to use it in this case.

Google Analytics “Sequence Length” report

Additionally, check out the “Time to Conversion” report—it shows how many days passed from the first visit to the conversion. This will help you understand how many days it takes for a user to make a purchase decision.

This example shows that 64% of website users place an order on the first day of their visit. Therefore, dynamic remarketing should only be focused on if the site receives several thousand daily visitors.

Google Analytics Time to Conversion Report

I recommend using dynamic remarketing if 40% of your users don’t buy on their first visit, or if the bulk of your audience needs more than one day to decide.

How to enable Google Ads dynamic remarketing

To launch Google Dynamic Remarketing, you need to follow these steps:

1. Collect an audience and transfer it to Google Ads.
2. Create a feed and upload it.
3. Create a dynamic remarketing ad.

Let’s go in order.

Creating an Audience for Google Ads Dynamic Remarketing

Setting up AdWords dynamic remarketing begins with collecting audience data. Two tools are available for this:

• Google Ads Dynamic Remarketing Tag.
• Google Analytics data transfer.

Both methods work identically. If you have basic GTM skills and it’s installed on your site, it’s best to choose the first method. This way, you won’t need to contact a programmer.

Creating a Dynamic Remarketing Audience with a Google Ads Tag

In your Google Ads account, go to Settings, then Audience Manager.

Audience Manager in Google Ads

Next, click on “Configure audience source”.

Audience source settings in Google Ads

Select “Google Ads Tag” and click “Configure Tag”.

Audience source settings via remarketing tag

Now you need to specify that actions performed by users on the website will be transmitted. Below that, you need to specify the business type; in our example, “Retail.”

Collecting visitor data in a remarketing tag

Scroll down and click “Save and Continue”.

Saving remarketing tag settings

The system will offer one of the methods for installing the tag; select the upload method via Google Tag Manager (GTM).

Installing a remarketing tag via GTM

The Conversion ID value will appear – copy it.

Event ID for the Google Ads remarketing tag

Now go to the Google Tag Manager interface. Google Tag Manager dynamic remarketing will then load the necessary code to track user product views.

In the GTM interface, go to the “Variables” tab and click “Create.” These variables will transmit all the data about the product the user viewed.

Creating a new parameter in GTM

Give the variable a name; I’ll write google_tag_params.ecomm_prodid. Then select the parameter type.

Selecting a tag type in GTM

Set the type to “JavaScript Variable”, as this is the only type that allows you to retrieve data from JavaScript code on the site.

Selecting a JavaScript variable

In this example, I’m setting the value google_tag_params.ecomm_prodid, which is one of the parameters designed for retail websites. As you may recall, this is the type of business I chose. You can find all the values ​​you need in Google Help .

Generated JS code parameter in GTM

Similarly, create other variables that are needed to change the GTM configuration, since it does not see them by default:

• google_tag_params.ecomm_pagetype;
• google_tag_params.ecomm_totalvalue.

You can check the accuracy of the created variables in Preview mode. You’ll find it at the top of the Google Tag Manager interface.

Preview mode in GTM

Go to your website and view any product. In the GTM window, in the Variables tab, you’ll see the required data and the values ​​it passes for this page.

Testing the configured tag in GTM Preview mode

Congratulations, you’ve set up the necessary variables to capture the data. Now all that’s left is to create a tag that will transmit this data. To do this, go to the “Tags” tab.

Creating a new tag in GTM

Give it a name and select a tag type.

Selecting a GTM Tag Configuration

Select the “Remarketing in Google Ads” type.

Dynamic Remarketing Tag Configuration in GTM

Now enter the Conversion ID you copied earlier from the Google Ads interface and specify the custom variables you’ve already configured at the bottom of the settings.

Entered custom parameters for the remarketing tag in GTM

When you enter {{, the system will prompt you which variables have already been created.

Hints for selecting variables in GTM

Select “All Pages” as the tag (publishes the code on all pages of the site) and publish the new version of GTM.

Publishing a new version in GTM

If everything is correct, the Google Ads tag will soon begin recording parameters and their values. If the data doesn’t appear (0 for 24 hours), there’s likely an error somewhere.

Below, in the same tab, you can see what data the dynamic remarketing tag receives and use it if necessary.

Product visit data in the Google Ads remarketing tag

Next, create an audience using this data in the Google Ads interface. To do this, go to “Audience Manager,” go to “Audience Lists,” and click “+” (Add).

Creating a Remarketing Audience in Google Ads

Select “Site Visitors”.

Create a remarketing audience based on a Google Ads tag

You can create a custom audience, for example, users who viewed a product during a certain period.

Creating an audience that visited a product with the required ID

Everything is ready, you can move on to creating a dynamic remarketing feed.

But first, I’ll share instructions for creating an audience using Google Analytics.

