Google Dynamic Search Ads (DSA): How They Work, Page Feeds and the 2027 AI Max Upgrade

Google Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) turn the pages of your website into search ads. Google reads your site, matches pages to searches, and writes the headline and picks the landing page itself. You only write the description. They still run today, but starting in February 2027 Google automatically upgrades DSA campaigns to AI Max.

This guide covers how DSA works, how page feeds let you choose exactly which pages Google uses, and what the AI Max upgrade changes. For WooCommerce stores, it also shows how to build the page feed from your catalog instead of keeping a spreadsheet by hand.

Google rules checked against Google Ads Help and the Google blog on November 5, 2026. Dates in the upgrade can change: check Google’s notice in your account.

What Are Dynamic Search Ads?

Dynamic Search Ads are Google Search ads that use your website content to choose which searches to show for. Google generates the headline and picks the landing page from your site; you write the description. Google sometimes shortens the name to DSA.

What that means in practice:

• No keyword lists. Google matches searches to the titles and phrases on your pages.
• Headline from your page. Google writes it for the most relevant page; the page’s HTML title is the strongest signal.
• Display URL from your final URL. An ad for www.example.com/outdoor/hiking/shoes shows www.example.com.
• You still control the targets. You choose which pages to use: categories, URL rules or a page feed (below).

Are Dynamic Search Ads Still Available in 2026?

Yes, for now. DSA campaigns still serve. But Google announced on April 15, 2026 that it is upgrading DSA to AI Max, and on June 11, 2026 moved the DSA sunset and auto-upgrade to February 2027.

Google says you’ll get a notification in your account before the transition begins.

What changes when DSA upgrades to AI Max

Google describes the automatic upgrade like this:

• Campaigns with dynamic ad groups move to standard ad groups, with settings and data carried into AI Max.
• All three AI Max features are turned on: search term matching, text customization and final URL expansion.
• Your legacy URL controls are preserved.

You don’t have to wait. You can test AI Max against an existing DSA campaign with a Google Ads experiment:

• Custom experiment: at the “Make Changes” step, open the Dynamic Search Ads settings in the draft campaign and select Upgrade campaign.
• Experiment template: Experiments → Campaigns features and settings → AI Max for Search campaigns. Campaigns made entirely of dynamic ad groups can’t use templates. In a mixed campaign, the template upgrades only the standard ad groups.

Our advice: run the experiment now, while you can still compare the two and choose your own settings, rather than let the auto-upgrade decide for you.

Should you still launch a DSA campaign now?

This is a judgement call, not a Google rule:

• Launch DSA now if you want a short test before February 2027, or you already run DSA elsewhere and want like-for-like data. Plan for it to be upgraded.
• Go straight to AI Max for Search if you’re starting fresh and want a campaign that won’t change type in a few months.
• Either way, build a clean page feed. Google’s page-feed article covers both DSA and Performance Max, and Google says legacy URL controls carry into AI Max. Clean, labelled store URLs are worth having whatever you run.

Dynamic Search Ads vs Responsive Search Ads: Key Differences

How Do Dynamic Search Ads Work?

1. You give Google the pages. Google uses your site’s content, or a page feed of URLs you upload. A Merchant Center product feed is not one of the DSA targeting options.
2. Someone searches. When the search is closely related to the titles and frequently used phrases on your site, Google picks a landing page from your site.
3. Google writes the headline. The most important signal is the page’s HTML title. Google may make small edits to fit its editorial policies, and can’t promise in advance which headline will show.
4. Your description and display URL complete the ad. You write the description; the display URL comes from the final URL’s domain.

To help Google write better headlines, keep your page titles and headlines to 60 or 90 characters and follow Google’s editorial rules.

One caution for stores. Google says Dynamic Search Ads aren’t recommended if your website changes rapidly, for example with daily deals. If your store runs flash sales or swaps products daily, keep those pages out of DSA, or test carefully.

What Are Negative Dynamic Ad Targets?

Negative dynamic ad targets stop chosen pages from generating ads. You can exclude pages by category, page content, page title or URL, at campaign or ad group level. Google strongly recommends excluding pages that contain words like “sold out” or “unavailable”.

