The essentials
- Principle: Google reads the pages on your site, picks the page that answers the search and generates the ad headline; you only supply the descriptions and the list of allowed pages.
- Who it's for: sites with more than 50 structured pages (catalogue, multiple services, content by town); pointless on a five-page brochure site.
- Its role: to fill in the queries your keywords do not cover and to feed the search for new keywords, not to replace conventional campaigns.
- Safeguards: targets by page feed or by URL, page exclusions, cross-campaign negatives with your Search campaigns and a lower CPC cap.
Dynamic Search Ads reverse the usual logic: instead of choosing keywords, you point to pages, and Google decides which searches deserve an ad pointing to each one. The format has existed since 2011 but became more relevant with artificial intelligence indexing. It helps some sites and costs others dearly. Here is how it works, who it is for, and how to frame it.
How Google builds a dynamic ad
- Google crawls the pages you have allowed (the whole domain, a URL category, or a page feed).
- For each search, the algorithm compares the query with the content of the indexed pages and chooses the closest page.
- It generates a headline from the page content and the query, then assembles the ad with the descriptions you have written.
- The ad enters the auction like a conventional ad, with the campaign's CPC or automated strategy.
You control the descriptions, the assets, the bid and the allowed pages. You control neither the headline nor the exact query, and that is both the appeal and the risk of the format.
The three targeting modes
| Mode | What it allows | Suitable use |
|---|---|---|
| All pages on the domain | The whole site, minus the exclusions | Sites with homogeneous content; to be avoided on a site with a blog, a jobs section or legal notices |
| Categories or URLs containing a string | Pages whose URL or title matches a pattern (« /womens-shoes/ », a title containing « Rental ») | The most widely used mode: one ad group per product or service category |
| Page feeds | A list of URLs supplied in a file, with labels | Large catalogues, promotional pages, strict control over the pages served |
Whatever the mode, add negative dynamic targets: blog pages, « about » pages, recruitment, terms and conditions, out-of-stock product pages, help pages. Without them, Google serves ads pointing to pages that will never convert.
Which sites does the format pay off for?
| Type of site | Value of DSA | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| E-commerce with 500 to 50,000 SKUs | Strong | Impossible to write keywords for every product; DSA cover the long tail, alongside Shopping and Performance Max |
| Services site with pages by town (more than 50 pages) | Strong | « service + town » queries are far too numerous to be listed by hand |
| B2B site with 20 to 50 offer pages | Moderate | Useful for discovering queries, on a budget limited to 10 or 15% of the Search campaign |
| Brochure site of 5 to 10 pages | Poor | Keywords already cover everything; DSA mainly add off-target queries |
| Site with poorly titled content or pages in unrendered JavaScript | None | Google cannot read the content; the generated headlines are incoherent |
On the French e-commerce accounts observed in 2026, a well-framed DSA campaign accounts for 10 to 25% of Search conversions, with a CPC 20 to 35% lower than keyword campaigns and a comparable or slightly higher cost per conversion. The format depends on the quality of the site: explicit page titles, readable text, a structure organised by category. The recommendations on title tags apply directly.
The settings that prevent drift
- Cross-campaign negatives: add as negatives in the DSA campaign every keyword already active in your Search campaigns, plus your brand terms. Otherwise the DSA competes with your own ads and picks up the easiest queries, which inflates its results artificially.
- A lower bid: on manual CPC, 20 to 30% below the keyword campaigns; on target CPA, a target 10 to 20% higher, because the DSA explores less certain queries.
- Generic but precise descriptions: they appear whatever the page; talk about what the offer has in common (delivery, warranty, quotes) rather than about one product.
- Weekly review: the DSA search terms report shows the query and the page chosen. Any query that converts consistently should be added as an exact match keyword in a conventional campaign, where you will control the headline; any off-topic page should be excluded.
This cycle of « the DSA discovers, the conventional campaign exploits » is the real value of the format. Google Ads scripts can automate the export of DSA queries that convert; the sorting logic is the same as for conventional match types .
DSA, Performance Max and Shopping: who does what
On an e-commerce account, the three formats can coexist provided the roles are shared out. Shopping serves product listings with an image and a price on product queries. Performance Max covers every network, including Search, from your assets and feed. DSA take long-tail text queries towards category and content pages. Since 2024, Performance Max has priority over DSA when both target the same query, unless an identical exact match keyword exists in a Search campaign. A DSA budget of 10 to 20% of the Search budget is a reasonable starting point; allocation between formats is covered in SEA and e-commerce.
How GreenRed helps
Rather than juggling several tools, GreenRed's Google Ads module brings these metrics together in a single dashboard, compares them over time and tells you which actions come first. You can try it free, with no card, from the Pricing.
Frequently asked questions
Do DSA replace keyword campaigns?
No. They cover the queries your keywords do not anticipate and serve to discover new terms. Keyword campaigns keep the advantage on the main queries: controlled headline, chosen page, Quality Score tracked. On most accounts, the DSA receives 10 to 20% of the Search budget.
Can you control the headline of a dynamic ad?
No, the headline is generated by Google from the page content and the query. The only lever is indirect: clear title tags and H1s on every page, and the exclusion of pages whose content is ambiguous. You do, on the other hand, write the descriptions and the assets, which appear with every ad.
How many pages do you need for a DSA campaign?
The format starts to make sense from around fifty distinct pages describing offers, products or services. A ten-page brochure site has nothing to discover: keywords already cover the useful queries, and the DSA would mainly add off-target searches on the corporate pages.
Do DSA work with Smart Bidding?
Yes, and it is the most common set-up in 2026: a DSA campaign on target CPA or target ROAS, with a slightly less demanding target than the keyword campaigns. The algorithm has the page content and the query to bid on. It still needs enough volume, around 30 conversions a month on the campaign.