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Adwords PPC Basics – Quality Score

Picture of Honcho Honcho : Oct 18, 2010 12:20:49 PM

Right so everyone knows that Google are very secretive about the information they give out regarding their algorithms, this pretty much means everyone else does the talking for them. One of the most commonly talked about subjects in PPC advertising is Google Adwords Quality Score. In this PPC Basics Blog we will try and explain the mythical subject of Google Ad-words quality score. With regards to quality score though Google has been a little more helpful, although still pretty vague, leaving everyone else to speculate. So this is what Google has to say about quality score: null

Ok so that’s pretty vague but it gives a small insight into how it Google will work out where your advert places in an auction. One thing we do know is how this is calculated by Google and this is the formula: Ad rank = Quality score * Maximum Cost Per Click (CPC) Another thing that we know is the 3 main factors that decide your adverts quality score, these are:

CTR (click through rate):

CTR is the percentage of clicks you receive when your advert makes an impression. The CTR is the main factor in your quality score and according to Hal Varian – Google’s Chief Economist makes up almost 2/3’s of the quality score. Your CTR is an indication of how successful users feel your triggered ads are to the search query they have inputted.

Relevance:

This is the second largest factor, Google claim it’s all about the user experience and if the content on your page isn’t relevant then the user won’t be very happy, a common sign of this is a high bounce rate. It is not just the page that needs to be relevant to the search query it is the ad-copy as well, its really just a safeguard to stop well known advertisers buying up a lot of traffic with popular but unrelated keywords. Google also emphasizes that advertisers will benefit from relevant ads. Users will spend more money, the ads will get more exposure, and CPC will drop.

Landing page:

This is the least important major factor. (If you get what I mean) your landing page needs to have good original content that is relevant to the keyword and the ad that you have displayed. This also acts as a safeguard to stop advertisers from using ‘doorway pages’ to feature multiple times in the ad rankings. People speculate all the time about other factors that affect your adverts quality score, but obviously Google aren’t very forthcoming with information about their algorithms for the sake of competition and crucially income. If more adverts have a quality score of 10 then the CPC will be reduced meaning the adverts that are in the top positions will earn Google less money than adverts with a low quality score. One of Google’s key points about their quality score system is that it can actually save the advertiser money and improve their ranking position dramatically in comparison to their competitors if their quality score is good. If there are any other factors you think we need to consider or if anyone has and comments or suggestions then please get in touch in the comments section. Check out more PPC Basics blogs including average position and add copy.