Creating Dynamic Remarketing Audiences with Google Analytics

To transfer data from Google Analytics to Google Ads, go to “Audience Manager,” then “Audience Source,” and establish a connection by clicking the corresponding button.

The connection between Google Ads and Google Analytics

Select “Learn More” next to Google Analytics.

Establishing a connection between Google Ads and Analytics

Select the website account whose audience data you want to transfer and link it.

Selecting account information to link Google Ads and Analytics

Next, go to the Google Analytics interface. In the “Custom” tab, go to “Custom Dimensions” and click “+Custom Dimension.” This is similar to setting up variables in GTM that help track data about user visits to a product page.

Creating a dimension in Google Analytics

Adding a custom parameter

Add all the parameters required for your business type. As a reminder, you can find them in Google Help . I’ve selected retail, so I’m using the following values:

• ecomm_prodid;
• ecomm_pagetype;
• ecomm_totalvalue.

Created dimensions in Google Analytics

Next, you need to add special code to the header block of all site pages that will pass these values ​​to the site. You can find it in Google Help .

You can contact your developer for help.

Now you need to create a dynamic attribute in Google Analytics – this is analogous to a dynamic remarketing tag in Google Tag Manager.

To do this, in the “Dynamic Parameters” tab, click on “+Attribute”.

Creating a Dynamic Attribute in Google Analytics

A menu will open where you need to select your business type, Google Analytics view, and target Google Ads account.

Creating a relationship with a dynamic attribute

Now, in each of the attributes provided, enter the values ​​from Google Analytics; you’ve already set them up. As a reminder, these are ecomm_prodid, ecomm_pagetype, and ecomm_totalvalue.

Setting up a dynamic attribute

Now, in the Google Analytics interface, go to the “Admin” tab and go to “Audiences.”

Navigate to Audiences in Google Analytics

Now you can create dynamic remarketing audiences and select Google Analytics as the source.

Creating a New Remarketing Audience in Google Analytics

Done, we can move on to creating the feed.

Creating a feed for Google Ads dynamic remarketing

Setting up dynamic remarketing also involves creating a feed with product offers.

A dynamic remarketing feed is a data set that contains all information about products, services, and offers. For example, price, name, link, link to product image, and more.

It can be created in two ways:

1. Upload via CSV file.
2. Connect via Google Merchant Center .

Online stores are better off choosing the second option, as it allows for virtually unlimited product uploads.

Creating a Dynamic Remarketing Feed via CSV File

In the Google Ads interface, go to the “Settings” tab, then “Business data”.

Commercial Data in Google Analytics

Click “+”.

Adding a new feed to Google Ads

Hover over “Dynamic Display Ads Feed” and select the business type you need. For this example, I’ll use “User Selected.”

Selecting a business type to create a feed

Google Ads will now prompt you to upload a dynamic remarketing feed and name it. If you’re unsure of the proper CSV file structure, it’s best to download a template and use it. You can learn more about the structure of all types in Google Help .

Downloading a Google Ads feed template

This is what the template looks like.

Dynamic Remarketing Feed CSV Template

Fill the table with data. As a reminder, each business category requires different data, and all of it is described in Google Help, where the various CSV file structures are also described.

Once you’ve filled out the spreadsheet, save it as a CSV file and upload it to Google Ads.

Once your feed has been verified (this will take anywhere from a few minutes to a couple of hours, up to a maximum of four business days), you can create ads.

Creating a Dynamic Remarketing Feed via Google Merchant Center

With Google Merchant Center (GMC), you don’t need to do much—just link it to your advertising account. To do this, click “Settings” and go to “Linked Accounts.”

Navigate to Linked Accounts in Google Merchant Center

Click on the “Link” button.

Linking your Google Ads and Merchant Center account

Now log in to your Google Ads account – you will see a notification asking you to connect to your Google Merchant Center account.

Notification requesting connection to a Google Merchant Center account

Click on the “View details” button.

Proceed to linking to a Google Merchant Center account

Click “Approve”.

Approving a link in Google Ads

Done, you can move on to creating ads.

Setting up dynamic remarketing: creating a campaign

To launch Google Adwords dynamic remarketing, go to the “Campaigns” tab in your advertising account interface and click “+”.

The Google Ads campaign creation button

Select “New Campaign”.

Creating a new campaign in Google Ads

Create a campaign without a goal. This will allow you to choose any campaign type later.

Creating a campaign without a goal in Google Ads

In the campaign type, select “Display Network” and click “Continue”.

Creating a Display Network campaign in Google Ads

Now you need to choose whether to run a Smart or Standard campaign. If you’re new to Smart campaigns, it’s best to choose Standard. If you choose Smart, you could significantly overspend your budget in the first few weeks. For a Smart campaign to work properly, you’ll need to work with conversion values, tracking them, and sending them to Google Ads.

