Google AdWords Dynamic Remarketing Script Basics and Setup Guide
Dynamic remarketing takes standard remarketing one step further. Where standard remarketing allows you to serve general ads (text and display) to people who have visited your website in the past, dynamic remarketing allows you to serve previous website visitors with ads specific to the products or pages they have viewed. As you can imagine, this capability is a highly valuable feature for targeting (or in this case, re-targeting) potential customers.
If you utilize standard remarketing today, upgrading to dynamic remarketing requires an update to the remarketing tracking script. If you are not yet utilizing any form of remarketing, you can go straight to implementing the dynamic remarketing script. Like in standard remarketing, this script needs to be implemented on all pages of your website, including all shopping cart and ‘thank you’ confirmation pages. Google provides comprehensive script implementation instructions that can be found in detail in the following two links:
The custom parameters contained within the script are unique to a variety of business types:
- Retail Sites (using Google Merchant Center feeds)
- Hotel Sites (using Hotel Price Ad feeds)
- Education Sites
- Flights Sites
- Hotel and Rentals Sites
- Jobs Sites
- Local Deals Sites
- Real Estate Sites
- Travel Sites
- Other Sites
For simplicity, the remainder of this guide will focus on the business type: Retail
The custom parameters associated with the retail business are as follows and can be found in the beginning portion of the script:
- ecomm_prodid
- ecomm_pagetype
- ecomm_totalvalue
A sample dynamic remarketing script for a retail website is below with the 3 custom parameters in BOLD text. The portion in Italics represents the standard remarketing script.
Configuring each custom parameter to pass the appropriate value on the designated page (to the AdWords account) is what allows dynamic remarketing to work. Some development is required for each custom parameter to pass the proper value. Each parameter must pass a value in accordance with the following guidelines:
- ecomm_prodid must pass a value that is the product ID of the product displayed on the corresponding page. The value passed must match the ID as it appears in your Google Merchant Center feed. This parameter allows the dynamic ad to show people the exact product they viewed. This parameter should be populated when the ecomm_pagetype value is a product.
- ecomm_pagetype must pass a value that indicates the type of page for the corresponding page where the script is located. This parameter should be populated on all pages. Valid values:
- home
- searchresults
- category
- product
- cart
- purchase
- other
- ecomm_totalvalue must pass a value that is equal to the $ value of a single product (or products) on the corresponding page where the script is located. This parameter should be populated when the ecomm_pagetype value is a product, cart or purchase.
When each of these custom parameters is configured properly, the values populated by each will communicate with the AdWords account to allow for a relevant (dynamic) ad to serve to the proper, previous site visitor. Besides reviewing the script on each webpage of a site, a good method for checking the proper implementation of the script can be found within the AdWords account. Shared library > Audiences > click on Tag details in the Remarketing tag window. The Details tab diagnosis the remarketing script and can help identify any deficiencies and examples of problems. Google Tag Assistant is also a helpful tool when you want to review the script on specific pages of a website.
Provided the script is implemented properly, dynamic remarketing campaigns can provide a very effective marketing method. Given the focused and relevant nature of the targeting, these types of campaigns tend to perform well and generate a favorable return on ad spend.
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