Creating a Google Dynamic Search Ads Campaign manually using a VIN IQ optimized inventory feed

How to Deploy a Google Dynamic Search Ads Feed

Once you have configured your Google Dynamic Search Ads feed in VIN IQ the following steps will walk you through connecting your feed with your Google Ads account and configuring a campaign that utilizes the inventory contained within that feed. Once deployed, inventory in your Google Dynamic Search Ads will automatically update according to the performance of individual vehicles on your dealership website.

Step by Step Instructions for Setting Up a Google Dynamic Search Ads Feed

General Introduction

The process for creating Google Dynamic Search Ads is to first create a Business Feed in the Google Ads Business Data settings section. You then schedule automated updates to that business feed. Next, you create an Ad Group (in either a new or existing campaign) whose Type is set as Dynamic. Once you have completed this, you can connect your Business Feed to that Dynamic Ad Group. Google will then use the vehicle inventory in the Business Feed to create ads within the Dynamic Ad Group. As inventory is added to or removed from the feed by VIN IQ the ads update automatically. Follow the steps below to set up your Google Dynamic Search Ads feed.

A. Create a Business Feed

To begin, log into your Google Ads account.

1. Click on Tools in the left side menu of the Google Ads User Interface.

2. From the menu that appears select Business Data.

3. Ensure that the Data Feeds tab is selected on the top left corner.

4. To create a new Data Feed click on the Blue Plus icon.

5. From the menu that appears, click Page Feed.

6. You will now provide a name for this feed and a source link for Google to process. Be sure to use a descriptive name that will be meaningful to you in the future. Also, consider that you might end up with many feeds so ensure you describe this feed clearly. A suggestion is to use the inventory type and originating source. For example, you could name the feed VINIQ Dynamic Used Cars Under 30 Days.

7. In the following Select Source section, select HTTPS. Some input fields will appear.

In the form that appears, you need to populate the Source URL.

The Source URL for the feed is the location where Google will fetch this feed from VIN IQ servers.

If you do not have this URL handy, you can get it from the feed configuration screen in VIN IQ.

Click to log into VIN IQ and navigate to Feed Management and then Marketing Feeds. Locate the feed and click the View link next to the desired feed. You will see the following screen appear:

Click the link next to the feed URL that is labelled Copy Link to Clipboard and paste the link to the feed file from VIN IQ into the Source URL field in Google Ads.

You can leave the Username and Password fields empty as they are not required. Feel free to Preview the data first if you wish by clicking the Preview button. Otherwise, you can click Apply to save the file.

8. After you click Apply your file will be uploaded and processed. After a few moments, you should see your feed listed from the main Data Feeds screen.

You have completed the first step in setting up your Google Dynamic Search Ads feed. Please proceed to Step B - Schedule Automatic Updates to Your Feed.

B. Schedule Automatic Updates to Your Feed

At this point, you should still be within the Business Data section of your Google Ads account.

If you are not, navigate to Tools and then Business Data from the main menu at the left side of your Google Ads account screen.

1. To schedule your feed, first, click the name of your feed to access its settings.

This screen will load a preview of the data in the feed file.

2. Next click Schedule from the menu that appears at the top.

3. Since you will not yet have any schedules created for this feed, click the New Schedule button with the blue plus icon located in the middle of the screen.

4. From the Upload drop-down menu, choose HTTPS.

5. In the form that appears, you need to again populate the Source URL field and the Frequency pull-down menu.

In the VIN Feed Configuration screen, click the link next to the feed URL that is labelled Copy Link to Clipboard.

6. Now return to the Google Ads screen and paste that value into the Source URL field in the Google Ads Schedule form (CTRL-V on Windows, Command-V on Mac).

From the Frequency pull-down menu, choose Every 6 hours and click the Save button.

Your feed is now ready and scheduled to update automatically for you every 6 hours with the most relevant active inventory.

You have completed the second step in setting up your Google Dynamic Search Ads feed. Please proceed to Step C - Create Your Search Ads Campaign.

C. Create Your Search Ads Campaign

Important Information About This Step
You can add Dynamic Search Ads capabilities to existing Google Ads Search Ads campaigns by creating a new Ad Group within that Campaign. These instructions will show you how to create a new Campaign from scratch along with the necessary Dynamic Ad Group.

Since every dealership's marketing needs are different, it is outside of the scope of this guide to explain every possible setting. For detailed configuration instructions on how to ensure your campaign performs best for your strategic and tactical needs, please refer to your Google Ads Specialist, your agency partner or Google Help.

1. Return to Google Ads home screen by clicking the Google Ads logo at the top left of the screen.

Make sure the Campaigns menu item is selected on the left menu and click the Blue Plus icon and choose New Campaign from the options that appear.

2. From the Campaign Objective screen, choose the bottom right option to Create a campaign without a goal's guidance.

3. From the Campaign Type screen, choose the Search option on the top left.

4. At this point, depending on your Google Ads account configuration, you may be prompted to choose Conversion Goals. You can choose your desired Goals and then click Continue to proceed.

