Types of remarketing: what is the difference between dynamic remarketing and conventional remarketing

Google Ads has two types of remarketing.

Static remarketing, which we wrote about in part 7 of the Guide to Google Ads, is usually called simply remarketing. It is most often said: most of the remarketing guides on the Internet describe the static type.

Dynamic remarketing is an extended version of remarketing with more advanced features, which, of course, is more difficult to set up and manage, but also more effective.

Let's compare them. Differences between dynamic remarketing and simple remarketing:

 
Static remarketing
Dynamic remarketing
Who is it for?
Suitable for an online store with a small assortment of similar products and corporate sites or the first user promotion through the funnel
Suitable for large sites: online stores, hotel aggregator sites, tours, tickets
Targeting
Targeting logic is based on user behavior (was on certain pages/product categories of the site - an ad relevant to this is shown)
The targeting logic is based on the interests of the user (was on the pages of certain products - an ad with this product and similar ones that may be of interest is shown). Example feed used
Ad type
Static ads (banners and responsive ads)
Dynamic ads that change for each user depending on his interests (certain products, tours, hotels, etc., which he viewed + similar)
Create audiences
Manually create lists for each audience segment for which you want to manually create relevant ads
Automatically created audiences + automatic personalization of the ad (you only need to create a template)
Personalization
Minimum
Maximum
Principle of operation
Defines an audience using standard parameters and metrics. You can get some data about the user (age, gender, interests) and his behavior (session parameters)
Due to the modification of the code, it more accurately determines the audience, has data on specific products that the user viewed, and substitutes them into the ads. Leverages data on similar and most popular products, purchase history, and demographics
What we're focusing on today is google ads dynamic remarketing. If you've never seen remarketing in general, we recommend that you read Google Ads Guide #7: Remarketing. This is a great place to start.

Dynamic remarketing is suitable, in general, for most businesses: specialized schools and courses, sites for the sale of air tickets, hotels and rental housing, real estate, tourism ... And e-commerce of all stripes, of course. Let's talk about it.
If you do not work in e-commerce, this article will still give you a general idea of the principles of operation and the algorithm for setting up the system.

For example, if the conditional Vika went to the website of the travel agency and watched tours to India, we can set up remarketing so that she then sees not just the banners of the travel agency as a whole or all summer tours in general, but only the offers of interest to her.

That is, those tours to India that she has already watched, plus similar routes that could potentially interest her. Tours to Bali will fall into this category (and will be shown), but extreme tours to Antarctica will definitely not.

This increases personalization and, due to a closer offer to a person, significantly increases clickability and chances of conversion.
Set up Google Ads dynamic remarketing
We'll look at setting up dynamic remarketing using Google Analytics. Let's go?
There are several ways to actually set up dynamic remarketing. Which one to choose depends on the starting conditions: access to the site, Google Analytics and GTM; the specifics of the structure of the site, the personal preferences of the specialist. We describe one method we have tested, but if you know how to make it better and easier – write in the comments, we will be grateful for your experience!
What you need to implement:

Analytics code gtag
access to the site and a programmer who will configure the sending of attributes through custom parameters on the server side;
access to Google Merchant and the created product feed;
access to Google Ads.
A short step-by-step algorithm of work + cheat sheet:

