The reason why quality score should be used especially to indicate the potential keyword, ad group, and campaign success in paid search is because it is a key metric. Take note that it measures the relevancy and cohesiveness of three components required for every PPC campaign which is:
- The keyword within an ad group
- The ad copy searches when an ad is triggered
- The landing page searches visit after clicking your ad
Importance of Quality Score
Keep in the mind that quality score directly impacts ad rank in the auction which makes it important. In order for your ad rank to increase its potential, it should also increase its quality score as well. Remember that as your ad rank improves, so do the chances of your ad earning a click grows and the cost you’ll pay per click can decrease.
What I’m trying to point out is that having a high QS gives you an edge in terms of having the best chances to pay as little as possible for the ad position you earn and the clicks you drive.
Tips to maximize quality score
Here are the three primary metrics that’s going to guide the QS assigned to a given keyword. Advertisers are able to see the status of these factors when analyzing quality score in google ads as each will have a status of “below average”, “average”, or “above average”.
Expected Clickthrough Rate
Expected CTR is measured when google looks at your keyword’s CTR history along with those of your competitor to predict how often it will be clicked. Make sure you’re able to write your ad copy for high relevance to your keyword list in order to maximize expected CTR. The copy of your ad should tightly align with the keyword list carried with your ad group. Take note that it is vital to drive expected CTR when building high relevance between your keyword list and corresponding ad copy.
Ad relevance
With ad relevance, you are able to closely reassure on how related your keywords is to your ads. Take note that google is going to refer to your ad copy and landing page content to predict how relevant your ad will be to a user who triggered your ad with a given search query.
By ensuring your ad copy which directly relates to the keyword list it corresponds within a given ad group, you’re able to maximize ad relevance and make sure you’re also able to tailor your ads closely by ensuring your ad copy contains small, tightly themed groups of keywords. Lastly, ensure your landing page contains contents that is equally relevant to these keywords and the ad copy you use.
Landing page experience
As we all know, landing page experience is a measure that google ads use to estimate how relevant and useful your website’s landing page is to people who are going to click your ad.
Keep in mind that google is able to refer to your landing page content to measure landing page experience as well as other metrics like bounce rate and page speed to predict how good of an experience a user will have once they click through your ad.
You can also optimize your landing page’s content in order to be more relevant and authoritative in maximizing landing page experience.
Does it actually work?
As much as all of this makes sense in theory, some might still be doubtful in terms of quality score having a noticeable impact on the campaigns we optimized on a daily basis. In reality, it does work though the reason people are having doubts is because it’s hard to see how QS changes actually impact our numbers over time. This is mainly because google is making it so difficult for us to analyze historical quality score changes. My tip for you so that you can see a real impact is to isolate some keywords which have shown a change in quality score and segment your data by day.
Factors that are out of your control
It is important to know that there are also factors that you have no control over as an advertiser when assigning quality score. The most common example would be competition for specific keywords in a given industry. Keep in mind that you might never see a quality score over 5 for certain keywords even after extensive optimization especially if you’re in an over-saturated search space with tons of competitors.
I would suggest you not to stress over on things that you don’t have control of but focus on these three important factors you influence which is:
- Expected CTR
- Ad Relevance
- Landing Page Experience