You can also add negative keywords. DSA doesn’t use keywords, but negative keywords still decide when your ads can show. Google’s Create exclusions for Dynamic Search Ads page has the click path.

Dynamic Search Ad Examples

Example 1: Google’s own hotel example. A hotel chain runs DSA. Someone searches “luxury hotel New York”. The ad shows the headline “Luxury hotel – NYC”, and the click lands on the chain’s page for its New York luxury locations. The advertiser wrote only the description.

Example 2: a WooCommerce store with a labelled page feed (an illustration, not a real store). The store uploads a page feed with three product URLs:

In a dynamic ad group, the store adds one dynamic ad target for the custom label bestseller. Ads from that target can only use the linen shirt and canvas tote pages. The wool scarf goes to a second target with a lower bid, because Google lets you target custom labels and adjust your bid per label. If the campaign uses “page feed only” as its targeting source, no other page on the site can serve.

Requirements for Using Dynamic Search Ads

Before you start, check that your site meets Google’s conditions:

• Google AdsBot can crawl it. If ads are disapproved for “Destination Not Working” or “Destination Not Accessible”, check that robots.txt isn’t blocking AdsBot-Google.
• Pages work. Landing pages return 200 OK, with no 403, 404 or other errors.
• Content Google can read. DSA doesn’t work well on sites that are mostly Flash or images, or that need a sign-in for most content.
• Good HTML titles and clear content. These drive both the headline and which searches match.
• Ad policies. Review Google Ads policies first.
• One language per campaign. If your site has several languages, Google recommends a separate campaign per language.

Our view: DSA also needs enough real page content to match searches. A store with thin product pages gets thin ads.

How to Set Up a Dynamic Search Ads Campaign

Heads-up: Google stops new DSA campaign creation when the auto-upgrade begins (currently February 2027).

Google’s Create a Dynamic Search Ad page has the full click path. The short version:

1. Create a new Search campaign and pick your bidding, locations, languages and budget.
2. Publish it, then open the campaign’s Settings tab.
3. Open the Dynamic Search Ads setting, enter your website domain and choose the site language. Save.
4. Create an ad group and set the Ad group type to Dynamic (the default), not Standard.
5. Choose your dynamic ad targets (table below).
6. Click New ad → Dynamic Search Ad and write the description. Google generates the headline, final URL and display URL.
7. Add negative dynamic ad targets and negative keywords.
8. Give it time: after you enable a new domain, Google recommends waiting at least 2 days before judging results.

Targeting options:

Limits worth knowing: up to 25,000 dynamic ad targets per account (page feed values don’t count toward it), and up to 100 page feeds per account.

When to Use Dynamic Search Ads

DSA fits when:

• You have a large site or catalog and keyword lists can’t keep up.
• Your keyword campaigns miss searches. DSA can fill those gaps and find extra traffic.
• You want to launch faster without mapping keywords and ad text to every product.
• You need a bridge. Until February 2027, a DSA campaign can run while you test AI Max against it.

Skip or limit it when your pages change daily (daily deals), your pages are thin or mostly images, or you need exact control over every word of the ad. Looking for dynamic ads that show your products on Facebook and Instagram instead? That’s a different product: see Facebook dynamic product ads.

DSA vs Performance Max: Key Difference

In short: if you want search ads built from your pages, the choice from 2027 is AI Max for Search. Performance Max is the one to pick when you want one campaign across all of Google’s channels. For product ads with images and prices, see our guide to Google Shopping ads.

How to Use Page Feeds with DSA

A page feed is a spreadsheet of URLs you upload to Google Ads, so DSA uses exactly the pages you choose. Google’s rules:

Upload it: in Google Ads, click Tools → Business data → + → Page feed, name the feed, Choose file, then Apply.

Connect it to the campaign: in the campaign’s Settings, open Dynamic Search Ads and pick a targeting source:

• Use URLs from my page feed only: ads serve only on URLs in your feed.
• Use URLs from both Google’s index of my website and my page feed: ads can use any indexed page. Custom-label targets still serve only feed pages.

Google’s Use a feed to target Dynamic Search Ads and Performance Max page has the full steps.

Best Page Feed Tool for WooCommerce DSA: CTX Feed

In a WooCommerce store, your page feed should come from your catalog, not from a spreadsheet you keep by hand. Products get added, deleted and moved every week; a hand-kept sheet falls behind.

