To put it colloquially, when you activate a DSA campaign you are telling Google to send traffic to the page you have chosen.
Google already knows, from your other campaigns, how your page works, has it indexed and is able to decide which keywords to send you. It is true that you can put as many negative keywords as the campaign limits accept, you can set the budget you are willing to spend and you can tell it to send you the traffic it gets to a certain category that you have previously defined.
Google will not tell you what keywords it will send you, but afterwards, you will be able to see in the search term reports what it has sent you.
It is at this point that you have the ability to decide that you do not want to keep sending you people who have made a certain search because you have found that it does not convert well.
The DSA paradigm
For many advertisers, DSA campaigns don't do badly at all and when they measure performance, they decide that it pays off. Remember that the time they have invested in creating them is the time it takes to tell Google the refusals, landing pages and part of the ad, since another part is generated dynamically by Google.
So up to this point, nothing to complain about.
These campaigns require little investment in time and give a decent return. But, and there is always a but, Google never gives anything for free.
The problem arises when you review the search terms that have converted and find that a keyword as generic and with as little purchase intent as the word "red" has converted!
Miracle? I don't think so.
Here's how Google manages to give you such an absurd keyword that converts.
Google knows the entire sequence of searches that a single person has done over time.
This means that if someone has made the following searches:
- t-shirts
- long sleeve t-shirts
- narrow t-shirts
- v-neck t-shirts
If in the next iteration the person searches for "red", Google combines all the previous information and comes to the conclusion that this person is looking for exactly this:
- Long-sleeved, narrow, v-neck, red T-shirts.
A word like "red", which Google knows no one wants, it gives it to you because it is also certain that with that keyword it will convert.
You may think that "red" is a cheap keyword and that it works. But, don't be fooled, "red" by itself would never convert out of this context, and unfortunately this context is only known to Google.
Google has sold you a word that nobody would buy but that has worked for you, and it has also given it to you very cheaply.
So far there is no objection other than the fact that it is using its own structure and the knowledge it has of your account to make its trades.
But we cannot forget that this is a listed company that has the obligation to grow every quarter, so obviously it optimizes for its profits and not for yours, and therefore in addition to selling you "red" it also sells you words that are not good for you.
Let's look at another example.
In one of our clients in the education sector, we have an internal marketing team that manages brand and Head-Tail campaigns, and we manage Long-Tail and DSA campaigns.
If someone searches for the word "police" or "national police", only this keyword in exact, we have them in negative. And the reason is clear, the word "police" is such a generic term that does not give any clue about the intention behind that search. We can be looking for a phone number to file a report, a nearby office, the renewal of the DNI, etc. But if someone searches for "National Police Courses" or "National Police Examinations" we want it.
What does DSA do?
It buys it and converts it.
And you are left with your mouth wide open and with that unpleasant feeling of not understanding anything. But it's easy to understand.
Google knows things you don't know and Google takes advantage of information you don't have.
The Google paradigm
So far there are several lessons:
We are in Google's hands.
It is Google who decides what it gives you and what it doesn't give you and it usually bases its decision on essential factors such as your budget.
It is not going to give you all the words it could give you because it knows they will convert. It won't give them to you, because to keep everyone "happy" it has to distribute them among its thousands of advertisers. It needs clients who think DSA is doing well, and keep investing.
And the best part is that DSA could work much better if Google wanted it to.
Imagine a scenario where you are able to tell Google that you are pulling all your budgets from your other campaigns, because DSA is doing so well that they are no longer needed, and that you want them to give you only the word "police", but only when the client has searched for the word "police", and only when the client has searched for the word "police". but only when the client has searched seven times for the keyword "police courses", "police competitive exams", etc.
Google gives you words that it knows will convert and at a very low price, but only to compensate for those that it has given you at a high price, even knowing that it would not convert. This way it makes sure it makes the money it needs to make without making its customers too angry.
I don't know how you see it, but to me this attitude is very similar to a scam.
You as the customer give Google all the clues:
You tell it what your target cost is.
What your budget is.
And you let them choose the keywords.
And to make it even more complicated you use Analytics.
What more do you want?
If even competing with someone evil, the campaigns we manage improve the results of DSA, it means that if Google were honest it would sweep and DSA would be the panacea.
But, unfortunately nothing at Google is a panacea.
Google continually has to optimize to get more revenue for the impressions it generates. Their costs are there and someone has to pay them.
Add to this situation that it now has fewer searches because people are spending more and more time on other platforms; Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, etc. In addition, people are increasingly using mobile and less and less desktop, resulting in fewer ads. Consequently, monetizing is more complicated.
The best way to optimize is to have full control of the system so you can know how to raise the cost enough to make your system work, hence your obsession with automation.
If 100% of customers told Google "do whatever you want", it could calculate at the end of the month that to earn the X million it needs, it only has to increase each of its customers by one thousandth, no one would know and they would be happy!
Summary
The moral is clear:
Don't limit yourself to just DSA. Keep your brand campaigns, head-Tail, Long-Tail and, if you want, add DSA.
But never ever gamble on just sharing one card because, besides, that card is marked!
One more week, thanks for reading me and if you disagree on something or want more information, leave me a comment and I'll be happy to chat with you.
Best regards,
AL
