Dynamic Text Replacement – The Definitive Guide

Dynamic text replacement (DTR) is a powerful content automation feature that can help you tailor your Ad and landing page copy to make it relevant and targeted.

With it, you can boost your organic reach and drive more qualified leads to your sales funnel without creating separate campaigns.

In this guide, I am going to share all about Dynamic Text Replacement (with examples) and the tools you can use to insert this feature into your copy.

Let’s dive in.

What is Dynamic Text Replacement?

The term “Dynamic Text” refers to a technology called Conditional Content (CC) that automatically changes specific phrases when certain conditions are met. It’s a popular personalization tactic tons of brands employ to display only relevant content on their website.

Dynamic Text Replacement is an offshoot of CC, mainly designed to optimize your advertisement. It allows you to customize some part of your copy, so when your buyer searches for something on Google, your Ad automatically updates the text to show matched results.

For example. Let’s say, I am planning to save funds and want to explore some income generation venues.

When I typed in “how to make money online “on Google, an Ad from Wix instantly caught my eye because it seemed more aligned with my needs.

Later, when I narrowed my search to “how to earn money from freelancing,” surprisingly, the same Ad appeared, but with a different headline.

Now, keep in mind Wix is a website builder, and it provides its services to a diverse range of businesses.

Creating personalized Ads to target each industry would not only be costly but near impossible.

How do you think Wix solved that problem?

It, instead, used DTR to create a different version of the same campaign.

So, when I searched for how to earn money from freelancing, the headline swapped the original with the above variable.

This is essentially how DTR works.

Why Do You Need a Dynamic Text Replacement Feature?

Dynamic Text Replacement offers you a cost-effective way to personalize your advertisements and landing pages.

Why does personalization matter?

Let me demonstrate this to you with an example.

Imagine you’re planning a trip this year and want to see the best available options to make your experience memorable.

When you google best vacation spots, the below three Ads appear in your searched results.

Which post would you’d likely click to explore?

All three sites have launched the same PPC campaign and optimized it fully to generate organic traffic.

But the first advertisement has gotten the edge over its competitors by one point only—custom headlines.

Generic or irrelevant content gets 83% less response as compared to targeted marketing campaigns. A McKinsey survey of senior marketing leaders observes that only 15% of CMOs believe their business is on the right track with customer behavior personalization.

People respond better to custom Ads and prefer to buy from brands that offer a personalized experience.

The same is true for landing page copies. Even a custom CTA could boost your conversions by 202% alone.

With the DTR feature, you can save a lot of your time, capture more leads, and cut down your customer acquisition costs by 50%.

Types of Dynamic Text Replacement

There are two major areas where marketers typically apply Dynamic Text Replacement features to optimize their content.

• PPC Advertisement.
• Landing Pages

While my earlier example pretty much explains both types, let’s dig a little deeper for more clarity.

1. Google PPC Advertisement

Do you recall I mentioned earlier that while searching for two related queries on Google, sometimes the same Ad appears with a slightly altered heading?

It is a classic display of a DTR in a PPC Ad campaign.

Google has a custom text option that, when applied, automatically adapts your sponsored Ad to your target market’s search queries.

This feature allows you to build three different types of personalized content.

1. You can insert custom product information, CTA, prices, headlines, or any keyword in the body.

• You can create a FOMO Ad with a countdown timer and set it to auto.
• You can add an “IF and THEN” condition instructing your Ad manager to revert your advertisement to a backup text if your lead isn’t using your specified keyword in the search engine.

All three are designed to help you optimize your Ad text and gain a competitive advantage.

2. Landing pages

Besides PPC campaigns, brands also prefer the DTR feature for their landing pages to make sure the message on the page matches with the one in Google Ads.

In digital marketing, we call this action a “message match”.

It helps you reduce your bounce rate and boosts your PPC Ad’s performance.

How?

With a massage match, your prospect customers discover exactly what they came here to explore. It makes them want to scroll down to learn more about your brand, increasing the staying time. Since Google associates content quality with relevancy, the massage match also improves your Ad quality score.

In addition to message matching, you can also use DTR to offer a personalized experience to your audience. It involves only inserting your visitor’s name on your copy, but the single addition alone leaves a powerful impact on your visitor.

I have shared its demo below to give you a general idea of how you can make your landing page unique with this feature.

Go ahead and check it out!

How to use a Dynamic Text Replacement (Step-by-Step Guide)

I am going to demonstrate a step-by-step guide to adding a visitor’s name to your landing page copy as promised above.

For this Demo, I have picked out Logic Hop.

It is a WordPress plugin that specializes in conditional text and offers several ways to personalize your landing page, including DTR.

It has a bit of a learning curve, but once you get familiar with its IU, you’ll find it incredibly handy.

Let’s get started.

1. Login to your WordPress dashboard and scroll down to the plugin page. As you filter your search results, several Logic Hop plugins will appear on the screen.

2. Select Logic Hop Personalized Marketing for WordPress and install it.

3. Once you’ve activated the plugin, click on the plugin and pick the Conditions tab from the drop-down menu

 4. This is where you set the triggers. The form provides all the essential fields to create a custom condition. Once you fill out the form and press publish, it will automatically add your template to the condition lists.

5. After your template is published, click the page you want to personalize and go to the editor.

6. You can access the Logic Hop plugin from the editor and apply your template directly on the canvas. You’ll find the Logic Hop block on the right side and the panel settings on the right.

7. Add the block, select the condition you’ve just created (Business is a custom template title, by the way), paste the code where you want the dynamic text, and publish your page.

8. That’s it. You can also use its preview tool to see how your text would look in real-time.

It is the simplest form of Dynamic Replacement Text. You can leverage this feature to create custom content and set different triggers.