CTX Feed, a WooCommerce product feed plugin, ships a Google Dynamic Search Ads template in its free version. Pick it on the Make Feed screen, and the feed is set up for Google’s page-feed format:

• Two columns for Google’s page-feed format: Page URL, mapped to the product URL by default, and Custom Label.
• CSV file, the format the template outputs.
• Custom Label starts as fixed text: type one label, such as bestseller, and CTX Feed writes it on every row. To label groups differently, make one feed per group. Choosing which products go in a feed uses the Filters tab, and most product filters (by category, for example) need CTX Feed Pro.
• Fresh on a schedule: the feed rebuilds on its Update interval: every 1 hour up to every week in the free version, and every 5–45 minutes with Pro.
• Clean URLs: Google says page feed URLs shouldn’t contain tracking parameters. New CTX Feed feeds start with empty campaign (UTM) parameters, and UTMs are only added when Source, Medium and Campaign are all filled. Check that the Campaign URL fields on the Filters tab are empty for this feed, and clear any values.

Download the CSV from Manage Feeds (Download) and upload it to Google Ads as a page feed. CTX Feed keeps the file current; the upload itself happens in Google Ads. When products change, download the new file and update the page feed there. If you also run Shopping campaigns from the same catalog, see our guide to Google Shopping feed management.

Why not a hand-kept sheet? New products never make it in, deleted products stay in and send ads to dead pages, a copied row creates a duplicate URL that fails the upload, and every change means editing the sheet and re-uploading.

Steps for building a feed: make a feed in CTX Feed, set the update interval, and set a fixed custom label.

Build your DSA page feed from WooCommerce with CTX Feed (free)

Need rebuilds faster than hourly? See CTX Feed Pro.

How to Optimize a DSA Campaign: 6 Key Tips

1. Bid by custom label. Label your page feed (bestseller, clearance, new) and set bids per label, as Google allows.
2. Exclude what can’t sell. Add negative dynamic ad targets for “sold out” and “unavailable” pages.
3. Read the search terms report. Google says DSA works best when you check it regularly and add negative keywords. See Google’s DSA search terms report.
4. Add assets. Add sitelinks, callouts and other assets to the campaign, as you would for any search campaign.
5. Split targets by value. Put high-margin pages in their own target so you can bid on them separately if you set bids manually.
6. Fix your page titles first. The HTML title is the main headline signal. Clear titles of 60 or 90 characters make clearer ads.

Why Use Dynamic Search Ads: 5 Key Benefits

Google lists these benefits:

1. Saves time. No mapping of keywords, bids and ad text to each product.
2. Generated headlines. For a relevant search, Google writes a clear headline for your most relevant page.
3. You steer the ads. Use your whole site, chosen categories or pages, or keep ads off products that are temporarily out of stock.
4. Extra traffic. DSA finds searches your keywords don’t target.
5. Display URL handled for you. It comes from your final URL’s domain.

The catch: generated ads follow your pages. If your pages change daily, Google doesn’t recommend DSA.

Pros and Cons of Dynamic Search Ads

Frequently Asked Questions

Key Takeaways

• Dynamic Search Ads build search ads from your website pages; you write only the description.
• DSA upgrades to AI Max from February 2027, and new DSA campaigns stop then.
• Test AI Max now with a Google Ads experiment, instead of waiting for the auto-upgrade.
• DSA targets pages and page feeds, not a Merchant Center product feed.
• A page feed has two columns, Page URL and Custom label, with no tracking parameters and no duplicates.
• WooCommerce stores can generate that page feed with CTX Feed’s free Google Dynamic Search Ads template.
• Good HTML page titles make good DSA headlines.

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[ABOUT] the author

Shayak Hossain

Md. Shayak Hossain Adib works as a WooCommerce writer and e-commerce researcher at WebAppick LLC, a well-known e-commerce plugin development company. With around 4 years of experience in the content marketing field, he loves creating content that helps businesses connect with their target audience by being engaging and informative. As a content strategist, Shayak has helped multiple companies grow through well-structured, SEO-optimized articles. He also understands the key aspects related to the e-commerce industry and knows the tactics and strategies to make an e-commerce store grow in the online field.

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