What to do
How
What for
How to check
1. Enable remarketing and ad reporting features for a web property in Google Analytics
Administrator tab → Resource → Tracking → Data collection → Remarketing blade
To ensure that all the opportunities for advertising and remarketing are available
In your Google Analytics settings
2. Link your Google Ads and Analytics accounts
Google Analytics → admin tab → Connect with Google Ads
To use audiences created in Analytics
In the settings → Linked accounts in Google Analytics or Google Ads
3. Create and upload a product feed to merchant center
A feed can be added using a plugin,
but preferably
using an xml file
To get relevant product information from your feed to your ads
In merchant center on the Diagnostics tab (if there are errors, they will be displayed on the page)
4. Send attributes to Google Analytics via custom parameters
Create custom parameters in Analytics
Modify GA code
To collect data about the products you view and send it to Google Analytics
In Google Analytics
5. Create an audience for dynamic remarketing in Google Analytics
Import predefined configurations from the GA Gallery
To Create the Right Remarketing Audiences
In Google Ads, → the Audiences tab will show that the lists have started to fill up
6. Create dynamic attributes in Google Analytics on the Audiences tab to import data into Google Ads
Resource-level configuration
To send data about viewed products from Analytics to Ads. It is important that the user is shown not random products, but the products viewed by him
In Google Analytics
7. Create a dynamic remarketing campaign
Set up a campaign in Google Ads
To show relevant ads to users
Review your listings with products on Google's display system
Detailed step-by-step instructions for setting up Google Ads dynamic remarketing
Step 1. Enable remarketing and ad reporting features for a web property in Google Analytics.

Step 2: Link your Google Ads and Analytics accounts. This is necessary to activate two functions:

In Google Ads, you can use remarketing audiences that have been created in Google Analytics.
Through dynamic attributes, you can import data about viewed products from Google Analytics into Google Ads.

Step 3: Create and upload a product feed. Link Google Merchant to Google Ads.

In order for Google Ads to pull relevant information (price, title, picture) into dynamic ads, you need to link it to Google Merchant, which has a product feed and fixes all the problems.

Instructions for setting up a target code for ga format (if analytics is installed in the old format)
Event information can be sent using the send command, specifying the hitType field to event. The send command has the following signature for the event type:
It's important that there are no errors in the feed, and the pictures are of high quality - this is still a display campaign! If you plan to use the same feed for Google Shopping, we recommend that you immediately add the maximum of attributes to it: this will increase the effectiveness of the Shopping campaign.

Important! Make sure you have dynamic remarketing enabled in Google Merchant Center.

Step 4: Send attributes to Google Analytics through special (custom) parameters.

To show ads to users based on previously viewed products, set up google Analytics to automatically collect and send attributes of viewed products. You can do this by using custom parameters.

Different user settings are used for different types of businesses. For retail, you will need:

ecomm_prodid — product id (required attribute);
ecomm_pagetype — the name of the product;
ecomm_totalvalue — the price of the goods;
To set up custom settings to be sent for other activities, see Google Help.

Creating custom parameters can be divided into two steps: the actual creation of the parameter and further modification of the code. Let's figure them out.
Step 4.1. Create a custom parameter at the resource level in Google Analytics.

ecomm_prodid (required) A product identifier that must match one of three attributes in the feed: id, item_group_id, or c:drid. Allows users to be shown ads for exactly the products they viewed;
ecomm_pagetype (optional). Specifies which page the user is on. By creating remarketing lists based on this data, you'll be able to reach out to users at any stage of the buying process. Examples of possible values include home, category, product, cart, purchase;
ecomm_totalvalue (optional). The total value of the goods, the information about which the user viewed on the site. Set the value to the total value (adding up the values for all products on the page).
(for example, you create the other 2 parameters)

Step 4.2. Modification of Google Analytics code.

For dynamic remarketing to work, the pages must gather audiences (for example, on a product card, in a shopping cart, on a thank you page, and others). In order for them to be collected, you need to make some changes to the code. What are the changes? This depends on the version of the Google Analytics code. We work with gtag, so we will further understand on its example.
Pay attention to the screenshot above: the codes in the example in Google Analytics are for the old version and are not suitable for gtag!

You can check whether the parameters are passed through the Google Tag Assistant extension for Google Chrome. To do this, go to the page where you installed the code → launch the extension through the Enable button → refresh the page.

Now go to the Analytics tag information:

On the Events tab, → Custom metrics should have your parameters with values.

If they are correct, you can continue!

Step 5: Create an audience for dynamic remarketing in Google Analytics.

