Search Network Quality Score

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In paid search advertising, a better Quality Score brings more of the people you want to your website.  Quality Score, as quoted from Google, “is an estimate of how relevant your ads, keywords, and landing page are to a person seeing your ad”. In one word, Quality Score is Relevance.

Why Quality Score Matters to You

Typically, the higher your ad appears on a search results page, the more clicks it receives. As an advertiser, Quality Score matters because:

1. It is a determining factor when search engines decide whether or not your ad will be shown to a searcher.
2. It is a factor in determining how high of a position your ad will have on the search results page.
3. It can save you money. Higher Quality Scores lead to lower bid estimates.

Search engines first determine if your ad is relevant enough to the user’s search query to be eligible to be displayed with the search results. If your ad is relevant, the search engine assigns a ranking to your ad to determine how high of a position your ad will have in the paid ad listings section of the search results page. For example, Google uses the following formula to determine your ad’s ranking:

Ad Rank = CPC bid × Quality Score

From this formula, you can see that Quality Score directly affects Ad Rank. The higher your Quality Score is, the higher your Ad Rank will be. The higher your Ad Rank is, the higher your ads position will be. Even with smaller budgets and CPC bids, accounts can be optimized for Quality Score to compete with larger bids and land higher ad positions on the search results page.

In short, search engines will look at bids and relevance when ranking your ad.

3 Easy Ways to Improve Your Quality Score

1. Optimize your landing page: Make sure your ad’s landing page is relevant to your ad, relevant to the keyword you are targeting, easy to navigate, and transparent. For example, if your ad is talking about a 15% discount on white t-shirts, then your landing page should be about white t-shirts with a 15% discount clearly displayed and an easy way for visitors to purchase the white t-shirts.
2. Be sure that keywords are in the ads for each ad group: Check what search terms trigger your ad most effectively and place them into your ad copy. If the user’s search query is in your ad it will appear as bold text making more eye-catching.
3. Make tightly themed Ad Groups: Make sure your keywords are relevant to your ads. Making sure relevant keywords are placed in the appropriate Ad Group will create higher Quality Scores and keep you organized.

Many things can be done to improve your ads Quality Score. These are just a few easy ones. Just remember, relevance is the key. No matter what you do, always have the person on the other end in mind. The more relevant your message is to them, the more likely they will be to click through and browse your website.

Cheers,

Michael

References:

1. https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2454010?hl=en
2. http://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com/en-ca/help-topic/how-to/50825/what-is-ad-position

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