AdRoll's dynamic ads re-engage website visitors with personalized content across devices and channels based on their browsing activity on your website, featuring previously-viewed, recommended, and top products.
Dynamic ads leverage a Product Feed to automatically pull product details, ensuring content like images, titles, and prices are current. You can manually connect your own product feed to AdRoll or automatically sync your product feed through our Shopify and WooCommerce integrations.
AdRoll supports the following types of dynamic ads, each offering customizable components and templates for tailored product promotion:
- Web Dynamic Ads
- Native Dynamic Ads
- Social Dynamic Ads (limited to legacy packages)
Key Benefits
Dynamic Ads offer significant advantages:
- Better Performance: They can achieve a 34% lower cost-per-acquisition (CPA) alone, and up to 61% lower CPA when combined with static ad campaigns, due to their high relevance.
- Personalization at Scale: Dynamic Ads deliver personalized content to each visitor, showing the most relevant and up-to-date product information automatically.
- Hands-Free Automation: Once set up, Dynamic Ads require minimal ongoing manual intervention, freeing up marketers' time.
Ad Types, Formats and Components
| Ad Format | Dimensions |
|---|---|
| Medium rectangle | 300×250 |
| Wide skyscraper | 160×600 |
| Mobile banner | 320x50 |
| Leaderboard | 728×90 |
| Large rectangle | 300x600 |
| Billboard | 970x250 |
| Component | Guidelines |
|---|---|
| Logo (Image) | JPG, PNG, Up to 150KB |
| Theme |
Select a free template for your ad from our list:
|
| UTM Parameters | Up to 768 characters, macros permitted |
| Destination URL | Automatically pulled from product feed |
| Product Name and Image | Automatically pulled from product feed |
| Ad Format | Dimensions |
|---|---|
| Native Web | 600x315 |
| Component | Guidelines |
|---|---|
| Title | Up to 25 characters, macros* permitted (@title or @price) |
| Description | Up to 125 characters, macros* permitted (@title or @price) |
| Brand Name | Up to 30 characters |
| Call to Action | Select from 12 CTAs |
| UTM Parameters (text) | Up to 768 characters |
| Destination URL | Automatically pulled from product feed |
| Product Name and Image | Automatically pulled from product feed |
Macros
Macros are strings of text that are replaced by a value or code when the ad gets served. For example, @title will be replaced with the actual title of the advertised product. This information is obtained directly from your product feed. We strongly encourage combining macros with static copy.
Only available for AdRoll Legacy plans
Dynamic Social Ads are only supported for AdRoll legacy plans. Recipes do not support Dynamic Social ads.
| Ad Format | Dimensions |
|---|---|
| Aspect ratio | 1.91:1 |
| Component | Guidelines |
|---|---|
| Title | Up to 25 characters |
| Link Description | Up to 20 characters |
| Description | Up to 125 characters |
| Call to Action | Select from 12 CTAs |
| UTM Parameters | Up to 768 characters |
| Destination URL | Automatically pulled from product feed |
| Product Name and Image | Automatically pulled from product feed |
Creating Dynamic Ads
Action Required: Connect your Product Feed to AdRoll
Before creating Dynamic Ads in AdRoll you must ensure your product feed is successfully connected to AdRoll.
To create and upload brand new Dynamic Ads using the AdRoll ad builder follow the steps below:
- Navigate to Asset Management in the main navigation.
- Click on Ad Library.
- Click Create and then select Create Dynamic Ads.
- Fill out the Fields:
-
General: Complete fields like Title, Description, Call to Action button, UTM Parameters, and Click-Tracker URL.
-
Web Dynamic Product Ads: Upload a Logo, choose a Theme, apply a Business Badge, finalise the theme color, and Displayed Price.
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Native Dynamic Product Ads: Add a Brand Name
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Facebook Dynamic Product Ads: Add Link Description, select the Ad Type, Multi/Single and insert Labels.
-
- Preview the Ads: A preview will show how the ad template looks with example product data on the right hand side of the builder. The specific products shown are illustrative; live ads will dynamically populate based on user Browse history.
- Click Create Ad.
- Your Dynamic Ads will automatically appear in the Ad Library, ready for use in campaigns.
Dynamic Ad Themes
We support various dynamic ads design templates. Check out some of the options below.
This is our most popular and top recommended template. It drives 14% higher CTR, 5% lower CPC, and 11% higher conversion rate than other templates. Combining it with other templates boosts the conversion rate lift to 23%.
A standard multi-product design featuring an animated CTA on hover.
A standard single-product design.
A multi-product design with an editable promo and timer section.
A multi-product carousel with a pickable monochromatic color scheme and product information on hover.
A product-heavy template with a single product takeover on hover.
A variation of our popular Gladiator template featuring multiple CTAs and promo text.
A multi-product layout with a single product takeover on hover.
A space-efficient multi-product layout where logo and promotional text alternate on smaller ad sizes.
A single-product layout with a large area for brand color and promo text.
Staggered "slot machine" transition animation with large area for brand color, logo, and promo. Fewer products allow for larger images and more white space.
Managing your Ads
Any ads you upload will be stored in your Ad Library. You can search for your ads by name or use filter options to select the ad(s) you want to edit.
Edit Individual Ads
To edit an individual ad, select the ad using the checkbox on the left, and choose the option to Edit, which appears at the top of the table.
- For Dynamic Web ads, you can edit the ad’s Name or Destination URL.
- For Dynamic Native ads, you can also edit the Brand Name and Description.
- For Dynamic Facebook ads, you can edit the ad’s Name, Destination URL, and text to accompany your ad image. You can also manage an optional call-to-action button.
