Google’s Inside Adwords blog recently provided some insight into Google’s quality score that’s used to rank your Google Adwords ad. This information is a good read for those of you that manage your own Google Adwords campaigns.
According to Google’s Ad and Quality Performance section in their Adwords Help Center, Google Adwords quality score is defined as:
Quality Score = (keyword’s CTR, ad text relevance, keyword relevance, landing page relevance)
Editor’s note: “CTR” above is “clickthrough rate,” or the ratio of the number of times the ad is seen to the number of times the ad is clicked.
It turns out that quality score isn’t a number (at least not outside of the Google compound), but you can still find out where you stand by doing the following:
The best way to calculate your Quality Score is by looking at each keyword’s minimum bid. The lower the minimum bid, the higher your keyword’s Quality Score.
What’s encouraging about quality score is that Google Adwords consultants like me can improve ad copy, relevance and landing pages and pay less for traffic:
You can also try to reduce your keyword’s minimum bid by increasing its Quality Score.
In my experience, landing pages are often the most neglected part of the ad campaign. Google Adwords can send lots of traffic to your site, but how effective is your landing page at directing traffic and building customer confidence? Most companies either send all of their Google Adwords traffic to their homepage or don’t properly optimize their landing pages. Here’s what Google has to say about what makes a quality landing page:
- The money you spend on AdWords ads will be more likely to turn into paying customers.
- Users develop a trust in the positive experience provided after clicking on AdWords ads (and this turns in to additional targeted leads for you).
Your landing pages will do these things when they:
- Provide relevant and substantial content.
- Treat a user’s personal information responsibly
- Develop an easily navigable site.
So there you go, an overview of Google Adwords quality score. My take on quality score is that the more effort advertisers put into crafting a quality campaign, the better their results will be. Additionally, a quality campaign costs less per click.
March 9th, 2007 at 10:59 am
Dave Davis says:
Previously it was all pretty much guess work. Now we have something to show for our tests.
Google showing the quality score is a HUGE step forward in my opinion and we have improved EVERY SINGLE ONE of our clients accounts because of this.
Now, if only the would share some more information on exactly what is required for a high QS
March 9th, 2007 at 11:32 am
Rick Whittington says:
Even though it is “guess work,” we’ve been able to successfully determine factors of a good, high quality score. Relevance plays a huge part in quality score, from the relevance of the keyword to the ad, relevance of the ad to the landing page, and relevance of the landing page to the customer.