Improving Your Quality Score

Learn how to achieve higher Google AdWords rankings . . . for less.

The following is a step-by-step guide to improving your Google AdWords Quality Score.

A search engine's consumer base is comprised of the people doing the searching. To keep these people coming back (and to ensure that they can keep charging you to get your ads in front of them) they try to ensure that searchers find more or less what they are looking for. They do this in the following way:

1. Encourage relevant results; even when the results are sponsored.
2. All of the major search engines (Google,Yahoo!, and MSN) have implemented a Quality Score algorithm for determining ad relevancy.
3. This algorithm in turn affects ad pricing and ad positioning, offering advantages in pricing and exposure for more relevant ads and advertisers.

Because Google drives over sixty percent of the Internet's searches and the Google AdWords platform offers the greatest traffic opportunities, we'll focus on Google's Quality Score algorithm in describing to you:

1. What factors are included in Quality Score calculations.
2. How you can procure these discounts and this increased exposure.

What is AdWords Quality Score, Exactly?

Well, 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."

So why is this important? Lowering your cost-per click and improving ad position is crucial to maximizing value for PPC ad campaigns. Generally, you'll set a maximum bid for every keyword. You're telling Google "I'll spend this much, but I can't go any higher." In determining how much you pay for ad positioning, Google will take your Quality Score into account, and offer you pricing discounts for higher scores.

Ad position is pretty straight forward: it's the position in which your ad will show to a searcher in the event that there are multiple competing advertisers for a single keyword search. Better ad position means better exposure, and Google will offer you the same ad position for less if it deems your ads, keywords, and account history sufficiently "relevant".

How to Improve Your AdWords Quality Score

High quality scores are obviously important if you want to get the best advertising value and rate of return possible. The question then becomes: how are the scores calculated? Again, let's see what Google has to say: "While we continue to refine our Quality Score formulas for Google and the search network, the core components remain more or less the same:

* The historical click-through rate (CTR) of the keyword and the matched ad on Google; note that CTR on the Google Network only ever impacts Quality Score on the Google Network--not on Google
* Your account history, which is measured by the CTR of all the ads and keywords in your account
* The historical CTR of the display URLs in the ad group
* The quality of your landing page
* The relevance of the keyword to the ads in its ad group
* The relevance of the keyword and the matched ad to the search query
* Your account's performance in the geographical region where the ad will be shown
* Other relevance factors

Note that there are slight variations to the Quality Score formula when it affects ad position and first page bid:
* For calculating a keyword-targeted ad's position, landing page quality is not a factor. Also, when calculating ad position on a search network placement, Quality Score considers the CTR on that particular search network partner in addition to CTR on Google.
* For calculating first page bid, Quality Score doesn't consider the matched ad or search query, since this estimate appears as a metric in your account and doesn't vary per search query."

So basically, you need to:
* Maintain a high CTR - The click-through rate is the percentage of people seeing your ad who actually click on it.
* Create relevant Ad Groups - An Ad Group consists of an association of one or more specific keywords which in turn trigger the display of one or more text ads. Ideally, the ad copy used in your text ads should closely reflect the keywords that are being bid on.
* Link your campaigns to relevant landing pages -- The Web page to which you send the user upon clicking your ad (i.e. the "Destination URL") also has to closely reflect the keywords that were used to trigger your ad. For example, if you buy an ad for the search query "custom cabinets," you should send the people who click on your ad to a page on your website that describes your custom cabinets.
* Do it all over and over again.

So, now we have the "what":
* You need to maintain high quality scores.
* You need to perform these four critical tasks to score well on the search engines' quality test.
* You need to carry them out continually.

The most difficult thing here is the never-ending maintenance with Internet Marketing. Achieving high Quality Scores and managing PPC campaigns is an iterative process. It requires close attention to the factors mentioned above, and periodic adjustment.