To most PPC (Pay Per click) campaigners, Quality Score is just another statistic that they don’t understand. But to those savvy few that truly comprehend how Google’s PPC program works, Quality Score is the key to improving their sales while spending less money.
So what is Quality Score and why should you care about it? Simply put, Quality Score is Google’s way of making sure that only relevant ads and websites get promoted for a user’s keyword search. Google wants their users to find the information that they need in a quick and easy way, so they assign each of your keywords a number from one to ten. If this Quality Score is high, your ad will not only appear more often, but it will have a higher position as well. The user has a better experience, Google makes more money, and you get better quality clicks. Everyone wins.
That’s why this number is so important. If your keywords have a high Quality Score, your cost-per-click will go down and your ad position will much better. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that if you are paying less money for better position, your return on investment will much greater.
How Quality Score is Determined and Strategies to Improve It
- Keywords in your ad copy. One of Google’s factors in determining your Quality Score is if the keywords are actually in your ad.
For example, if your keywords are “green apples,” you want those words in your copy.
Green Apples
Buy the Best Green Apples
Lowest Price, Best Quality
www.myComany.com/Green-Apples
- Keywords in your URL. Google also looks to see if the keywords are in your URL. Look at the example above and notice the keywords in the URL. Here’s a little tip: Only the main URL has to be valid (www.myCompany.com). You can make up the words that come after the backslash and Google will not care. So why not add some keywords there?
- Keywords on you landing page. This is an important one. Google wants a good user experience. If your ad pointed to a website that had nothing to do with green apples, the user would not like it. So part of the Quality Score is calculated by looking at your landing page and looking for keywords. Make sure that your landing page has the content that the user is searching for.
- Create small keyword groups for each landing page. Creating small, relevant keyword groups that point to a unique landing page will ensure that the user has a good experience – and Google will reward that. Ideally, you would want one landing page for each keyword, but if you have 1000 keywords, that isn’t feasible. So creating small keyword groups is the net best thing.
Increasing your Quality Score will take a little work and a little experimentation, but once you start seeing those scores increase, you will begin to see a difference. Your cost-per-click will go down, your ad placement will improve, and ultimately, your sales will increase. And isn’t that the real reason for a PPC campaign?