About dynamic search ads

Learn how Microsoft Advertising can generate keywords and ads for you automatically.

Note

Dynamic search ads are available in all Microsoft Advertising markets. For more information, see Where does Microsoft Advertising show your ads?

Dynamic search ads provide a streamlined, low-touch way to make sure customers searching on the Microsoft Search Network find your products or services.

Benefits of using dynamic search ads

Dynamic search ads automatically target relevant search queries based on the content of your website, and are dynamically created to respond to these search queries. Using them will:

Create targeted and relevant ads automatically: New, dynamically-created ads for every search query based on your website content, or specific pages or categories of your website.
Save time and reduce your workload: No need to maintain keyword lists, manage bids, or update and customize ad titles.
Find missed opportunities: Automatically adapt to new queries to drive additional conversions.

Dynamic search ads are most appropriate for two types of advertisers:

Advertisers who have a large catalog of webpages and a changing mix of products, making it difficult to manage search ads for each product.
Advertisers who are not familiar with search advertising, but who want to quickly and easily try it out.

How to set up dynamic search ads

Follow the steps below to enable dynamic search ads within existing search campaigns or new search campaigns.

Existing search campaigns

From the collapsible menu on the left, select All campaigns > Settings > Settings.
Select the appropriate campaign.
Under Dynamic search ads, select the checkbox next to Enable dynamic search ads.
Make sure that you've completed steps 5-7 below.
Select Save.

You can now add Dynamic ad groups to your campaigns, which contain dynamic search ads and dynamic ad targets.

New search campaigns

From the main menu on the left, select Search campaigns > Campaigns > Create campaign.
Choose the campaign goal, for example, Visits to my website, and then select Search ads.
Select Next.
While choosing campaign settings be sure to select Enable dynamic search ads.
Enter your Website URL. You have the option to enter your website's root domain or subdomain. For example, contoso.com is a root domain, whereas mysite.contoso.com is a subdomain. Both URL types are accepted.
Select your Website language from the dropdown menu.
Select your Targeting source.
You will have the option to enable dynamic search ad text by selecting the Enable dynamic search ad text checkbox. Please note that if you choose to enable this feature, we will automatically generate ad text in addition to the ad text you provide. During ad delivery, we will use artificial intelligence to choose the best ad text available from these options. See What you need to know about ad content below for more information about dynamic search ad text.

Note
Not everyone has this feature yet. If you don't, don't worry—it's coming soon!
Create a Dynamic ad group with dynamic ad targets and then select Save & go to the next step. See What you need to know about dynamic ad targets below for more information. You can optionally create Standard ad groups which contain other ad types and keywords.
Create a Dynamic search ad and then select Save & go to the next step.
Choose your campaign budget and other settings and then select Save.

Important

Once you create your search campaign with dynamic search ads, it usually takes less than one week before your ads start to serve, but in some cases it can take up to ten days.

What you need to know about dynamic ad targets

Target recommended categories: Microsoft Advertising will analyze your website and then categorize its content. You can then select which categories you want to target and we will automatically generate keywords and ads from them. This is a good idea if you want to keep the dynamic search ads focused on a particular theme or you want to set different bids for different parts of your website.
Target all webpages: Microsoft Advertising will look at content from all pages of your website in order to generate keywords and ads.
Target specific webpages: You choose specific pages of your website to target based on their URL, category, page title, or page content. This is a good idea if you want to set different bids for different parts of your website or to make sure you're not targeting parts of your website that are not relevant to your campaign goal.
- Exact URLs: Enter or paste your webpages' exact URLs, one URL per line.
- Rules: Use the “contains” operator to target URLs, categories, page titles, or page content that contains specific words or a specific sequence of characters. If you use the "and" condition (for example, URL contains "food" and URL contains "delivery"), make sure that you have webpages that meet all the specified conditions on your website.
- A "page title" is the text that appears at the top of a webpage—in your website's code, it's the text in this area:
```
<head>
  <title>This is the page title</title>
</head>
```
- "Page content" is the visible text on a webpage—in your website's code, it's the text between these tags:
```
<body></body>
```
Negative dynamic ad targets: In the Dynamic ad targets tab, you have the option to select Negative dynamic ad targets. Negative dynamic ad targets allow you to target specific webpages to exclude at campaign or ad group level.

