Dynamic keyword insertion, a fancy term used on Google Ads, lets advertisers know they can create advertisements that automatically replace specific texts within the ad. Why would someone want to do this and what’s the point? 

You’ll learn all about that and more with this in-depth article about everything there is to know about dynamic keyword insertion. If you or your company has content online, read on to find out how using this method can dramatically change your advertising and the traffic you see online! 

What Is Dynamic Keyword Insertion

Google Ads and Bing use something called dynamic keyword insertion that will replace certain texts in an advertisement based upon the word someone uses in a search. When this happens, the person searching for something, whether that’s a product or a service or something in between, will be greeted by an advertisement that’s more in their language. 

This makes it relatable and easy to digest for the person seeing the ad. People who advertise their products and services online will use dynamic keyword insertion to improve click through rates and make their campaigns applicable to everyone who’s searching for something, no matter the niche. 

How Does Using Dynamic Keyword Insertion Work?

Dynamic keyword insertion is done when you’re making your advertisement, but can also be added to the campaign at a later time if you have the option to edit. You can do this my simply typing in {KeyWord: ____ } into the space that you’d like the searchers’ words to apply into the ads headline or product description.

The keywords that you type in after the colon in {KeyWord: ____ } are what Google Ads will use to fill in space into that advertisement if you want to use dynamic keyword insertion in your campaigns. 

An Example 

Let’s use an example for this to make more sense. For the sake of this example, we’ll say you sell cars and have a dealership website online. 

• Your ad headline would automatically be set to Buy{KeyWord: Car}

So, with that being your headline, what Google Ads will do is replace the word you have after “buy” with a choice of keywords from your ad group that matches what the person is searching. Something important to note is that this will only work if what they’re searching fits into the headline space. If what they’re searching for is too long, Google Ads will automatically display the original word you had within the brackets. 

Let’s say you have the ad headline set to the “buy car” one above and someone searches for buy used car. You’re advert will enter the word “used” into the ad to hook the searcher to your advertisement versus that of your competitors. 

But if someone were to search “buy used 2005 blue and grey ford mustang with blacked out windows”, Google Ads would just display your original as headline, as the above example is too long to replace it. 

Having Themed Ad Groups

Due to the way dynamic keyword insertion is designed within Google, you’ll want to sort your ad groups into themes. What does this mean? Well, using the example above you’d want your ad group theme to have to do with buying cars. Use phrases and words that are easily interchangeable and work within the ad.

The easiest way to do this is by asking someone in your life what they would search if they were looking for your product or service. Do this with several people to get a wide variety of ideas that will all fit within the theme of the ad group. 

To show you how this works, we’ll assume your ad group theme is cars and you are using the following keywords:

• New cars for sale
• Used cars for sale
• Buy a Ford Mustang car
• Buy a Jeep Wrangler car

Keep in mind, your original keyword was Buy{KeyWord: Car}. When you use themes, it will allow more people to see your advertisement that are looking for specific types of cars. Make sure you don’t contradict yourself when making an ad group. 

Do this by making headlines in ad groups for each query you’d be okay with in terms of your original keyword being replaced by. You wouldn’t want you ad to say something along the lines of “ New Slightly Used Car”. 

You can make sure this doesn’t happen when applying dynamic keyword insertion into your ads by having all the keywords interchangeable. Take a few seconds to read the ad with the keywords switched out and make sure the message still reads the same. 

Why Keyword Insertion Is Important

You might be reading this wondering why you should use keyword insertion in your campaigns. Maybe you’re curious if it even makes that big of a difference. Using dynamic keyword insertion is crucial to your advertisements because you’ll increase your click through rate. If the ad is custom-made using the language and phrasing that the searcher typed in, they are much more likely to click on that ad. 

It is important to note that if you use dynamic keyword insertion incorrectly, you may find yourself in a bit of hot water. This is a great reason to double or triple check your ad groups and make sure they align with your themes when words are switched out. 

When you use dynamic keyword insertion, you’re inadvertently speaking directly to the consumer. If they type a specific phrase in and then see that same specific phrase in an ad, they are much more likely to click on that ad because it feels personal. 

It draws the person’s eye to that ad and they think, “Perfect! That’s exactly what I was searching for!” If this person becomes a customer, they’ll love that their experience was unique and customized to them specifically. 

Another reason why it’s important is if you have a lot of inventory or variations of a product. You’ll be able to make one ad and have the ad change a bit depending on what is searched. This can come in handy if you have products that come in different colors, designs, or colors but are overall the same product.

This saves you time from having to make specific keywords for every single item you have for sale and you’ll end up saving money and the energy of your staff as well. 

Benefits Of Using Dynamic Keyword Insertion

I wanted to share with you some of the main benefits of using dynamic keyword insertion in your ad campaigns. Maybe the reasons listed below will inspire you to start using it and you’ll see a positive increase in the amount of traffic your ad brings in due to dynamic keyword insertion. 

Higher Quality Scores

If you didn’t already know, Google will reward advertisers that have high quality and relevant ads. They use a system called Quality Score that measures the traffic on an advert and where it came from. 

When you use dynamic keyword insertion, it will automatically increase how relevant your ads are to that of what is searched. When this happens, your quality score from Google will increase. What this means for you as an advertiser is Google will lower the advertisement price for you and the ads will be better positioned in the search results.

Specific Targeting

What’s better than being able to specifically target audiences to your advertisements? People are a lot more likely to click an ad that uses words and phrases that are familiar to them. This is exactly the point of using dynamic keyword insertion!

