Don't Ignore Your Quality Score!

Over the past year the Google Quality Score has become one of the most important factors in maximizing the performance and profitability of your PPC campaigns. Now that the PPC landscape is more competitive than ever, it is vital that search marketers fully understand the Quality Score and how it can be used to maximize profitability.

Due to Google’s lack of transparency regarding the Quality Score, many advertisers find it difficult to understand the algorithm and therefore don’t attempt to understand it at all. If you do you are ignoring it at your own risk and expense – it is a big deal!

The quality score is a judgement made by Google about the relevance of your keywords , ads and account configuration to the website page you are landing the user on – which in Google’s words “ensures that only the most relevant ads appear to users on Google and the Google Network.”

Factors that affect the Quality Score

When calculating the Quality Score of your keywords and ads Google analyses many different factors, the main one being the Click through Rate (CTR). The historical CTR and relevance of keywords, ads, display URL’s and the whole account is analysed as it is a display of how well a keyword or ad performs and the landing page’s relevance. Remember Google is on your side and provides this information for our own use – so utilise it to its full potential!

The landing page is another important factor that Google considers when calculating the Quality Score – the relevance of the landing page will ultimately affect the success of your keywords and ads. Ensuring the following points are covered on your landing page will help you achieve a higher Quality Score:

-          Relevant, unique and uncluttered content on the product/service you offer

-          Distinguish your sponsored links from the rest of the site or remove completely

-          Links to the about us page, privacy policy page, returns/refunds page and contact details page

-          High relevance to the keyword and ad you have received the click from

Calculating Ad Rank

The Quality Score is included in two formulas that google uses to determine where your ads will appear and how much you need to pay per click.

The first formula determines the rank that each ad will achieve based on the cost per click and quality score.

The ad rank is the formula that Google uses to assign a position of an ad. It is determined by multiplying the Maximum Cost per Click bid that the advertiser has set by the Quality score. The ad rank then determines the advertisers position, the higher the ad rank, the higher the position.

So imagine that we have a quality score of 10 in comparison to our competitors of 5 and our max cpc is £2 while the competitors is £3, our ad rank is 10 x 2 = 20 while the competitors ad rank is 5 x 3 = 15.

Calculating Your Actual CPC

The second formula in which the quality score is used is when Google calculates the Actual CPC that a bidder will pay.

The actual Cost per click that an advertiser will pay is determined by dividing the ad rank of competitor below them (ad rank to beat) by their own quality score plus one penny. The lowest positioned ad will only pay the minimum price required to show on the bottom of the page.

So with our competitors ad rank at 15 our cost per click is 15 divided by our quality score of 10 + £0.01 = £1.51. The competitors Actual CPC is then dependant upon the ad rank below them – if we say their competitors ad rank is 10 then their actual CPC is 10 divided by their quality score of 5 + £0.01 = £2.01.

The Future of the Quality Score

The idea of the Quality Score is for advertisers to understand where they need to improve, be it their keywords, ads, account structure or landing pages. Paid advertising is an evolving marketplace and the quality score of your keywords can fluctuate. Google continually monitors the market changes to encourage customers to make the most of their advertising budget and to improve their low quality ads.

Keeping an eye on your Quality Scores and optimising your account based on these statistics is the best way to run an effective PPC campaign – ensuring that you have high quality ads and are spending less to achieve your marketing objectives.