Tutorial · Dynamic remarketing for businesses with no product catalogue: real estate, education, travel, services

Dynamic remarketing ("here's the flat you looked at") isn't just for ecommerce. Google has feed templates for real estate, education, travel, jobs and local deals, plus a custom template for anything else (services, cars, events). This tutorial builds it from scratch.

Step 1 · Choose the vertical and prepare the sheet

Business data → + → Dynamic ad feed → choose the type. Each type has its own template (download it); the main columns:

Rules: a stable ID per item (the one the tag will use); large, clean images; prices with a currency; Final URL pointing at the item's page; Contextual keywords so Google can recommend related items.

Step 2 · Upload the feed (and schedule it)

Upload the file or schedule it from a Google Sheet / URL (daily) so that new, sold or out-of-stock items update themselves. Check the errors table after the upload (broken URLs, inaccessible images, duplicate IDs).

Step 3 · The tag with dynamic parameters

The site's Google tag has to send, on every relevant page, which item is being viewed:

dynx_itemid    = "flat-1234"          (the feed's ID)
dynx_pagetype  = "offerdetail"        (home | searchresults | offerdetail | conversionintent | conversion)
dynx_totalvalue= 245000               (optional)

(The parameter names change by vertical: dynx_* in custom/real estate, ecomm_* in retail, edu_* in education, and so on; the tag's template tells you which.)

With Tag Manager: dataLayer variables (dynx_itemid, dynx_pagetype) populated by the site on every item page, and the Google Ads remarketing tag with the "event parameters" mapped. Direct: the event block with those parameters in the tag.

Check: Tag Assistant shows the parameters on an item page; in Google Ads → Tools → Audience manager → Data sources, the tag shows "parameters received" and the feed shows "matching items" (how many of the tag's IDs exist in the feed; it should get close to 100%).

Step 4 · The remarketing lists

Audience manager → Segments → + Website visitors → rules by parameter: "viewed an item" (dynx_pagetype = offerdetail), "started converting" (conversionintent), "converted" (conversion, to exclude). Durations depending on the cycle (real estate: 60-90 days; education: 30-60).

Step 5 · The campaign

• Display: new campaign → sales/leads objective → Display → in Settings → Dynamic ads → Use a data feed → choose the feed. Targeting: the lists from step 4 (optimised targeting off). A responsive display ad: with a feed in place, the ad combines your images/text with the feed's items.
• Demand Gen: new campaign → product feed (it accepts business data feeds in several verticals) → ad groups by list.

Its own budget; frequency capped; converters excluded.

Step 6 · Verify end to end

1. Visit your site, open two items (two flats, for example), don't convert.
2. Wait until you enter the list (hours) and browse sites with Display.
3. You should see ads featuring those items (or related ones).
4. In the campaign: impressions on the "viewed item" list; the ads report with "feed items shown".

Common mistakes

• Different IDs in the tag and in the feed (capitals, prefixes): low "matching items".
• Wrong dynx_pagetype: the lists never fill up.
• Images that return 403 to the crawler.
• An unscheduled feed: sold items keep being advertised.
• A list that is too small (< 100 active users): the campaign serves no impressions.
• Optimised targeting left on: it stops being remarketing.

What it is really for

Estate agents (flats viewed), education (courses viewed), car dealers (cars), travel (destinations), events (tickets), services with a catalogue (treatments, plans): any business where "what you looked at" has an image, a price and a URL. It is the highest-converting remarketing outside ecommerce.

💡 Ninja trick: the custom feed accepts whatever you like as an item — including services with a guide price ("Implant from €990") — and the tag can send the service whose page was visited as dynx_itemid. For a services business it is the only remarketing that says something different to each visitor; combined with Lead Rating (which already has its snippet on the site), the viewed-item parameter is also a layer A signal.

What you should remember

• A template per vertical (or custom), a stable ID, images, price, URL; a scheduled feed.
• A tag with dynamic parameters (*_itemid, *_pagetype); check "matching items".
• Lists by page type; converters excluded; optimised targeting off.
• A Display or Demand Gen campaign with "use a data feed"; verify by viewing two items and waiting for the ad.