Choose your strategy

Choose the dynamic campaign strategies that will help you connect the right messages with the right audiences.

Geo-targeting: Message based on a person's location

Use a geo-targeting strategy to show a custom message based on where the viewer is located, or to reach a specific market.

  • Geo-targeting can be based on country, city, DMA zone (U.S. only) or postal code area
  • Show the viewer’s closest brick and mortar store within a specific location
  • Match the copy of your ads to the language spoken in the viewer’s country
  • Layer optimization on top of a geo-targeting strategy to test out which messages perform best in a certain region

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Proximity targeting: Message customers near a location

Use a proximity targeting strategy to show a custom message to people near a specific location, such as an airport or zip code.
  • Proximity targeting allows you to set a radius around a location
  • Match the copy of your ads to encourage viewers to take advantage of a special offer at that location or promote your services to people nearby

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Message based on the website the ad appears on

Display & Video 360 line item IDs

Dynamic creatives can select the right creative content based on which Display & Video 360 line item the creative is serving in. This strategy will make sure the creative's content matches the line item's targeting. To take advantage of this feature, your media buying partner should assign your dynamic creative to many different line items. Each row of the feed (or variant) will only serve when the line item ID in that row wins the impression.

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Campaign Manager 360 targeting keys

Dynamic targeting keys are unique, friendly labels you can assign to ads, creatives and placements in Campaign Manager 360 to use for targeting with Studio dynamic creatives. Use these labels to save time and avoid the errors that may arise when you use numeric Campaign Manager 360 IDs (such as placement IDs) in your dynamic feeds.

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Campaign Manager 360 IDs

Use Campaign Manager 360 ID filtering to show a custom message based on the website the ad is served on.

  • Dynamic creatives can use Campaign Manager 360 attributes to dynamically update ads based on the specifics of each impression. 
  • For example the placement ID or site ID can be used to display different content depending on which site the ad is served.
  • You can use the following Campaign Manager 360 attributes as triggers for custom messages: 
    • Ad ID
    • Advertiser ID
    • Placement ID
    • Site ID
    • Campaign ID
    • Creative ID

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Audience targeting

If you're running your campaign through either Display & Video 360 or Google Ads you can use data from these platforms to serve a different creative variation to each audience. This is done by putting the IDs of the targeted audience segment into the targeting column of your dynamic feed.

Audiences from demand-side platforms

97% of marketers use audience and contextual targeting to increase performance and accuracy. Ensure your message resonates with its target audience by using audience segments to trigger appropriate creative content.

For media agencies leveraging real-time bidding to purchase media, there are powerful audience signals that can be used in your creative strategies. These audience signals can be found through demand-side platforms (DSPs) which enable advertisers to automatically purchase ad inventory through multiple ad exchanges using audience targeting. Google Marketing Platform's DSP is called Display & Video 360. You can use first-party, advertiser-owned audience lists from Display & Video 360 or Campaign Manager 360.

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Reach people who visited your site (Remarketing)

Remarketing uses data you collect about someone's actions on your website to customize creative messages. For example, if someone searches a travel site for a flight from San Francisco to JFK airport in New York, they'll see a custom creative message with a special deal for that flight.

Show someone a product they've viewed on your site

If a prospective buyer views a product on your site, you can serve that viewer an ad with the same product they've viewed. If you would like to try this route, consider product remarketing. Advertisers can tag their pages with Floodlight tracking and custom variables. This tracking enables the collection and segmentation of people who have been to their site, and identify what activities have been performed.

  • Get granular: Use detailed custom variable information to remarket with specific messaging. Use one dynamic creative template, rather than hundreds of non-dynamic iterations for every make and model combination.
  • Google Marketing Platform uses a single cookie space for remarketing, so there is no potential for discrepancies or data loss. Most advertisers already have these tags in place. Contact your Media Agency to find out if tags are already set up.

Message based on activities on your site

If you'd like to reach users who performed a specific activity on your site and then serve them with a custom message relating to that activity, try userlist remarketing.

Advertisers tag their pages with Floodlight tags to collect a list of users who performed a specific activity. This user list information is then used to trigger specific messaging.

  • Did the user visit the homepage or a device page? Are they an existing or prospective customer? Use these signals in your dynamic strategy.
  • Google Marketing Platform uses a single cookie space for remarketing so there is no potential for discrepancies or data loss. Just ensure that your attribution window matches the length of the entire shopping period, which often takes several weeks.
  • Most advertisers already have these tags in place. Contact your Media Agency to find out if tags are already set up.

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Scheduled updates

If you'd like to schedule creative content updates based on time and date, try scheduled updates. For example, you may have an automotive client wanting to promote new car model launches throughout the year. You could build one dynamic creative that updates to show different car models as they launch, and you could schedule it once at the beginning of the year, rather than after each launch, to save time.  Scheduled updates are also useful for limited time offers. 

You could use dynamic creative to automate the change of messaging:

  • Show different car models based on the launch date
  • Schedule special offers in advance and layer on geo-targeting to ensure the offer is available in the viewer’s region

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Publisher context

If you'd like to use a publisher's context to determine which message to show, you can pass this data directly when the ad is served, using a publisher macro that is appended to the ad tag. To ensure the macro functions correctly, coordination is required between the publisher and Google Marketing Platform. Ensure that you begin the data pass macro setup process early in the campaign to avoid last minute issues. 

59% of car buyers are influenced by reviews on independent car websites. Be relevant where it matters by using publisher context as a signal to display a different message. Consider using this strategy for more in-depth messaging.

  • Show messaging based on the site the ad is served. For example, if someone searches for a car model on a publisher site, have that car show in ads displaying on the site.
  • Leverage Campaign Manager 360’s frequency capping and sequencing capabilities to craft an engaging story with your creative

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Decide which content will change dynamically

As you develop the creative concept and strategy, you should identify how many and which elements of the ad you plan to swap out dynamically. These elements, also called dynamic elements, most commonly include but are not limited to:

  • Text
  • Images
  • Exit URLs
  • Videos

Create a dynamic content map

To better visualize how feed content fits in the creative, create a dynamic content map; a mockup of the ad that clearly marks which elements are dynamic. For example, in the dynamic content map below, you see the following dynamic elements: headline text, product image, call-to-action (CTA), and offer copy. There are also useful notes on the side about image and font changes.

As you create your feed, each of these dynamic elements will require its own column in the spreadsheet.

Sample dynamic content map

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