5. Next you will be asked to select the results you want from this campaign. Choose Website Visits and enter your website address into the field that appears and then click Continue to proceed.

6. Now enter a name for this campaign and click the blue Continue button.

7. You are now prompted to enter Bidding details. Choose the settings that are appropriate for your goals, then click Next.

There are several options that can be configured according to your dealership’s preferences. Some of the settings such as Budget and Bidding will vary by your individual goals and needs. You may also choose to enable ad extensions. Please refer to your Google Specialist for the best options for your dealership.

8. Under Campaign Settings choose the Search and Display options that appear. Ensure that Search Network is enabled. Display Network is optional.

9. Complete the Locations, Languages, Audience segments and Automatically created assets options as desired for your goals. Click Next.

10. In the Keywords and asset generation section you can click Skip.

11. Under Keywords and ads just skip this section by clicking on the dustbin icon in the top right corner. Instead, We’ll need to set up a dynamic ad group to build dynamic ads.

12. A pop-up will show up, click on Yes, remove.

13. Now, on the left side menu, click on Budget to proceed.

14. Configure your budget and click Next.

15. Now you will review your campaign. The UI will prompt two issues at the top, however that is OK. You will configure your ad and ad group after the campaign is published.

16. Review the campaign settings and click on Publish campaign. You will likely get a message from Google about the campaign needing ads to serve, but ignore this and publish the campaign anyway.

17. You might be prompted to install the Google tag, you can also ignore this step. Click on the Google Ads logo in the top left corner to go back to the Google Ads home screen.

18. The campaign setup is not fully complete yet. On the left side menu click on Campaigns, select the campaign that was just published and go back into the campaign settings.

19. Click on Additional settings at the bottom of the menu.

20. Expand the Dynamic Search Ads setting to configure your website and feed.

21. Type your website and select Use only URLs from page feeds. From the list of feeds that appear, choose the one you recently configured in the previous steps.

22. Click Save.

23. You have now connected your feed to your campaign. Google will use the inventory in the feed to create ads that will become part of the ad groups' ad content. The final step is to create your Ad Group and Dynamic Targets that will instruct Google on which inventory to use from the feed as the vehicles change with each feed update.

You have completed the third step in setting up your Google Dynamic Search Ads feed. Please proceed to Step D - Create Ad Groups and Dynamic Targets.

D. Create Ad Groups and Dynamic Targets

Ad Group Creation

Now that the Campaign is created, we will create the Dynamic Ad Group.

1. By clicking on the name of the campaign that was just created you should be redirected to the Ad groups section on the left side menu.

2. Click the Blue Plus icon to create a new ad group.

3. On the menu that shows up change the Ad group type from Standard to Dynamic, and click Continue.

4. Enter a suitable name for the Ad Group.

5. In the Custom labels section, we will instruct Google to use custom labels from the feed to choose which vehicles should be active.

Under the heading Custom labels from the feed, enter the word active in lowercase into the field labelled “Enter a custom label” then click the Add button. The active Dynamic ad target will move into the table at the right.

It is critical that you enter the word active in lowercase without any whitespace characters before or after the word, otherwise, Google will not identify any vehicles to serve. Double-check that you have entered active correctly before proceeding to the next step.

6. Click Save and Continue.

7. You will be prompted to Create Ads. A Dynamic Seach Ad option should be selected at the top.

8. You need to create two ad descriptions that will appear at the bottom of your ad. Create them according to your dealership’s needs and preferences. The rest of the ad text will be dynamically generated from the vehicles in the feed.

4. Finally, add campaign tracking by clicking the Ad URL options link.

In the Final URL suffix field you can enter the desired UTM values for Source, Medium, Campaign etc.

If you use auto-tagging, Google will automatically append UTM Source and Medium to your URL. In this case, you just need to add Campaign and other optional parameters such as Content and Term.

While you can enter any values you wish as UTM tracking parameters, typical examples will be descriptive of the source (Google) and the medium (cpc). However, in order to clearly see this traffic versus other similar source traffic, ensure these UTMs are not identical to your other source/mediums.

One suggestion is to slightly alter either the source or the medium to denote this is being fed by VIN IQ. A simple example of this is as follows:

utm_source=google-viniq&utm_medium=cpc

By keeping the medium as cpc you will ensure that Google Analytics treats this traffic as part of the Search channel in your own Google Analytics, but you can easily see the difference between other search sources and the VINIQ-powered source. Alternatively, you can add the utm_campaign parameter and make it more descriptive:

utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=viniq_dynamic_feed

5. Once everything has been configured click Done at the bottom of the configuration menu.

6. Click Save and Continue to finalize the process. *If nothing happens you can click on the Google Ads logo in the top left corner to go back to the Google Ads home screen.

Please check if your ad group and ads have been created by going into each respective section in the options below the Campaign menu. You can always click on the Plus Icon and create one following the above steps.

NOTE We recommend minimal use of Ad Extensions as they provide numerous links that users can click on besides the vehicles themselves. This has been shown to have a negative effect on engagement performance and driving the shopper to the VDP.