Best Dynamic Text Replacement Software

Logic Hop, no doubt, is a useful app for DTR, but there’re other options available in the market.

Below are the four popular tools I have put together to offer you some alternatives.

1. If-So

If-So is a versatile WordPress plugin that lets you personalize almost any type of content on your website.

You can alter your landing page headings, body text, CTA, and even images. You can also insert the keyword into the URL to direct relevant traffic to your site.

It additionally provides plenty of conditional formats to apply several triggers. For instance, you can show custom text on your homepage based on your visitor’s location, the device they use, and the time they visit your site.

Overall, it’s easy to use, supports third-party apps, and offers in-build analytics to track your performance.

Let me share its core features

Features

• Flexible DTR.
• Conditional text based on URL parameter, Geolocation, language, time, and visitor profile.
• Content personalization for referral link.
• Audience segmentation.
• Integrations

Price

If-So plugin prices are not listed on the site. But you can take a free 14-day trial to explore it.

2. Unbounce

Unbounce is an advanced landing page builder that provides you with tools to create stunning marketing campaigns.

Apart from page designing, it also allows you to insert dynamic text into your URL and script to personalize your landing pages. Using Unbounce, you can make your landing page PPC-Ad-alike and also set conditions based on your prospect’s browsing behavior.

What’s more, you can use its conditional formatting to create short sales promotions Sticky Bars as well.

Let me summarize Unbounce’s Dynamic content features.

Features

• Visually appealing Page builder.
• Multiple text replacement conditions.
• Easy message match.
• Personalized Sticky Bars and Popups.
• On-spot preview.

Price

Dynamic Text Replacement feature is only available in Unbounce’s Optimize and Accelerate price plans. They cost between $135 to $225 per month.

3. OptinMonster

OptinMonster is a lead capturing pop-up form builder that provides a Smart Tag feature to let you add dynamic text to your page.

Do you recall the Demo I shared above?

OptinMonster excels at such a type of customized content.

With this tool, you can create one pop-up window and still provide a personalized experience to each visitor. It offers tons of in-built templates to design versatile lead capturing forms.

It also integrates seamlessly with several email marketing software and works well on eCommerce platforms.

Here’re OptinMonster’s core features.

Features

• WordPress Plugin.
• Pre-defined lead generation forms.
• Smart tags for Dynamic Text Replacement.
• Integration with third-party email apps.
• Traffic redirection.
• Analytics.
• A/B testing.

Price

OptinMonster gives access to the Smart Tag feature in its Pro plan, charging $29 per month.

Steps To Install OptinMonster:

1. Go to Add Plugins page->Add-> type “OptinMonster” in the search bar. Click Install Now > Activate.
2. Use OptinMonster’s Pro or higher subscription plan to use Smart Tags.
3. Login, create your campaign and add your text.
4. Add a text element in the campaign builder and select the { } button to select a Smart Tag. Text in { } subjected to change as your audience.
5. Select the default tags if there are no specifics you’re looking for.
6. Save your changes.

That’s it. The drag and drop functionality saves you from complex design or technical coding work.

4. Admatchly

Admatchly, like If-So, is also an exclusive Dynamic Content Replacement tool and offers several personalization options that can help you increase your page traffic.

You can match your PPC Ad keywords with your headline phrases, automatically alter images as the condition is met, and use custom formatting on several elements of your page.

It also shares a preview tab that instantly shows how each phrase would change your content in real-time. This is an incredible time-saving feature for those who target a large number of keywords.

Here’re Admatchly’s core functions.

Features

• Dynamic text, image, and keyword replacement.
• Customization duplication.
• Link with Google and Facebook Ads.
• Flexible personalization options.
• Simple IU.
• Preview tool.

Price

Admatchly provides four plans starting from 29EUR. You can also try it for free without installing it in your CRM.

When To Use Dynamic Text Replacement?

Dynamic text replacement can be functional but has limited use-case. Here’s a Google example to understand better.

You’re advertising a coffee shop. You may as well use a keyword insertion code in your ad headline:

Headline: Buy {KeyWord:Coffee}

Google Ads will try to replace this code with one of your keywords in your ad group (“espresso”, “black coffee”, “latte”, “cappuccino”), but when it can’t, it’ll use the word “Coffee.”

Review that the person’s search term isn’t always exact as the keyword.

In the above example, people looking for espresso, black coffee, latte, cappuccino are all purchasing widely for coffee. Here, dynamic keyword insertion draws different kinds of audiences to your landing pages that may not appear otherwise.

Nevertheless, the reason being these people are looking for coffee doesn’t imply they are in fact seeking for the same reason. The reason varies as per diverse searches. Thus, dynamic text replacement is only beneficial for audiences with the same purpose.

Basic Terms To Follow While Using Dynamic Text Replacement

• Be aware of capitalization

To maximize clickthrough rate, practice capitalizing each term in the headline following caution.

• Character limitation

You have a limited amount of characters available in the headline and body lines of your ad; make sure to put your copywriting skills to use while making sure terms are within those restrictions.

• Preview

Use the ad preview tool in the AdWords interface for a well-developed review of how your business ad copy will display in the Search Engine Results pages.

• Dynamic keyword insertion

Often used in the headline or body of an ad, dynamic keyword insertion can also be tested to the display URL of an ad. This provides a significant difference to the search term that makes it stand out to the audience.

One of the examples of this is bidding on competitors’ branded keywords.

Summary

To wrap up, here are three things you can do with Dynamic Text Replacement.

• Match the text of your landing page with the headline of your Google Ad to reduce your bounce rate.
• Replace “Hi there” with “Hi, Jack” on your pop-up forms to offer a personalized experience.
• Create different content based on your visitor’s behavior to capture more leads.

I suggest A/B testing various conditions to measure your performance and learn which would improve your Campaign performance. Good luck!