Paid per click (PPC) advertising can be hugely rewarding and it’s one of the best ways to drive up conversions quickly. If you want to run profitable ads on Google, you’ve got to pay attention to Quality Score.
Quality Score affects how much you pay per click, where your ad is positioned and whether your ads will be shown at all. Let’s take a closer look at what Quality Score is and how you can improve it.
What is Quality Score? And why does it matter?
Quality Score is basically Google’s prediction of whether your ads will perform well or not. You’ll see it in your Google Ads dashboard under ‘Keywords’ in the Campaigns tab. Each keyword in your account is given a numerical rating from 1-10, 10 being the best.
You can see Quality Score as a tool to help you improve your ads so you get a higher click through rate.
Think about it from Google’s perspective. They make money from ads – the more successful the ad, the more money Google pulls in. So it makes sense that Google wants you to create effective ads. It’s good for you and good for them too.
Google Ad accounts that have higher Quality Scores tend to have more successful ads. Improving your Quality Score translates as better visibility, an increased CTR and lower cost per click (CPC).
How is Quality Score calculated?
There are three key factors that determine Quality Score:
- Expected click through rate (CTR)
- Ad relevance
- Landing page experience
Expected CTR
CTR is how many people click on your ad compared to how many people saw your ad. Google predicts an expected CTR for each keyword based on how it’s performed in the past. Data from your own ads account and data from other advertisers’ accounts are used to calculate this.
Ad relevance
Ad relevance looks at how close your keywords line up with your ads. Are your keywords relevant to the searcher’s query? Look at what you’ve written on your ad compared to what’s on your landing page – do they match up?
Landing page experience
Google wants to encourage a positive landing page experience for users, so it takes into account things like load speed, usefulness, relevance to the ad and keywords etc.
Other key considerations
Another important factor that affects Quality Score is your previous results with Google Ads. The better your ads have performed in the past, the higher your score will be.
Targeting your ads also plays into Quality Score. Targeting that is narrow, well defined and relevant will help drive up Quality Score because you’re more likely to get clicks with good targeting.
Types of Quality Scores
Keyword quality scores are the most well known, but there are actually a few different types of quality scores such as:
Landing page Quality Score
The key factors to keep in mind for the landing page quality score are: relevancy, originality, transparency and navigability. If you can tick all of these boxes, it’ll improve user experience, drive up conversions and boost your landing page Quality Score.
Mobile Quality Score
It’s no secret that Google rewards mobile friendly web pages. Even though they claim Quality Score is calculated the same way for every device, you may see a change in your Quality Score when you separate a campaign based on device. The big takeaway here is: make sure your landing pages are optimised for mobile.
Ad Group Quality Score
Ad Group Quality Score is the average of the keyword Quality Scores in an ad group. This is a useful score to figure out what you need to improve within your ad campaign. Compare the Quality Scores across ad groups within a campaign and focus on improving your lowest scores.
How to increase your Quality Score
A low Quality Score can be discouraging, but thankfully there are actionable steps you can take to improve Quality Score. Here are 4 great ways to do so.
Choose the right keywords
Robust keyword research will give you the best starting point from which to build effective PPC campaigns. Why? Doing the research will tell you which words and phrases people are actually searching for, and which ones drive the most conversions. Choosing effective keywords shouldn’t be a guessing game.
Create great ad copy
You can’t underestimate the power of good ad copy. Afterall, it’s what will convince someone to click on your ad. Your ad copy should be relevant to your keyword and the search intent. In other words, get into the mind of a potential customer and write copy that speaks to their needs.
Don’t forget to actually use the relevant keyword in your ad copy – this will attract more customers and improve your Quality Score. You should also use the keyword in your ad’s heading and URL.
Make your landing page relevant
While getting clicks is worth celebrating, it’s not the end of the story. The experience someone has on your landing page is hugely important for the success of your ads and your Quality Score.
Most importantly, make sure your landing page is relevant by including the search term in the heading, first paragraph and once more further on. Your landing page should also be relevant to your ad.
For example, if we run an ad for ‘Adwords Management Brisbane’ the landing page should stay on topic and not veer off talking about SEO, branding, web design or other services. In other words – don’t promise something in your ad that your landing page doesn’t deliver.
Improve User Experience on your landing page
Your landing page should be easy to use, fast to load, simple and direct. Page load speed affects your Quality Score, and it’ll help customers stick around longer. You should also make sure your landing page is mobile friendly – Google loves mobile optimised sites.
Conclusion
If you’re new to advertising on Google, Quality Score might seem like a complicated thing. But it can actually be incredibly helpful.
You want to create persuasive, high-performing ads. Aiming to get a higher Quality Score will help you do that. Not just because you’re pleasing Google, but because Quality Score is based on factors that are really important for marketing, period.