To select your Negative dynamic ad targets, from the collapsible menu on the left, select All campaigns > Dynamic ad targets > Negative dynamic ad targets. Then, you can choose to target specific pages of your website to exclude based on their URL, category, page title, or page content.
- Exact URLs: Enter or paste your webpages' exact URLs that you want to exclude, one URL per line.
- Rules: Use the “contains” operator to exclude URLs, categories, page titles, or page content that contains specific words or a specific sequence of characters. If you use the "and" condition (for example, URL contains "food" and URL contains "delivery"), make sure that you have webpages that meet all the specified conditions on your website.

Important

Once an auto target has been created, its conditions cannot be changed.

What you need to know about ad content

When you create your ad, you do not need to write your ad title or ad description. Microsoft Advertising will dynamically generate this for you based on the appropriate keyword and your website content. Optionally, you can supply an ad title using page feeds.
You have the option to include one or two paths to appear after your website's domain. The path is distinct from the final URL. The final URL is the actual webpage URL that customers are taken to after they click your ad. The path can be a shorter or "friendlier" version of your URL showing one or two subdirectories. For example, if you sell men's clothes, and you're advertising shirts that are on sale for spring, your final URL might be http://www.contoso.com/content/en/clothesaccessories/spr2017/shirts, but your path could simply be contoso.com/SpringSale/Shirts.

Tips for effective dynamic search ads

Setup
Set bids close to your non-exact match bids for similar keyword categories. Create different ad groups for different dynamic ad targets. Create a Target all webpages ad group in addition to narrower targets to capture as many relevant searches as possible. Ensure that the tag NoIndex is not present in the domain or in any URL that the auto targets are referencing. Ensure that the campaign, ad group, and ad are all set in the same language. Also, the language set for the campaign, ad group, and ad should match the language of the domain.
Auto targets
Exclude parts of your site that don't drive conversions. Have a variety of auto targets—using Target categories of webpages is a good way to find appropriate ones. Use more generic ad descriptions and URL paths for ads in ad groups using All webpages auto targets. Create auto targets from your main domain URL. Do not set up auto targets using URLs that redirect to other pages. The domain address you specify during campaign creation should be the same domain address you used to create auto targets for that campaign. We recommend not including "http://www" or "https://www" in auto targets. With Target specific webpages, if you use the "and" condition (for example, page title contains "food" and URL contains "delivery"), make sure that you have webpages that meet all the specified conditions on your website. When targeting Exact URLs in your site, please ensure that you use your webpage's canonical URL. Otherwise, the auto target won't build website coverage. Website coverage is the percentage of your website represented by pages that are targeted by the rule (e.g., Exact URLs). If you don't know the canonical URL, contact your webmaster. If you haven't specified one, Bing will decide how to index that particular website.
Optimization
Add paused keywords and current negative keywords in your other campaigns as negative keywords in your dynamic search ads ad groups. Use ad extensions to make your ads more eye-catching. Use remarketing lists to target people who have visited your website before. Add exclusions to prevent your ads from appearing in specific locations, on specific web sites within the search network, or prevent your ads from displaying to certain IP addresses. Dynamic search ads could lead to higher traffic, so keep an eye on your budget and don't let it run out.
Reports
To understand how your auto targets are performing and where bid adjustments may be useful, run a Dynamic search ad auto target report. To check the performance of your existing category or to find new categories worth targeting, run a Dynamic search ad category report. To see how your ads perform against search terms, run a Dynamic search ad search term report. The data can help you find negative keywords that create conversions.

Common questions about dynamic search ads

How do you determine what content is on my website? And what if you're not finding certain parts of my website? expando image

Your website's content is analyzed by Bing's web-crawling technology. We crawl any webpage that is in Bing's index. If you suspect that some parts of your website are not being found by our web crawler, take a look at this Bing Webmaster article for information on why this might be the case and what you can do to fix it.

Will dynamic search ads work with existing ad extensions and Automated Extensions? expando image

Yes, dynamic search ads will work with all existing ad extensions and Automated Extensions, just like standard text ads.

Will remarketing lists work with dynamic search ads? expando image

Yes, remarketing lists can be associated to ad groups containing dynamic search ads. Learn more about remarketing lists

Can I add tracking templates and custom parameters to dynamic search ads? expando image

Yes, tracking templates and custom parameters are supported at the campaign, ad group, ad, and auto target levels. Learn more about tracking templates

Can I use auto-tagging with dynamic search ads? expando image

Yes, auto-tagging is supported for dynamic search ads. Learn more about auto-tagging