By Kirk Crenshaw
What is Google’s Quality Score?
Not too long ago, Google introduced the concept of a “Quality Score” to encourage advertisers to provide highly relevant ads to the AdWords system, thus providing a better experience for the Google search user.
Google calculates a Quality Score to accomplish the following:
- Calculate the minimum cost per click (CPC) bid requirement - To calculate this, Google evaluates your keywords’ clickthrough rate (CTR) as well as related relevance of your ad text and landing page.
- Calculate Ad Rank – Ad Rank is based on this basic formula: Ad Rank = CPC * Quality Score (In the case of using Quality Score to determine ad rank, Google ignores your landing page, but looks at your keywords’ relevance in relation to a user’s search
query.)
Landing page quality becomes more important
A few days ago, Google updated its algorithm to evaluate landing page quality. As a result, landing pages with content relevant to your keywords and ad text are considered to be of
higher quality and will receive higher Quality Scores. This could potentially
lower your ads’ minimum cost per click bid requirement. Also note, the opposite is also true – landing pages that are of poor quality will receive lower Quality Scores – thus potentially raising your ads’ minimum cost per click bid requirement.
How do I ensure that I have a good Quality Score?
Focus your efforts on having relevant keywords, ad text, and landing pages. You can start by doing the following:
- Choose your keywords carefully – Make sure that they are highly relevant to your product or service.
- Use keywords in your ad text - This increases your ad text relevancy rate.
- Correlate your landing page to your keywords and ad text – Create landing pages that relate to your keyword and ad text. Many AdWords advertisers create multiple landing pages to accomplish this.
How can I tell if I’ve improved my Quality Score?
Unfortunately, you cannot see the Quality Score that Google has generated for your search campaigns – However, a leading indicator is your minimum cost per click bid requirement. If it is increasing, you should definitely refocus your efforts in improving your campaigns’ overall relevance. If it is decreasing, you are definitely on the right track.
By focusing on improving your Quality Score, you can make a significant improvement in your Google campaigns’ performance, while enhancing your paid search program’s ROI.