Bold Text

When someone searches for something on Google that triggers a dynamic keyword insertion to take place, the keywords will be in bold. This is a benefit because people will be naturally drawn to the bold text over that of your competitors. This will increase the click-through rate of your advertisements!

Mistakes To Avoid Making 

Even though dynamic keyword insertion is quite simple, there are always mishaps that can happen when it comes to marketing. This is why I wanted to include a section to help you avoid making any mistakes that cost your company money!

Not Paying Attention To Phrasing

It’s incredibly important to make sure all of your keywords are phrased exactly how you want them to appear in the advertisement. Many people don’t double check and see it as a waste of time. Skipping this step can bring in the wrong clients, create a lack of traffic, and give your website a high bounce rate. 

To avoid this, simply double or triple check that all of your keywords are phrased perfectly. After you’ve done that, check again. 

Length Of Keywords

It’s mentioned already in this article, but keyword length can be crucial. You already know that long keywords sometimes exceed the limit that Google allows and, therefore, your dynamic keywords won’t be displayed. 

The nice thing about this is that when it happens, you’re not completely screwed. The original keywords and headline you have typed in will appear if the searchers’ keywords are too long. This is something to keep in mind when you’re creating the text in the ad. Make sure it’s not too long and that it will work as a base advertisement for when keywords aren’t triggered. 

Getting Rid Of Unwanted Keywords

Something you’ll be thinking a lot about when advertising is your competitors. You want to get rid of keywords that don’t apply to your business but do apply to your competitors. For example, hide keywords like their business name or any specific product or service they may have. This makes it so the person performing the search only sees your company and not your competitors, making them less likely to spend their money elsewhere. 

You also want to do this because using your competitor’s name for advertising purposes is actually illegal. You could be given a large fine and change the way potential clients see you as a company. Let’s talk a bit more about that and trademark violation.

Trademark Violation

If you’re bidding on a competitors business using dynamic keyword insertion, you’re performing an illegal activity. It’s not illegal to bid on specific keywords, but you can’t display copyrighted names in the headline. This is an easy way to get into trouble, but it’s also an easy thing to avoid. 

Creating A Different Ad Campaign

It may seem overwhelming and seem complicated to implement dynamic keywords into your advertisements. Thankfully, this isn’t the case! It’s easy to set up and is incredibly customizable. But you might not always want to use dynamic keyword insertion. Sometimes it will make more sense to create an entirely separate ad campaign. Let’s talk about situations where you’d want to do that.

Landing Pages

One of the main reasons you’d want to create a different ad campaign is if you’re trying to send them to a completely different landing page. With every different landing page, you’ll need a different ad. Within each of those ads is where you can use dynamic keyword insertion. There is a unique option that certain landing page platforms will let you create dynamic landing pages, but that’s a whole other topic. 

Ad Group Themes

You read a bit about how using ad group themes can help you organize your dynamic keyword insertion technique. Unfortunately, you can’t use the same theme for every ad; that would defeat the purpose of having themes in the first place. 

Ad group themes should change per product. You wouldn’t use the same keywords to sell a car as you would a kids toy or makeup product. It’s important to use group themes within a topic as well. 

You can do that by using product-specific keywords. You can use different keywords for trucks, hatchbacks, cars, and motorcycles. That will help you stay organized and find dynamic keywords that work for each of your ad groups. 

A lot of businesses stand by the rule that if you need more than a phrase or two switched out, it’s time to make another campaign. 

High Priced Items

The last reason you may want to create an entirely new campaign is for highly priced or specific items. For example, if you sell cars online and only have high-end vehicles, you may want to adjust your campaigns accordingly. You wouldn’t want someone searching for a 20-year old used minivan seeing your ads if you only sell Teslas. 

What this does is help make sure you’re getting the right audience. This saves you from having higher bounce rates and allows the people who actually want to buy your service or product seeing your ad.

How To Set Up Dynamic Keyword Insertion

You’ve read about how easy it is to set up dynamic keyword insertion and now is the time to learn how! Follow the detailed instructions below and you’ll be on your way to more traffic and clicks on your advertisements! 

1. The easiest way to do this is by opening up your Google AdWords account.
2. Go to your keywords.
3. Make sure that every single one of your keywords in the specific ad group you’re working with are phrased correctly and are consistent (this makes sure your ad reads well when words are replaced with the dynamic keywords).
4. Be sure to add the plural and singular versions of everything, along with past, present and future tense, to make sure you’re covering your ground.
5. Now it’s time to type in the ad text; when you do this, make sure to use these {} specific brackets and not these [] or this ().
6. A pop up will appear asking if you want to use dynamic keyword insertion, a conditional copy, or a countdown; choose keyword insertion.
7. The next step is to set a default text that will be paired with all searches and be your ads natural form in the even that the dynamic keywords aren’t triggered.
8. Choose what you want or don’t want to be capitalized – It’s best to only have new sentences or abbreviations capitalized.
9. You’ll be able to add dynamic keywords throughout several places of your advertisement. It will change in any place the keyword is used in the ad. 

Once you’re done, save and give the ad a test run to see if everything looks cohesive. Try this with a few different keyword insertions to make sure the ad is seen and the insertion is triggered when it needs to be!

Final Words

By now, you’re much more educated on what dynamic keyword insertion is and everything that goes along with it. You can use this technique to greatly improve your click-through rate on your advertisements and curate relatable content that draws people to click on. 

Overall, using dynamic keyword insertion will only help your business and increase traffic to your website. The only downfall is that it won’t sub in keywords that are too long, but when that happens, your original ad is posted as normal. Now it’s your turn to give this technique a try and watch your numbers soar!