The Underutilized Google Ads Strategy: DSA + RLSA for Advanced Lead Gen Retargeting

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Why Most Advertisers Are Missing This Combination

There’s a powerful Google Ads strategy that most advertisers either don’t know about or aren’t using: combining Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs) with Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSAs). On their own, each is useful. Together, they become one of the most effective ways to recapture high-intent visitors who’ve already been to your website.

Let me break down why this works and exactly how to set it up.

Understanding the Two Components

RLSAs (Remarketing Lists for Search Ads)

RLSAs let you target your retargeting audiences specifically within Google Search. Instead of showing ads to everyone searching for your keywords, you’re focusing on people who have already visited your website. They’ve browsed, they’ve looked around — they already know who you are.

DSAs (Dynamic Search Ads)

DSAs are campaigns where you don’t control the keywords or headlines. Instead, Google pulls content from your website and matches it to search queries automatically. If you have a great page on mortgage rates, for example, Google might show a headline like “Great Mortgage Rates” when someone searches for that term and send them directly to that page.

Why the Combination Is So Effective

Here’s the scenario: Someone visits your website, browses a few pages, and leaves. A day or two later, they go back to Google with a more specific, higher-intent search query — one that your standard keyword campaigns might not capture.

This is where the DSA + RLSA combination shines. The DSA captures that long-tail search query by matching it to relevant content on your site, and the RLSA ensures you’re only targeting people who’ve already been to your website. You’re reconnecting with a warm audience at the exact moment they’re searching with higher intent.

Step-by-Step Setup in Google Ads

1. Create a Dynamic Ad Group

Navigate to the ad group level within your campaign and create a new ad group. Select Dynamic as the ad group type, then enter your website URL.

2. Set Your Dynamic Ad Targets

You have two options for targeting:

• Entire website — Simple, but usually not ideal. You probably don’t want Google targeting pages like your Contact Us page or blog posts.
• Specific URLs or rules — The better approach. Add the specific pages you want targeted, or create rules based on URL patterns.

For example, if all your feature pages follow the pattern yoursite.com/features/[feature-name], you can set a rule where the URL contains “features” to capture all of them automatically.

3. Write Your Descriptions

DSAs don’t let you control headlines — Google generates those dynamically. But you do write the descriptions. Make them count with clear value propositions and calls to action.

4. Add Your Remarketing Audiences

This is the critical step. At the ad group level, add your retargeting audiences. You can select any remarketing audience you’ve built — past website visitors, specific page visitors, or custom segments.

Important: Change the audience setting from “Observation” to “Targeting.” If you leave it on Observation, Google will show your DSAs to everyone, not just your remarketing audience. Setting it to Targeting ensures only past visitors see these ads, which is exactly what we want.

5. Set Negative Dynamic Ad Targets

As a safety measure, add negative dynamic ad targets for pages you don’t want Google pulling into your ads. Common exclusions include:

• Contact page
• Blog posts (unless that’s part of your strategy)
• Privacy policy or terms pages

We’ve seen cases where Google pulls in unintended pages even when they haven’t been directly targeted, so this step is worth doing every time.

When to Use This Strategy

DSA + RLSA is particularly effective for:

• Lead gen businesses with multiple service pages
• E-commerce sites with large product catalogs
• Any advertiser whose standard keyword campaigns can’t capture every possible long-tail variation

It’s a low-maintenance way to expand your reach to high-intent returning visitors without having to build out exhaustive keyword lists.

Key Takeaways

• Combine DSA and RLSA to capture returning visitors searching with long-tail, high-intent queries
• Always set audience targeting to Targeting, not Observation
• Use specific URL rules rather than targeting your entire website
• Add negative dynamic ad targets to prevent Google from pulling unwanted pages
• This is one of the most underutilized strategies in Google Ads for lead gen — test it

Questions about setting this up? Book a call and we’ll walk through it together.