Are your keyword scores and ad strength ratings stuck at a plateau even when you test new copy? It’s time to try one of our favorite Google Ads tools: dynamic keyword insertion. We rarely see this tool used in the accounts we audit, even though it’s one of the best ways to boost ad relevance.

In this article, we’ll discuss how you can implement dynamic keyword insertions into your own responsive search ads and some of our favorite use cases for this Google tool.

What Is Keyword Insertion?

Have you ever seen a perfect Google ad? One that matched your intent so seamlessly it might as well have been plucked right out of the search box? Well, that ad probably did pull your query right from the search box, and it was probably a responsive search ad using dynamic keyword insertion.

That’s the power of Google’s keyword insertion tool. It automatically updates your responsive search ads with the actual keyword a user typed into Google.

Keyword insertions are easy to implement and can offer an instant boost to the relevance of your ads. We’ve observed notable lift in click-through rates (on average a 10-20% increase) when incorporating this tool into our ads, and the increased ad relevance is often a key factor in lifting ad strength ratings from Average to Excellent.

How Keyword Insertion Works:

Number 1 rule: follow Google’s syntax. A headline written as “Buy {KeyWord:Chocolate}” will try to replace the {KeyWord:Chocolate} portion of this syntax with the KeyWord that triggered your ad (and just use “Chocolate” if it can’t). Here’s some sample output for this dynamic headline:

• A prospect searches for: white chocolate
• Your dynamic headline could look like: Buy White Chocolate

• A prospect searches for: low calorie chocolate
• Your dynamic headline could look like: Buy Low Calorie Chocolate

What’s the benefit? With keyword insertion, we’re tailoring ads to fit the exact searches of our prospects. We’re selling them “dark chocolate bars” instead of plain “chocolate”.

When Should You Use Dynamic Keyword Insertion:

• Your ads drive to a robust LP whose products satisfy most relevant searches
• Your ad strength ratings and keyword scores have plateaued
• Your ad group is comprised of mostly exact and phrase match keywords

When To Skip Dynamic Keyword Insertion:

• Your product offering is limited and will not satisfy many relevant searches (we don’t want to serve ads for white chocolate if it’s not available on our website)
• Your ad groups rely on broad match keywords

Get Testing:

Ready to test keyword insertion in your own Google Ads account, but don’t know where to start? We recommend beginning with a sibling of dynamic keyword insertion: dynamic location insertion. By using this Google tool, your ads will populate the actual location of your prospects right into their headlines.

How does it work? In your Google account, navigate to Search Campaigns → Select a Campaign → Ad Groups → Ads & Assets → Ads. From here, hit the large blue plus button to start building a new Responsive Search ad.

Once inside the ad build, navigate to the headlines section. This is where we’ll start populating a new dynamic headline using Google’s syntax.

Notice that once you type a brace symbol into a headline entry box, Google will automatically drop down a menu of available dynamic insertion options:

For this test, we want to select Location Insertion → City. This option will dynamically populate the city of the person whose search triggered your ad.

Also note, by selecting City Google will automatically update your dynamic headline to align with its syntax requirements:

We’re not done yet, though. Let’s personalize this headline further with a more descriptive headline. Let’s try “Now Delivering to {LOCATION(City)}”, which will serve a headline like “Now Delivering to Charlotte” to really personalize our ads. Now, just fill in the rest of the Responsive Search ad with your best performing copy and you’re ready to get testing!

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Building Responsive Search Ads with dynamic headline insertions is that easy. Once you’re ready to start testing, we recommend using Google’s experiments tool to test your new responsive search ads against your champion ad copy. Run the experiment for at least four weeks and let us know your results!