DSA Campaigns (Dynamic Search Ads)
DSA (Dynamic Search Ads) campaigns are text ads in which Google automatically generates headlines based on the content of your website — matching them to a specific user query. You only provide the ad descriptions and specify the domain. You do not configure a keyword list — Google scans your site on its own and decides when to show the ad.
Table of Contents
- Three DSA campaign variants in Sembot
- How DSA differs from Search campaigns
- DSA campaign wizard steps
- When to use DSA campaigns
Three DSA campaign variants in Sembot
| Type | Name in UI | Targeting basis |
|---|---|---|
| DSA Campaign | DSA Campaign | Products from the feed — filters as in Shopping |
| DSA brand | DSA brand | Specific brands and their URL pages |
| DSA category | DSA category | Product categories from the project |
You choose the variant during campaign creation in the Campaign type section.
How DSA differs from Search campaigns
| Search Campaign | DSA Campaign | |
|---|---|---|
| Targeting | Keyword list | Content of your website — Google scans it automatically |
| Ad headlines | You define in Templates | Automatically generated by Google from page titles |
| Ad descriptions | You define in Templates | You define in the Template step |
| Destination URL | You set in the template | Google selects the subpage that best matches the query |
| Keywords | Required | Not configured |
| Domain | Not required | Required — must match the domain in Google Merchant Center |
DSA campaign wizard steps
Step 1 — Configuration
Fields common to all DSA variants:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Campaign name | Name visible in Sembot and Google Ads |
| Google connections | Google Ads account |
| Domain | Your website address — Google scans it for matching subpages. Must be the same as in Google Merchant Center |
| Language | Target language for ads |
Step 2 — Scope selection (different for each variant)
DSA Campaign → Products step
Works identically to Shopping campaigns — you filter products from the feed to be handled by the campaign. Sembot shows the number of matched products.
DSA brand → Brands step
Sembot fetches the list of brands available in the project. For each selected brand, you provide the URL of that brand's page in your store. Google will only show ads on subpages matching those URLs.
DSA category → Categories step
Sembot fetches the product categories from the project. You select which categories should be handled by the campaign. Google will match ads to subpages with products from the selected categories.
Step 3 — Targeting (optional)
Same as in other campaign types — percentage bid adjustments by Location, Gender, and Device (Increase / Decrease).
Step 4 — Segmentation (optional)
Split into ad groups by product attributes — works the same as in Shopping and Search campaigns.
Step 5 — Template
The Template step in DSA works differently than in Search:
- Headlines — field inactive; Google generates them automatically from the titles of your website's subpages
- Descriptions — you define them manually (max. 90 characters); you can use the formatting options Capitalize, Lowercase, Truncation, Stop at (?.!)
- Pinned positions — not available in DSA (no control over headline order)
- Product attribute values — dynamic attributes (brand, color, product type, etc.) are not available in DSA templates
Result: a DSA ad always has an up-to-date headline matched to the query (generated by Google) and a consistent, manually written description (from your template).
Step 6 — Summary
Campaign preview, number of campaigns and groups, sync launch — identical to all other campaign types.
When to use DSA campaigns
DSA campaigns work well when:
- You have a large website with many product subpages you don't want to cover with manual keywords
- You want to reach queries you haven't included in Search campaigns
- You run a store with a rapidly changing assortment — Google continuously indexes new pages
DSA brand campaign — when you want to advertise specific brands with dedicated landing pages for each.
DSA category campaign — when you have a clear product category structure and want to manage budgets and bids separately for each category.
DSA campaigns work well alongside Search and Shopping campaigns — they complement them with traffic from long-tail queries not covered by keywords.