How to audit Dynamic Search Ads [DSA] in Google Ads

Sign in to your Google ads account
Click the arrow on the left
Select the DSA campaign or ad group

Step 1
Click on ‘Keywords’ and then ‘Search terms’

Do you see anything you don’t like or don’t align with your landing pages?
Is the CPC too high compared to the intent of the keyword?
Are keywords being excluded? If yes, should they be?
Is the impressions volume high enough compared to the search volume?
Is CTR above 1%?

Step 2
Click on ‘Landing pages’ and then ‘Expanded landing pages’

Check the coverage of the landing pages. Are pages missing?
What is the mobile speed score of each page?
What is the mobile-friendly click rate of each page?
Are AMP pages getting enough clicks?

Step 3
Click on ‘Settings’ and then ‘Dynamic Search Ads setting’

What are the sources of your dynamic search ads? Is it Google index? Is it from a page feed? Is it both?

Consider using ‘both’

Step 4
Click on ‘Tools and Settings’, then ‘Business Data’, and then ‘Data Feeds’.

Click on the ‘page feed’.

Open the page feed connected to the dynamic search ads and check the status of the URLs.
Are the URLs approved?
Are the destinations working?
Are there errors that should be fixed?

If no ‘page feed’ is found in the settings then consider creating at least one.

Step 5

Have a look at the metrics

Are dynamic search ads underperforming?
Is there enough budget?
Is the targeting too limiting?
Is there keyword cannibalization?
Do your dynamic search ads match the keywords?
Do your dynamic search ads match the intent?

Last but not least

If your pages fall into any of these categories then you should consider alternatives

Categories

Websites that change rapidly eg daily deals
Poorly written content
Poorly written headlines
Poorly written descriptions
Pages with ‘thin content’
Pages with ‘sensitive content’
Password protected content

If you want to know more about Google Ads audits, then visit the following link

Google Ads Audit guide & free [Notion & Google Sheets] template

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