Adwords Tip: Dynamic Keywords

Posted on July 8, 2009 by Carol

Have you ever looked at the Adwords adverts on Google search results and wondered why some of them are bold in parts and why some of them always seem to have EXACTLY what you’re searching for in the advert text?

This is achieved through Dynamic Keywords. Rather than fix your advert text, you can enter a dynamic keyword placeholder so that whatever the user has searched for will appear in your advert text!

For example, I recently created the following advert:

• {Keyword: Encaustic Art}
  Original {keyword: encaustic art paintings}
  Direct from artist, from £15 each

If someone searched for one of my keywords – e.g. “beeswax paintings”, my advert would appear like this:

• Beeswax paintings
  Original beeswax paintings
  Direct from artist, from £15 each

Or if someone searched for another of my keywords – e.g. “encaustic paintings”, my advert would appear like this:

• Encaustic paintings
  Original encaustic paintings
  Direct from artist, from £15 each

Get the idea?  The rules of Adwords advert creation still apply though – if the keyword is greater than 25 characters, it won’t display (so you’d be left with a blank headline).  Avoid this situation by including alternative text in the format {Keyword:alternative_text}.  In my example advert above, I’ve used the alternative text “encaustic art”.

You can format your dynamic keyword in a variety of ways:

• {Keyword} will capitalise the first letter of the first word
• {keyword} will put all words in lower case
• {KEYWord] will CAPITALISE the first word and have other words start with an initial capital
• {KEYWORD} will CAPITALISE the whole keyword

Dynamic keywords can make your advert stand out, but only if you’re one of the few doing it.  If all your competitors are doing the same, you might actually stand out more by choosing NOT to have dynamic keywords!!

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  Carol Beck is an internet consultant and web developer; offering a range of website services, online training and free tips & advice.  View the original article in context at http://www.ethictech.co.uk