Quality Score Overview
So what is the Adwords Quality Score? According to Google:
“Quality Score for Google and the search network is a dynamic metric assigned to each of your keywords. It’s calculated using a variety of factors and measures how relevant your keyword is to your ad group and to a user’s search query. The higher a keyword’s Quality Score, the lower its cost-per-clicks (CPCs) and the better its ad position.”
As there are a various factors that affect your Google AdWords Quality Score it is critical to your search marketing strategy to understand how Quality Score matters. In simplest terms your Ad Rank (where you ad is positioned) is determined by your maximum CPC bid for each keyword multiplied by that keyword’s Quality Score.
Ad Rank = CPC bid × Quality Score
The quality score effects your ad position and your keywords minimum CPC (cost per click). If you have a low enough quality score your ad won’t even be shown. It’s also possible to have a lower CPC than your competitors by having a higher ad rank. So instead of looking to increase your Max CPC, you should first look to lift your quality score.
Every keyword has a quality score associated with it. Keep this in mind as this will affect your ad copy and landing pages (especially if your ad groups have multiple keywords that are not tightly grouped).
Google is continuously looking to improve the user experience by serving the best search results. Quality Score was instituted to weed out weaker advertisers who served advertisements that were irrelevant to the user’s query.
The Adwords Quality Score is based on multiple “dynamic variables.” You need to understand this because similar to Search Engine Optimization, there are no etched in stone rules. Quality Score continually evolves in response to these various factors that it reads in your ad campaign. But now with that being said there are some factors that are weighed more heavily than others.
Quality Score Ranking Factors
While there are hundreds of factors that go into the Quality Score algorithm we believe that these five are the most important.
- Keywords
- Ad copy
- CTR (click thru rate)
- Landing page
- Account Quality Score
Keywords
Certainly the most critical factor of the Adwords Quality Score is that keywords are the foundation of all Google search (organic and sponsored). Around September of 2008 Google changed the Quality Score keyword designations from “Poor,” “OK,” or “Great” to a more accurate 1-10 (with 10 being the best).
This information allows for improved decisions on what to do with certain keywords, especially underperforming keywords. This detailed information about each search term will also explain why the minimum CPC may be sky high. This is generally one if the first things we look at when looking at a new existing account.
Ad Text
Relevance of ad copy is also a significant issue of Quality Score. The use of the search query keyword within the ad text is a trigger to the relevance of the ad copy.
Google’s primary goal is to give the searcher what they are looking for and a good quality ad eliminates the unsatisfying experience when the user’s expected result from a click doesn’t measure up to the actual result of a click.
Some PPC experts will offer a variety of tactics for dealing with ad text. Some will tout a formula that determines how many keywords should be in the ad copy, including exactly where they should be placed and even advocating the use of special characters. But all that really matters is if the user clicks on your ad.
Of course relevant keywords should be used in the ad text and we have found that when used in the headline this will improve overall CTR.
Click Through Rate
A key point to understand is how Google looks at click thru rate. Google’s algorithms only have total control over what occurs on its own search network so it does not allow the CTR on partner networks or through the content network to weigh heavily on this factor.
Google is also keenly aware that more clicks occur for the ad in the first position than they do for the tenth, so CTR is weighted by ad rank position. This way Google isn’t penalizing advertisers in lower positions for having lower click through rates.
Google does appear to place relevance on a keyword’s all time CTR history within your account and also on the keyword’s most recent history.
Landing Page
Landing page quality was added to the AdWords Quality Score in November 2006. The landing page is where a visitor is goes after clicking on your ad. Remember, Google’s goal is for their searchers to have a good search experience so the relevance of a landing page as well as the usability of the page is important to the overall measurement in determining a good user experience.
Like your ad copy, the landing page should contain the keyword as well as closely related semantic keywords. As a side benefit this will also help improve your organic search engine results for these same keyword or keyword phrases. If your landing pages are constructed with the searcher in mind and contain unique content that helps them find what they are looking for — then you will be in good shape.
Account Quality Score
Here is the easiest way to think about your overall quality score at the account level — if you aggregated all of your keywords, impressions and clicks into a single quality score. This would give you an overall account quality score. Most experts feel that while this may not have as big effect on individual keyword quality score as the first four factors do, it will have some bearing. It is also believed that this plays a role at the campaign and ad group level.
Other Factors
While Google’s AdWords Quality Score algorithm incorporates hundreds of factors some who closely follow Google’s patent applications have found examples of additional factors that may carry some weight. Among these are how many times a user selects a given ad in a given session or the duration of time, from an ad result selection, until the user issues another search query. All of this makes sense given Google’s goal of improving the search experience.
Putting Quality Score in Perspective
If you think of Google as you do your own business this becomes pretty clear. Google treats searchers as their customers and if these customers have a good experience they are more likely to become repeat buyers.
By continuing to refine the Quality Score Google is ensuring that searchers are having a good experience. Instead of making decisions based on gaming Google you should be concentrating on maximizing the user experience, this will improve your quality score as well. So not only is this good from an AdWords quality score standpoint, it is good business for you as ultimately what you are trying to do is make Google searchers your customers.
Understanding the Adwords Quality Score can be frustrating and even a bit overwhelming but once you break this down into smaller more manageable pieces you can chip away at it.
As mentioned earlier understanding and mastering your quality score is one of the most important pieces of a strategic search marketing program. It’s also good business — the higher your quality score, the less you pay per click, the higher your ad rank and the better your marketing ROI!