I assume you've read our beginners' guide to DCO advertising or know about DCO advertising already. If you don't, I advise you to read that guide first.
Does DCO advertising sound like something you want to test out? If you're still reading, I assume that's the case.
So let's jump straight into it.
In this guide, we'll go over creating DCO campaigns that captivates and converts.
Start by gathering your data. Structure the data that will be included in your ad variations — this could be anything from weather conditions, user browsing behavior, or the user's favorite color (Although, the last one might be a stretch).
Then, create your dynamic elements. Design a variety of creative elements that can be dynamically combined based on the data you have gathered for your campaign.
To make this work you will need an ad platform that supports DCO advertising. Let's take a look at a few suggestions:
Google Marketing Platform: In this platform, you can create complex DCO ads - however, there is a heavy focus on data management, meaning the creative options are somewhat limited.
Adobe Advertising Cloud: Another big-name player, with a powerful tool; however, there's a lack of supported integrations. This means, that if you using other platforms, they do not seamlessly integrate into Adobe's which - depending on your setup - can be frustrating, when you want to get started with DCO ads.
Zuuvi: One of the reasons why you should choose Zuuvi as your DCO advertising platform is the fact that it will streamline the creation and management of DCO campaigns with tools that require extremely little tech expertise (and requires no coding). It’s super accessible, even to the newest ad creators, which normally is one of the main entry barriers.
On top of that, the platform seamlessly integrates with Google Studio, meaning you get the complex data management that Google has and still retain access to the unlimited creative options that Zuuvi has that Google currently does not offer.
Zuuvi's integration with Google Studio lets users merge complex data management with unlimited creativity. Read more about that below!
Once you created and tested your dynamic creatives, continuously analyse the performance of different creative combinations and refine your approach based on real-time feedback.
By systematically setting up your DCO campaigns, you ensure that each ad delivered is optimised for the best possible performance.
Let's dive deeper into the step-by-steps of creating DCO ads in Zuuvi.
1. Produce Ad Creative
Firstly, you create your creative template for your DCO ads. You choose your animations, place the text and whatever images you want on your ad.
2. Add a ‘Dynamic Source’
There are different ways to add your data sources for your DCO ads.
Upload file
Firstly, you can upload a .csv file that contains the data that your ads will draw information from.
URL parameters from web page
You can also choose to import your desired data from web URLs. This could be specific product categories or likewise.
Dynamic link - This is the one, we are using in this example
A dynamic link ensures that your feed/products are always up-to-date. So if a product (“row”) is removed, updated or edited it will automatically change on your ad creative.
Here are the typical options to use:
Sitemap from your website (.xml, .csv)
Published Google Sheets file (.csv
Link from Third-party Data Management Software
CPD Retargeting link - 1st party data
If you are using a Customer Data Platform (CDP) and have 1st party data available, you can add this link.
This allows you to hyper-personalize your ads based on user data. Take a few examples:
A user has added a product to your basket - but not purchased = Retarget with that specific product
A user has purchased new running shoes = Promote socks, shorts, t-shirts
A user has purchased new running shoes 365 days ago = Promote new shoes
Just reach out to us, and we’ll help you with the setup here.
P.S. If you are already a Raptor Services customer today, the integration is already set up!
3. Choose which data fields you want to use in your DCO Ads Creative
Next up you need to decide which data inputs you want to be present in your creative.
4. Add the dynamic data fields to your DCO ads
The dynamic data fields you have chosen in the above step need to be added to the creative itself. Looking at the right side of the screenshot below, you’ll see an example of this.
5. Save your Dynamic Ad Creative
After completing your creative, you’re ready to save your file.
6. Export the ad creatives to your preferred DSP
Next step is exporting your ads to the Demand-Side Platform you prefer. You can do this easily with just a single click in the Zuuvi Platform.
That means that once you have completed these steps, you will have up to several thousands of unique ads (depending on the amount of products you have). And all these have been created in hours rather than weeks. That’s a lot of time saved!
See below for a (very quickly designed) example of a DCO ad template made in Zuuvi. This potentially results in thousands of ads, made in a matter of minutes.
We hope you've learned how to create your first DCO advertising campaign!
If you’re looking for more information about creating DCO ads in Zuuvi, click here.