Edit Multiple Ads
- Select all the ads you want to update using the checkboxes on the left and then click Edit on the menu at the top of the table.
- Edit a field as needed.
- Click Apply to all if needed. This will apply the changes made to this field to all selected ads.
- Click Save.
Edits will trigger a new ad review process
Editing any fields in the ad, with the exception of Name and UTM Parameters, will create a clone of the ad and trigger a review from our policy team. When the changes are approved, the cloned ad with edits will replace your existing ad in all campaigns and the ad library. If the edits are rejected, the original ad will continue running.
Assets used in an ad cannot be changed after creating the ad. Please create a new ad with the updated asset.
Copied ads will exist along with the original ads from which the copies were made. The copied ads will not be automatically added to any campaigns, but you can do this manually if needed.
Copying can be used to quickly create multiple variants of an ad that differ slightly in the Text, Description, or CTA used. This helps you test different messaging and identify what performs best.
Deleting an ad removes it from any campaigns it is serving in with immediate effect and from the ad library. You’ll no longer have access to the ad’s contents nor be able to restore the ad at any time.
The performance metrics associated with the ad will still be viewable from the campaigns in which it ran.
Recommendation: We strongly recommend not deleting your ads unless truly necessary.
If you wish to add UTM tags for more tracking options, visit our article Add UTM Tags to your AdRoll Campaigns.
Using your own Custom Dynamic Ads
Uploading your own custom dynamic ads to AdRoll is not available through the platform. Please reach out to your Account Manager. Spend requirements apply.
Go beyond templates with custom Dynamic web ads. Our in-house creative team is available to build impactful, on-brand ads. Browse through some of our creative capabilities and designs here. Please follow the Creative Assets Guidelines below if you wish to request the Custom Dynamic Ads.
To get started with Custom Dynamic Ads, email your Account Manager and provide the content from the following checklist:
☑️ Exact ad copy & CTA copy for each set requested:
- Use clear and simple text. 60 characters or less recommended.
☑️ Logo files:
- Vector file format recommended .ai / .svg / .eps.
- .jpg / .png are also accepted.
☑️ High-quality images and graphics:
- Image size 1000x1000px to allow cropping for different ad sizes.
- Avoid images with text and graphics included. Alternatively please supply the editable layered source files (.psd / .ai / .figma).
- You should provide your own images, we do not source stock images.
- We accept .jpg / .png / .webp / .ai / .svg / .eps / .psd / .figma file formats.
☑️ Video Files if requesting in-banner video ads:
- .MP4 format recommended. MOV is also accepted.
- File size up to 1GB (the design team will downsize video to an acceptable file size for use in banner ads).
- Maximum in-banner video length is 30 seconds
- Aspect ratio 16:9 or 1:1 is recommended, however any ratio is accepted.
- Text-free video is preferred. Avoid video with text/graphic overlays as it can cause issues with cropping and legibility in smaller ad sizes.
- Sound is not supported. The design team will mute audio in the video files.
☑️ Your desired fonts. Dynamic Ads use Google Fonts - they are the most reliable and there are hundreds to choose from. Provide a link to your preferred option or we will select a comparable font to what's used on your site.
☑️ General design direction:
- Describe what you want the ads to look like.
- If you aren’t sure, provide previous ad examples or your Static/HTML5 ad examples to base new ads on.
- Alternatively, you can ask to match the style of your website.
- Provide your company brand guidelines (optional but recommended).
☑️ If you want to design your own ads, please provide editable layered source files including all linked assets (.psd / .ai / .figma). Our design team can then incorporate dynamic product recommendations.
Dynamic Ads Best Practices
Dynamic ads drive a 44% lift in ROAS and a 115% increase in CTR. While our highly talented team of designers can shape almost any asset into stunning, high-performing web display ads, here are some tips:
Shoot eye catching, high-quality product photos
Products are at the heart of your dynamic ads campaign. Strong product visuals are central to making the sale.
Maintain consistent size/aspect ratio
Consistency in product image size and aspect ratio is visually appealing. With consistent product image sizes, ads of all sizes across all platforms will be better-served.
Use transparent backgrounds
Transparent backgrounds highlight your product to make it the focus of the ad.
Compose catchy copy and a call to action
Copy should be direct and eye-catching. Communicate customer benefits, appeal to their needs, and provide a clear call to action.
Keep product titles and descriptions brief
Brief titles and descriptions are more likely to grab the fast-moving eyes of former shoppers, especially when products are only displayed for an average of five seconds.
Test to see what works best
We recommend setting up an A/B test to determine what works for you.
Stay fresh
To avoid ad fatigue, refresh the look and feel of your ads. We recommend a creative refresh once per quarter.
Dynamic Ads FAQ
Which elements will the ad builder allow me to adjust?
You can change the call to action (CTA), color, and theme.
Can I edit my dynamic ads through the ad builder?
Once you've created your ads, you can edit the ad name and the tracking parameters. You can't change the CTA or the color in edit mode, but you can always create new ad sets from the ad builder with the correct elements.
Who should I target with dynamic ads?
We encourage you to use dynamic ads in all parts of the funnel, whether you're targeting all visitors or a cart audience. Our recommendation engine adjusts product recommendations depending on the visitor’s browsing activity.
How many products are shown in my dynamic web ad?
The products featured in dynamic ads are personalized to each visitor based on the visitor's browsing activity. The ads feature previously-viewed products (based on recency) and other recommended products based on similarity (visitors who viewed this product also viewed) and popularity (products with the most views).
Where do my dynamic ads click through to?
Visitors land on the product page URLs (provided in the feed) for the product that they click on.
What happens if the dynamic content fails to load?
The ad space will revert to your brand logo against a white background.