Marketers throughout the industry have discovered the power of dynamic ads. These ads help deliver a more personalized message to an audience by tapping into all kinds of data, such as the weather or a user’s past browsing behavior. Google refers to them as Dynamic Remarketing; Facebook calls them Dynamic Product Ads – no matter the terminology, dynamic ads can do great things for your business.

In this article, we’ll describe 5 best practices for creating dynamic ads so you can increase their performance. From A/B testing to incorporating branding: here are our favorite recommendations.

Keep in mind that when we say dynamic ads, we refer to dynamic display ads and DPAs. Dynamic ads for Linkedin and Dynamic Search Ads are not discussed in this article.

1. Make sure you have a high-quality data feed

When you run a dynamic campaign, whether on Facebook or the Google Display Network, a high-quality feed is of the utmost importance. Frankly, it’s the foundation for success. It makes sure your products and services are shown correctly, something that in return contributes to better performance. You can optimize your feed manually using Google Sheets, but there are also tools available for this, such as feed management solution Channable. Whatever you decide, we always recommend the following:

• Title & Description
  Advertising networks sometimes truncate your title, so it’s worth the effort to think about an ‘essential-information-first’ structure. A good description also helps to get your message across.
• High-quality images
  Try to use only one image format in your feed to maintain a consistent layout. Decide between using JPEG or PNG, but don’t mix them. This can result in different quality images in one ad set, or images with a background where others are transparent. This breaks your design.
• Update your data feed frequently
  When products are out of stock, exclude them from your feed, so website visitors aren’t disappointed when desired items aren’t available. We recommend updating your feed as often as possible, ideally once a day but no less than once a week. 

2. Use dynamic ads in all stages of the marketing funnel

Dynamic ads are not only beneficial for remarketing. The biggest benefit of dynamic ads is their ability to deliver highly relevant content – and that’s also very useful in prospecting. They help you to deliver more noteworthy content to new audiences and possible customers. When you build dynamic ads and serve them to lookalike audiences or affinity audiences, you can attract new visitors to your website. When they land on your website and have a look around, you can then retarget them with relevant content after they leave. To level up your retargeting in a post-cookie era, go predictive. Predictive marketing technology lets you re-engage customers based on their propensity to buy and lifetime value. 

In relation to the complete marketing funnel, prospecting happens during the awareness phase. You can target audiences with your best-viewed product to catch their attention. After they've visited your website, you can persuade them to consider your brand by showing reviews or USPs. In the decision phase, you can navigate them towards conversion by specific products and discounts. What distinguishes dynamic ads from non-dynamic ads here, is that dynamic ads offer you the opportunity to show only those products that your potential customers find interesting, based on their online behavior. And that is valuable throughout the marketing funnel. 

3. Don’t forget to incorporate branding

Often, we hear that marketers lack resources to customize their dynamic product ads. Designers are unavailable, or there simply is no budget. As a result, they use templates offered by advertising networks such as Criteo and Facebook. But what makes dynamic ads so powerful is their ability to show highly personalized content to your audience. Don’t waste this potential by serving your audience a generic-looking template that completely lacks branding.

When your dynamic ads are on-brand and synchronize with your landing pages, your audience recognizes your brand better. Therefore, we always suggest to keep dynamic ads consistent with the page the audience lands on and vice versa. Simply adding the right brand colors, the appropriate font and on-brand backgrounds will do the trick. However, free templates don’t offer you these possibilities, so if you want to distinguish yourself from your competitors and create customized dynamic ads, you’re better off using a Creative Management Platform. 

Why is branding so important when creating dynamic ads?
We’ll explain more here.

4. Remember to update your ads frequently

Forgetting to update your ads can lead to a decrease in effectiveness, and it can even result in ad fatigue. Even when it comes to dynamic ads, content needs to be refreshed and updated frequently. Especially when you sell products based on inventory or stock.

That’s why it’s important to frequently check the performance of your ads. Important metrics here are CTR, conversions, and CPA. You can also check frequency and impressions to make sure you don’t overwhelm your audience by showing the same ads over and over. When you notice a decrease in your performance, it’s time to refresh your creatives.

5. Always A/B test your dynamic ads

The fact that dynamic ads adjust their content automatically often results in an ‘as long as it works’-kind of attitude. But using another background image or a slight copy change could result in a significantly higher conversion rate. We don’t want to labor the obvious, but A/B testing is the only way to get the most out of your creatives. Even when it comes to dynamic ads.

Do you want to learn how to properly test your ads?
Download our ebook 10 effective A/B testing ideas for your display ads.

Dynamic ads are here to stay

As advertising technology is evolving, dynamic ads will become more dominant and omnipresent. According to New Adlucent research, 71% of consumers even highly value ads tailored to their interests and shopping habits, and they often prefer a more personalized advertising experience over an impersonal approach.

That’s why we believe now is the perfect time to start creating dynamic ads, fully customized and based on a high-quality feed. Using a Creative Management Platform will surely help you with that. Start your free trial and start building today.