Should you exclude Brand Keywords from DSA if you have a Brand campaign?

By: Jyll Saskin Gales, Google Ads Coach

If you're running Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) in your Google Ads account, you might have stumbled upon a curious phenomenon: your DSA campaign is performing well for branded keywords, driving a significant number of conversions. But should you allow this to continue if you already have a dedicated Brand campaign?

Let's break it down.

The Purpose of Dynamic Search Ads

Dynamic Search Ads are designed to complement your keyword-based campaigns by capturing additional traffic and searches you might miss. They leverage your website content to automatically generate ads for relevant queries, without having to explicitly target keywords.

However, if your DSA campaign is hogging all the branded traffic, it can kill your= separate Brand campaign.

The Case for Excluding Brand Keywords from DSA

Here's why excluding branded keywords from your DSA campaign can be a smart move, especially if you already have a dedicated Brand campaign:

• Avoid Duplication of Effort: If your Brand campaign is already effectively capturing branded traffic, there's no need to compete with yourself with a DSA campaign.
• Maximize DSA's Potential: DSAs are meant to uncover new, non-branded search opportunities. By excluding branded keywords, you free up DSA's potential to discover these untapped avenues.
• Maintain Separate Data: Brand and non-brand search traffic often behave differently. By keeping them in separate campaigns, you can analyze their performance independently and make more informed optimizations.

What If You Don't Have a Brand Campaign?

If you don't have a dedicated Brand campaign, you can decide whether to let your DSA campaign capture branded traffic or create a separate Brand campaign to keep it distinct.

However, I generally recommend keeping brand and non-brand campaigns separate due to their distinct performance characteristics and optimization needs. DSA's potential is wasted on Branded searches.

The Verdict

In most cases, excluding branded keywords from your Dynamic Search Ads is the best approach, especially if you have a separate Brand campaign. This allows each campaign to fulfill its intended purpose and ensures you're not competing against yourself for the same traffic.