Quality Scores
Adwords Quality Score Optimization
Quality Scores?
Adwords Quality Score Optimization. That sounds pretty fancy, doesn’t it? Well, it’s a term thrown around quite a bit by PPC associates, and even more by sales reps at the leading PPC firms. Nontheless, Quality scores ARE important. The quality score system allows for advertisers to achieve lower CPC rates for the same ad position as a competitor. In other words, you might be able to pay $1 per click for the 2nd position for a popular keyword, while your competitor would have to pay $1.75 to achieve the same position. This is completely aside from the auction aspect of the bidding system, which to an extent, does come into play as well. Seem too good to be true? It’s not. It actually happens quite often for our clients because of the level of experience applied to your campaign optimization.
We don’t have to tell you what happens if you pay less per click. You can get more clicks for your current budget, and/or lower your existing budget. Bottom line : Better Returns, Vastly Improved Profit.
What is the point of the Quality Score System anyway?
Well, Google looks at your PPC ads like this : They have a certain # of people searching for various keywords each day, and since most people don’t click to the 2nd page, and many don’t even go past the top of the 1st page, Google wants AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE TO CLICK on the PPC ads (NOT ORGANIC - after all, they don’t make anything from those!). Therefore, if your account is structured in a way that achieves a VERY strong CTR rate, good historical overall account performance, strong relevance in keyword/copy usage, and strong landing page relevance, they will throw you a bias on CPC rates.
Conversely, if your account achieves a minimal CTR rate, or just mediocre at best, Google simply does not make as much $$$ from you! Those searchers clicked on either a competitor’s ad or an organic link. Google wants as many ads as possible with 3%-10% CTR’s, not 1 or 2%. That way, they get AS MANY PEOPLE as possible clicking on top positions and NOT on organic links.
The system not only makes Google more money, it actually DOES create a better experience for the user, AND higher quality scores almost always means more profit for the advertiser! Why wouldn’t it? Lower CPC rates, better ad positions, more traffic, and better relevance, which means more leads/sales.
Have you ever searched for something and seen a number of ads that did not match what you searched for at all? This is mainly the fault of each of the PPC managers responsible for those ads! They are likely suffering from lower quality scores, lower CTR’s, higher CPC rates, and marginally or non profitable PPC campaigns.
We watch quality scores constantly in our client’s accounts, from day 1 and on, constantly striving for the best possible quality scores as possible. Quality Scores are not the ONLY metric that matters, but they ARE important.
