Here’s an ultra quick rundown on Google’s Adwords Quality Score. This is Google’s way of automatically selecting only the highest quality ads to be shown next to natural searches while punishing low quality ads with high bids and horrible positions.
This is meant to enhance the user experience. It all makes sense if you think about it.
With my own personal experience I’ve managed to get my quality score maxed out at 10 and have been rewarded with extremely low bid of 6 cents on a highly competitive keyword. This keyword was “reverse phone lookup” which receives 1.2 million searches a month on Google! People still don’t believe me when I tell them this. Here’s a picture to prove it:
Super low keyword bids made possible by high Quality Score
Here are 3 ways you can improve your Quality Score today:
- Improve your click-through-rate (CTR).
How do you do this? Split test your ads. The longer you have your ads running with a good CTR the better chances your quality score will increase. - Aim for Relevance
Relevance is king at Google. When selecting keywords make sure you also put them in your ad copy, url and the website destination. Relevance improves your chances of profitability or generating a lead. - Website loading times and useful content
Google now takes into consideration you’re landing page or website loading times. Unfortunately sometimes you have no control over this if your host puts you on one of their slower servers.Your website should also contain useful information and simple navigation. If you collect personal information then definitely include a privacy policy. Yes, Google’s bots look for this and if you don’t have it your Quality Score takes a hit.
And that’s it. It’s the same steps I’ve used to get my quality score to 10 and lower my keyword bids to 6 cents. The concepts are simple, however getting all three to work together in unison takes time and effort.
When it all comes down to it Google’s main goal with their Quality Score is to improve the user experience by only allowing advertisers who also abide by these rules while punishing those that don’t.
This article is part of a 4 part mini Adwords tutorial. To learn more check out Adwords Secrets Google Doesn’t Want You To Know About.