Selecting a campaign type in Google Ads

In the menu that appears, give the campaign a name, and also:

• Specify the region in which you want to display ads.
• Select the languages ​​your customers speak.

Entering the name and region of the display in Google Ads

Next, select the campaign strategy for which the system will apply conversions by default. This could be “Maximize Conversion Value” or “Target ROAS.”

But if you don’t understand how much a conversion should cost and whether the system can implement the specified strategy, it’s better to switch to “Manual bid management.” For example, if you want clicks at $1, you can simply set this bid, and the system will automatically find users on the Display Network who will click your ad, and the cost will be no more than $1.

Setting up a display strategy in Google Ads

For this example, I chose “Manual CPC bidding”.

Choosing a Strategy for a Google Ads Campaign

Decide on a daily advertising budget. I recommend setting it at least two conversions. This amount is usually enough for the campaign to run the necessary experiments and generate the required number of conversions in the first month. For example, if you want a cost per conversion of $10, it’s best to set a daily budget of at least $20.

Go to advanced settings.

Go to additional campaign settings

Here you need the “Dynamic Ads” setting. Check the “Use a data feed for personalized ads” box; remember, you already created it above. Next, proceed to select a data source.

The Google Ads Dynamic Remarketing Ad Creation Interface

The source can be a created feed in Google Ads or a linked Google Merchant Center account. In my example, it’s a Google Merchant Center account.

Choose which products to promote by setting up a filter similar to standard Shopping campaigns or Smart Shopping campaigns.

If you want all products to be featured in the ad, select “No Filters.” If you want the ad to show only televisions, select “Product Type” as “Televisions.” This will prevent you from showing offers that won’t generate a profitable advertising return.

Selecting products to display with dynamic remarketing

All that’s left is to create an ad group. To do this, go to “Overview” in the “Audience” tab and open the “How they interact with your campaign” list.

Adding remarketing audiences to Google Ads

Select the desired user list, for example, “All visitors (Google Ads)” or “Users who visited the cart/page/contacts”.

Adding an Audience to Google Ads

All that remains is to create the ads themselves.

Creating a new ad in Google Ads

Among the options presented, you are interested in “Responsive display ads”.

Selecting a responsive display ad in Google Ads

The system will immediately show that there are many variations of product offerings.

The Google Ads Dynamic Remarketing Ad Creation Interface

With dynamic remarketing, the system will automatically optimize the display: sometimes showing product offers, sometimes showing creatives. For example, if a user only visits the homepage, the system will likely show a banner that will remind them of the company again.

To set up, simply fill in:

1. The final URL. This is where users will be redirected if they click on the displayed creative.
2. Images and logos.
3. Title (up to 30 characters).
4. Long title (up to 90 characters).
5. Description (up to 90 characters).
6. Campaign name.

Fields required to create dynamic remarketing ads in Google Ads

Once everything is filled in, you can save the settings.

Saving ads in Google Ads

Everything is ready, dynamic retargeting is launched.

How to Optimize Dynamic Remarketing

To improve the performance of your dynamic remarketing campaign, you should:

• Carefully study the time from the first visit to conversion. Perhaps you should reduce or increase the time that ads are shown, so as not to waste your budget and not show ads to the user when they are no longer interested in them.
• Exclude unnecessary products from display. Quite often, low-cost products don’t produce the desired effect, as the decision to purchase them occurs almost instantly. Therefore, it’s better to “catch up” with users only with expensive products that require a long consideration.
• Test audiences. Several hypotheses should be tested. For example, potential customers who have performed a certain action may not subsequently respond to advertising or purchase a product. Therefore, they should be excluded from display.
• Test ads. Although most ads will be generated automatically, Google still suggests specifying creative and ad copy that will be used in the generation process. It’s best to test several ad variations to understand what your audience responds to and show them the most beneficial offers.
• Optimize your feed . To make your ads more appealing, you need to work on your feed, for example, by adding a discount price, checking the spelling of your titles, or checking the placement of images.

Examples of the effectiveness of dynamic remarketing

The example below compares the effectiveness of standard and dynamic remarketing (the former and latter, respectively). Dynamic remarketing reduced CPA by 30% for an online luxury clothing store.

An example of the effectiveness of dynamic remarketing

In the following example, even with a quick launch of dynamic remarketing for an online grocery store, it was possible to achieve an ROI of 3045%, which means that for every dollar invested, the company received $30 in revenue.

An example of the effectiveness of dynamic remarketing

Dynamic remarketing is a powerful and effective sales generation tool that, through personalization and engagement with existing audiences, helps you retain customers and increase sales.

This type of advertising is a must-try for companies with a wide range of services and a long transaction cycle.

Source: SendPulse