In the world of PPC advertising, quality score reigns supreme when it comes to achieving top ad positioning for less. This metric grades your ads, keywords and landing pages on a 10-point scale for relevance, click-through rate and conversions. The higher the score, the better your ad position and lower CPCs.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll break down exactly how quality score works, what specific factors impact it and how to systematically build a high-quality score across accounts to slash costs. Let’s dive in.
Understanding Google Quality Score
At its core, quality score is Google’s way of rewarding accounts, campaigns and keywords driving lots of positive user signals aligned with search intent. The proprietary algorithm looks for combinations of relevant ad copy, high historical click-through rate (CTR) and conversions to assign a 1-10 score.
Higher scores signal users are engaging with and responding well to elements of your campaigns. In turn, Google rewards this with better ad ranking positions and lower cost-per-click (CPC) bid thresholds to maintain those desired spots.
Optimizing across a few key areas that comprise quality score can translate into massive visibility and conversion gains without pouring more money into bids.
Optimizing PPC Quality Score
Taking a very intentional, meticulous approach to boosting quality score pays dividends across accounts. Go after the low-hanging fruit first by addressing bottom factors graded by Google’s algorithm:
- Carefully match keyword phrases to highly relevant ad copy that answers intent
- Ensure landing pages match both search queries and ad messaging
- Write compelling ad copy and crisply designed display ads
- Monitor click-through rate at the keyword and ad level
- Check analytics for conversions from assigned keywords
Fix underperforming areas dragging down quality score by tightening relevance between search, ads and landing experience. Pause overly broad, irrelevant keywords and stale ad copy not resonating. Test new keywords and creatives to find winning combinations.
Addressing these fundamental building blocks lifts baseline quality scores, allowing you to go after more advanced optimization:
- Implement page speed optimizations to improve user experience
- Enable location extensions and other add-ons to enrich accounts
- Analyze metrics for high-performing keywords to expand those first
- Create dedicated landing pages tailored specifically to premium ad groups
Monitoring Changes Over Time
Quality score will fluctuate a bit month to month. Study the change reports in your account to quickly identify areas losing steam. Check if those correlate to product changes, technical issues or external factors needing addressed.
Maintaining consistently high quality scores across an account pays off exponentially in top ad rank, lower CPCs and more conversions. Make it part of your regular PPC optimization regimen. Improving coordination between keywords, messaging relevance and landing experience trains Google’s algorithm your account deserves premium placement.