Google's Quality Score explained

SEM (Search Engine marketing) is now cemented within the marketing mix of billions of businesses across the globe, yet many a marketer still wonders, what is the key to successful and efficient PPC (Pay Per Click) activity? Google dominates SEM globally and we thought today we would explore their 'Quality Score' and what it means for our customers.

QS (Quality Score) is a critical determinant of the cost and effectiveness of your PPC campaign.  In a similar way to how your credit rating effects the likelihood of qualifying for a loan and subsequent interest rate, your Quality Score will affect your PPC ad performance and cost per click.

QS  is also a ­determinant of your Ad Rank; the position of a given ad within search pages. Poorer quality ads will generally be ‘pushed down’ a user’s search results and therefore likely to receive less clicks. A higher QS can also help lower your CPC (Cost per Click).  For instance, all else being equal, if one advertiser had a maximum CPC bid of £10 and a Quality Score of 1 whereas the other had a £1 bid and a QS of 10, the latter ad can and would likely appear higher in search results for that given auction.

QS is ranked on a scale from 1 -10 (where 1 is lowest quality.  It is determined by a number of factors such as your Keyword Relevance, Click through Rate, Geographic Performance, Historical Account Click through Rate, Landing Page experience and Device Performance. To really break this down to the nuts and bolts, there are two questions a search engine is essentially asking in an auction; firstly how likely is this ad going to get clicked on (and therefore generate revenue) and secondly, will the user have a positive and helpful experience after they’ve clicked (and therefore be likely to return)?

Want more information? Please do get in touch today and enjoy your week!

TIP: Quality Score, where to find it?

Within your Adwords account for a given campaign you’ll find QS in the Keywords tab along with the corresponding performance indicators mentioned above so it’s simple to determine where, if at all, your campaign is falling short.

Still unsure whether PPC warrants a piece of your marketing budget pie?

Businesses generate on average $2 revenue for every $1 spent on Adwords making it one of the highest yield channels available to marketers so definitely one worth perfecting!