Dynamic remarketing shows your store visitors exactly the products they have previously viewed – automatically, personalized and directly from your product feed.

This is a no-brainer for e-commerce. But: for it to work, you need a clean setup.

In this article, I’ll show you how to set up dynamic remarketing correctly from a technical perspective – with Google Tag Manager, a well-maintained feed and the right data layer structure.

Of course, I’ll go into more detail in the post and you’ll find everything you need to know. Here is an overview:

By the way, if you want, you can also check out my Video on this:

What is dynamic remarketing?

Dynamic remarketing automatically shows your visitors exactly the products that they have previously viewed in your store – including the image, title and current price.

In contrast to classic remarketing, where all users see the same ad, Google pulls the content directly from your product feed. The result: personalized ads that perform significantly better.

Dynamic remarketing is extremely effective in e-commerce – especially when it comes to bringing back shopping cart abandoners or prospective customers.

The product feed: the basis for dynamic ads

The product feed is the heart of every dynamic remarketing campaign. This is where Google pulls all the information that will later appear in the ads: product name, price, image, availability and, of course, the unique product ID.

This must be included

For dynamic remarketing to work, your feed needs at least these mandatory fields:

• id – the unique product ID (e.g. SKU or article number)
  

• title – the product name
  

• image_link – URL to the product image
  

• price – current price
  

• availability – stock status (e.g. in_stock, out_of_stock)
  

Feed quality pays off

Even if dynamic remarketing works automatically – the feed determines the quality of the ads. Therefore, pay attention to it:

• Clear, descriptive titles (e.g. “Nike Air Max 270 Men – Black” instead of just “Air Max”)

• High-resolution images without text or watermarks

• Up-to-date price and stock data, ideally with a daily feed update

If you use Google Shopping, the necessary feed is usually already available – you just need to use it for dynamic remarketing. In the Merchant Center, make sure that the feed target platform also includes “display ads”.

Data layer: How Google gets to know what users do

For Google to know which products a user has seen or bought on your website, you need a clean database – and this comes from the data layer.

Specifically, Google expects an items array containing product IDs and optionally a value variable for the product value. This format is a prerequisite for the remarketing tag to work in the next step.

Example on a product detail page

dataLayer.push({
 event: 'view_item',
 items: [
 {
 id: 'SKU12345'
 }
 ],
 value: 59.90
});

What happens here:

• event: describes what the user is currently doing – e.g. viewing a product(view_item) or buying(purchase).
  
  
• items: contains at least the product ID – and this must match the ID in the product feed exactly.
  
  
• value: optionally transfers the price or order value (gross).

This format is now standard, even with Google Analytics 4. View the documentation.

As soon as it is integrated on your site, you can work with it in GTM and transfer the information to the remarketing tag.

Google Tag Manager: Set up a dynamic remarketing tag

As soon as the data layer is in place, you can set up the remarketing tag in Google Tag Manager (GTM). This allows you to transfer the product data to Google Ads – automatically and at exactly the right moment.

Step 1: Create data layer variables

First, create two variables so that GTM can access the values from the data layer:

1. DLV - items
   
   • Type: Data layer variable
   • Name: items
     
2. DLV - value
   
   • Type: Data Layer Variable
   • Name: value

Step 2: Create remarketing tag

• Tag type: Google Ads Remarketing
• Conversion ID: Your Google Ads conversion ID
• Activate dynamic remarketing: Check the box “Send dynamic remarketing event data”

Then define the following parameters:

Parameter name	Parameter value
Event	{{Event}}
Event Value	{{DLV - value}}
Event Items	{{DLV - items}}

Step 3: Create trigger

To ensure that the tag only fires for relevant events, create a user-defined trigger:

• Type: Custom event
• Event name: view_item (or whatever you use in your data layer)

If you want to cover several events (e.g. also purchase), you can alternatively work with a regex trigger like this one. This way, the tag is sent to Google with the data from the data layer for each of these events

view_item|view_item_list|select_item|add_to_cart|remove_from_cart|view_cart|begin_checkout|add_payment_info|add_shipping_info|purchase

Step 4: Testing

Before you go live, be sure to check:

• In GTM preview mode, whether the tag triggers and the variables are passed correctly
• Use the Google Tag Assistant to check whether the remarketing tag is sending correctly to Google Ads

Only publish the container if this is the case.

How to check whether the parameters arrive correctly

Before you run campaigns with dynamic remarketing, you should make sure that Google actually receives the necessary product data.

This can be done directly in Google Ads:

Tools → Data Manager → Google Tag →View Stats

There you will find an overview of the transferred parameters. The most important are:

• id (or ecomm_prodid for older setups)
  
  
• value (or ecomm_totalvalue)

This gives you a quick way to check directly in Google Ads – without debugging tools.

Data protection & consent mode

Before you use dynamic remarketing, you should check whether the tracking is GDPR-compliant.

Disclaimer: I am not providing legal advice here – this section is for technical guidance only.

Why consent is necessary

Dynamic remarketing is based on personalized advertising – and this requires the user’s active consent. Without opt-in, the remarketing tag must not fire.

This applies in particular to

• the setting of cookies for advertising purposes (e.g. doubleclick.net)
• the transmission of personal data to Google

Google Consent Mode v2

With Google Consent Mode v2, you can control whether tags are triggered – depending on whether the user has consented or not. Two important states are transferred:

• ad_storage: allows or prohibits the setting of advertising cookies
  
  
• ad_personalization: allows or prohibits personalized advertising (e.g. remarketing)

By default, both states are set to “denied”. Only when the user agrees (e.g. via your cookie banner) is it updated to “granted”.

Example setup in the code

 gtag ('consent', 'update', {
 'ad_storage': 'granted',
 'ad_personalization': 'granted'
 } );

What happens without consent?

Google is not allowed to collect remarketing data without consent – this means

• no functioning audience lists
• no dynamic ads
• no personalized targeting

In this case, Google can only use modeled or aggregated data for conversion measurement – but this does not replace real remarketing.

Recommendation

Make sure that you:

• use a GDPR-compliant cookie banner (e.g. with consent mode integration)
• only fire the remarketing tag with active consent
• implement the consent mode in a technically correct way

This puts you on the safe side – at least technically. Everything else is best clarified with a data protection officer or lawyer.

Conclusion: Clean setup = functioning remarketing

Dynamic remarketing is not rocket science – but it stands and falls with the technology in the background. If you transfer the right product data, maintain the feed properly and set up the Google Tag Manager correctly, Google will do the rest for you.

In a nutshell, you need

• a complete product feed in the Merchant Center
• a correct items array in the data layer
• a remarketing tag in the GTM that transfers this data
• and clean consent logic that is GDPR-compliant

Whether you later work with your own remarketing campaign or run everything via Performance Max – the setup is the basis for your ads to work.

If you get it right once, you will benefit in the long term: better ads, higher relevance, more sales. And if you have any questions or need help with the setup – feel free to get in touch.

Good luck!

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