Improve Your Quality Score
Quality score is a term that only applies to Google AdWords although the principle is applicable to all pay per click (PPC) services. In fact, most services have similar relevancy algorithms although they may not make the results available to the advertiser like Google AdWords does. With that said, all pay per click advertisers should consider implementing the suggestions below whether they use Yahoo! Search Marketing, Microsoft adCenter or another pay per click service.
How Do I See My Quality Score?
Quality score is a measure of relevance and the more relevant your pay per click ads are the better it is for everyone, including you.
First, you may be wondering how to find out what your quality score is. After you log into Google AdWords, click on a campaign and then click on one of your ad groups. Once inside your ad group, click on the Keywords tab. Above your keywords your will see a link for Customize Columns. Click on it and select Show Quality Score in the drop down list. The Quality Score column should appear as the third column.
Quality score is fairly general and is measured at three levels: Great, OK and Poor. If you have a Great quality score, then you should feel pretty good. You can probably still find one or two areas where your relevancy could be improved, but your quality score will not go higher than Great. If you have an OK quality score, there are a few places you can make improvements. If you have a Poor quality score, then you definitely have some work to do. The good news is you will likely be able to see an improvement in your quality score pretty quickly even after you make only minor changes.
Why Should I Improve My Quality Score?
The quality score for your pay per click ad affect the following areas.
- Eligibility: Before your pay per click ad can begin running, it has to be approved. A very poor quality score will not allow your ad to be displayed and it will remain inactive, no matter how much your bid is.
- Minimum Bid: Minimum bids are higher for pay per click ads with a poor quality score versus those with a high quality score.
- Ad Ranking: A pay per click ad with a poor quality score will have to pay a higher cost per click than an ad with a good quality score for the same ad ranking.
How Is Quality Score Calculated?
Quality score is a measure of relevance and the more relevant your pay per click ads are the better it is for everyone, including you. There are several factors that go into determining a pay per click ad's quality score. However, the quality score formula differs across ad formats. Here are some of the significant factors used to figure your pay per click ad's quality score.
- Keyword relevance
- Ad copy relevance
- Landing page relevance
- Landing page load time
- Click through rate (CTR)
- Keyword performance history
- Other relevance terms Google will not share
The first thing you will notice is the number of times "relevance" appears. Your pay per click ad's keyword, ad copy and landing page should be related to each other.
Tip #1: Write relevant ad copy
- Description: Your pay per click ad copy should be relevant to your keyword and landing page content. You need to incorporate both into your ad to get the best possible quality score.
- Keyword Relevancy: Your ad should contain the keyword you are using to trigger it at least once, but hopefully you can include it twice. Ideally, you want to see it in the title and description. Sometimes, longer keywords do not allow this it should always be your goal. In order to do this most effectively, you will probably have to split large groups of keywords into smaller ones. Each keyword group should very similar in the keywords they share so your PPC ad copy is relevant to each one. Personally, I prefer to use one keyword per ad group. This gives me the most control and flexibility when change is necessary.
- Landing Page Relevancy: Your PPC ad should have words and phrases displayed most frequently on your landing page. The best way to harvest those keywords is to use Google's Keyword Tool. Click on the tab for Site-Related Keywords and enter the URL of your landing page. The tool will return the keywords used most often in the page copy. This method is especially useful when you are not able to change your landing page content. I believe it is more important to include your trigger keywords first, but make a strong effort to use phrases from your landing page as well.
- Reason: You are going to read this over and over, but it is all about relevancy. Your keyword, landing page, and ad copy will have a stronger association if they share your terms and phrases.
Tip #2: Make your landing page more relevant
- Description: Your landing page and ad copy should provide a smooth handoff. The landing page should deliver on whatever is promised, offered or advertised in the pay per click ad. In order for the Google AdsBot to determine this is true, you need to insert your keyword throughout the landing page. This process is very similar to optimizing your website for search engines (SEO). Here are a few suggestions.
- HTML page title (<title>Keyword</title>): The HTML page title appears in the title bar of your web browser. If your landing page is used for multiple keywords then use your most successful keyword here since you can not include all of them.
- Meta tags (<meta name="Description"...>): Meta tags have really lost their impact in regard to search engine optimization (SEO), however they can be used as a measure of relevance for a landing page so try to include your keywords in the description and keywords meta tags.
- Page title (<h1>Keyword</h1> or <h2>Keyword</h2>): This is the page title that is visible to the visitor with the web page. It is usually large, easily found and unique to each website.
- Page content: Your keywords should be scattered throughout the landing page's content.
- Alt tags (<img alt="Keyword">): This is another tag that has lost importance for SEO, however it can be utilized for landing page relevancy.
- Reason: Google and all pay per click services want to provide good results. A relevant landing page is more likely to lead to a conversion, making the pay per click ad more valuable to you, the user, and also the advertising service. Conversions are not included in the quality score algorithm, but making your landing page more useful will improve your conversion rate.
Tip #3: Improve your click through rate
- Description: This tip is probably less useful since pay per click advertisers are always trying to improve their click through rates. There is a lot of information related to improving CTR and you should check out Improve Your Click Through Rate section.
- Reason: A good click through rate indicates your pay per click ad answers the question the user is asking so your ad will be displayed more for similar searches.
Tip #4: Choose a more focused keyword matching option
- Description: Consider using phrase or exact matching for your keywords to narrow the search phrases that can trigger your pay per click ads. While you will get fewer impressions, the ones you do get will be much more applicable to your pay per click ad.
- Reason: By narrowing the scenarios by which your pay per click ad is displayed, you can write ad copy that is more specific to your keywords. A tighter relationship between your keyword phrase and ad copy helps your quality score. In addition, this will improve your click through rate because your pay per click ad will speak to the visitor's search phrase more.
Tip #5: Restrict your pay per click ad exposure geographically
- Description: If your product/service is only available in North Carolina then it is not relevant to people in California. Use location targeting or include geography names in your keywords to prevent people outside of your reach from viewing your pay per click ad.
- Reason: This is another way to better define the audience who can view your pay per click ad. Your quality score will continue to improve as you eliminate scenarios which trigger your ad, but are not applicable.
Tip #6: Make your website more credible
- Description: You need to make your pay per click visitors feel like you are trustworthy. You can do this by providing pages for Privacy Policy, User Agreement, Terms of Use, About Us, Contact Us, etc. If you do e-commerce, you should offer pages for Shipping Policy and Return Policy. You have to select the ones that apply to your website.
- Reason: This comes down to trust. Google and other major pay per click services do not want to send visitors to a fraudulent, bogus or unethical website. This is one form of a bad search result and they always want to provide good results. Make sure your provide the necessary information to make your visitors feel comfortable.
Tip #7: Optimize your landing page
- Description: The landing page is the page a user lands on after they click on your ad. It needs to load quickly. Here are some tips to speed up your load time.
- Use smaller, optimized images on your page.
- Avoid or reduce the number of redirects.
- Check with your hosting provider on ways to speed up your website.
- Limit your use of iframes on the landing page.
- Don't use pages that appear before the intended landing page. Avoid interstitial pages.
- Reason: Google knows users will not wait long until they give up on a slow loading page. Whether a user quits on a page because it was not relevant or never loaded does not matter. What matters is the user did not find what they were looking for. If your landing page is not providing the answer users are looking for, Google will give you a lower quality score.
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