There are several ways to create an audience for dynamic remarketing. In our opinion, the most convenient option is through the import of a ready-made configuration from Google Analytics based on new user parameters. For him:

Import the ready-made configuration from the target Google Analytics resource if you have an e-commerce project or another type of business.
Select your target Google Analytics and Google Ads account and confirm that you want to create an audience.

3. Once imported, audiences will be available in both your Google Ads account and Google Analytics.

Step 6: Create dynamic attributes in the Google Analytics audiences tab and associate them with your Google Ads account.

With the help of dynamic attributes, Google Analytics can send data about the products viewed to Google Ads. To do this, you need to add a new attribute at the resource level and set the settings, as on the screenshot.

Take a look at the Audiences section and make sure that the parameters are passed to Google Ads:

The Analytics code in our case passed 3 parameters - ecomm_pagetype, ecomm_prodid, ecomm_totalvalue. You will see the statistics for each attribute by clicking on Details.

Clicking on the attribute will display the values that were passed. Check if they're correct? Should these values really be passed on this page? This is important for the correct collection of audiences.

Importantly! It takes a day to transfer data to Google Ads. If you don't find the information right away , don't panic, look at the statistics again tomorrow. It's probably going to be there.
Step 7. Create a dynamic remarketing campaign in Google Ads.

To create a dynamic remarketing campaign in Google Ads, you need to:

Create a display campaign with the Sales objective.
Choose the target location and languages.
Select manual bidding.
Specify the product feed in the advanced settings.
Select the desired audience in the target group. You can do this immediately during the campaign creation process (group settings follow the campaign settings) or on the Audiences tab if you're changing settings in an existing campaign.

6. Customize ads: specify the title, description, images, logo.

7. Create an ad group for each audience.

In order for bidding to be effective, we recommend this scheme:

audience of Product viewers (viewed the product, did not buy) - high CPC;
Purchasers — average CPC;
General visitors — low CPC;
Cart viewers (viewed cart) - high CPC.
8. Exclude Product viewers, Cart viewers and Purchasers from the General visitors group.

9. Exclude Cart viewers and Purchasers from the Product viewers group.

10. Exclude Purchasers from the Cart viewers group.

Why is this important? Users who were in the cart also fall into the list of those who viewed the product. To avoid such an intersection, you need to exclude audiences, as indicated in the list above. This will help you properly segment your audience and show relevant ads based on your bid to the right audience.

After that, the campaign is ready to launch. Of course, the work does not end there: then there is management, hygiene, optimization, A/B testing of everything that can be tested... You know. In the meantime, it's time to take the first step and start in dynamic remarketing!
Summary
Remarketing is a type of campaign that targets users who have already interacted with the site. It's suitable for working with any audience: just visitors, new customers, repeat customers - it all depends on the strategy.

Remarketing can be static (collects standard data) and dynamic (also collects special attributes or parameters for more personalized advertising). Any remarketing as a whole is very profitable for the business, so its audience has a higher probability of conversion.

For remarketing to work, a code (Google Ads or Google Analytics) is installed on the site, which registers visits and collects user cookies. On the basis of cookies, remarketing lists are later formed, which, in fact, show ads.

The step-by-step configuration algorithm looks like this:

In your Google Analytics settings, enable dynamic remarketing and ad reporting features for your web property.
Link your Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts.
Create and upload a product feed to the Merchant Center. Link it to your Google Ads account. Technically, advertising can be done without merchant center, but we recommend this option, as it allows you to use one feed for both Google Shopping and dynamic remarketing.
Send attributes to Google Analytics through custom parameters.
Create an audience for dynamic remarketing in Google Analytics.
Create dynamic attributes in Google Analytics in your audience settings to import data into Google Ads.
Create a dynamic remarketing campaign.
Manage, optimize and enjoy your excellent work!
That's all 🙂 Bet ♥, write questions in the comments and share your experience with dynamic remarketing. Pump together!