Columnist & Googler Matt Lawson provides answers to 6 quality score & ad rank questions that everyone has for Google

Understanding Quality Score

Ad quality and quality score are one of the most discussed things in all of AdWords. Everyone wants to know how they can improve their ad quality and increase quality score. No one wants to see that dreadful keyword status that says “rarely shown due to low quality score.” A low quality score is an indicator that AdWords believes that your ad and landing pages on your website are not relevant or useful to someone looking at your ad.

In AdWords, quality scores for keywords are based on a 1-10 metric and is an estimate of the quality of your ads and landing pages triggered by that keyword. Having a high quality score means that the AdWords system thinks that your ad and landing page are relevant and useful to someone looking at your ad. Google is all about providing users with useful and relevant information. So, it’s best to have the same idea in mind when creating ads, keywords and landing pages.

1. How Do Increase My Quality Score

The quality score (1-10) is just a number. The question that we must ask ourselves is how do I make better ads for my users? How can I provide users with relevant and useful information? Quality score, that 1-10 number you see under the keywords tab, isn’t the most effective way to measure how well your ads are campaign. In fact, it’s not used when calculating your Ad Rank. Instead, real-time, auction-specific quality calculations are used. However, what’s helpful is the system’s ratings for each of the components of your Quality Score (1-10). Are you below average, average or above average when it comes to the three ad quality components? These ratings will give you a better understanding of which keywords and ad combinations are best for your campaign. A full list of specific steps that you should take for each of those 3 ratings can be found in this article that is provided by the AdWords help center.

To help you improve your ad performance, your Quality Score summarizes recent performance based on three components:

• Expected clickthrough rate: The likelihood that your ad will be clicked
• Ad relevance: How closely your ad matches the intent behind a user’s search
• Landing page experience: How relevant, transparent and easy-to-navigate your page is for users

2. How does ad rank affect my actual CPC?

The max CPC that you set for your keywords enters the auction and contributes to the CPC that you end up paying. You’ll eventually end up paying the minimal amount that’s required to hold your ad position. In a nutshell, higher quality scores typically lead to lower costs and better ad positions. The AdWords system works best for advertisers when ads shown are relevant and closely match what customers are looking for. In fact, relevant ads tend to receive more clicks, appear in a higher position and bring better results.

3. Why is average CPC not indicative of what I’m paying?

Average CPC while useful, can be easily misinterpreted. Your max CPC enters each auction, and depending on a variety of factors, you can pay any amount up to that max CPC. Average-cost-per-click (Avg.CPC) is the average amount that you’ve been charged for a click on your ad. Average CPC is calculated by dividing the total cost of your clicks by the total number of clicks.

• For example, if your ad receives two clicks, one costing $0.20 and one costing $0.40, your average CPC for those clicks is $0.30.
• Average CPC is based on your actual CPCs (the actual amount you’re charged for a click on your ad), which might be different than your maximum CPCs (the highest amount that you’re willing to pay for a click).

4. How Does Google Determine What Is A Good User Experience?

When measuring quality, user experience is highly important. Google uses a wide variety of metrics to calculate good user experience with your ad, and this has evolved over time and will continue to evolve. There’s not a set list of all these factors, but the most important ones that you need to know are available. A good best practice is to ensure that your ads, keywords and landing pages are all relevant and useful to what potential customers are searching for. If people are completing your desired actions when they visit your site, then you’re most likely providing them with a good user experience.

5. Is there an account level- or domain-level quality that is taken into account in the auction?

An auction doesn’t use internal, or account-level quality measurements. Quality ratings are mainly about a user’s query and the ad that’s serving against that query. In fact, when you’re adding new keywords to your account those keywords can learn from similar keywords in your account. There’s no such thing as account-level quality, this is just a myth that has been going around for quite some time now. As for corporate domains, they appear in the copy of your ads, users can see them, and they can affect user behavior just like any other element of creative copy. Domains can influence an ad’s CTR and affect user experience.

6. If I create a mobile-preferred search ad, will this increase quality?

If you’re writing an ad that would connect better with mobile users, then by all means go ahead. In doing so, you should generally receive better quality ratings. However, enabling mobile-preferred creatives just for the sake of it will not increase ad quality. Quality is all about user experience, and a good user experience on a mobile device is often different from a good user experience on desktop.

Conclusion

The AdWords support team gets asked a lot of questions on a daily basis from customers who are looking to improve ad performance. The (1-10) quality score metric is all about writing compelling ads that are relevant to your keywords, landing pages, and will provide users with the best user experience possible.

The Digital Marketing Specialists at Kraus Marketing can help you create compelling ad copy, targeted keywords, and relevant landing pages that will improve your quality score. Contact Us Today at 973-998-5742 or visit us online at www.KrausMarketing.com.