Over time Google has implemented the concept of a quality score to help assess relevancy and corresponding cost-per-click calculations in their pay-per-click Google Adwords engine.Â
As internet marketers, the idea is a simple one – the better your quality score, the less money you need to pay when bidding on keywords with Adwords.Â
If you can get a 20% improvement in quality score of your ad, the url where the ad is directed and the landing page – then you will rank higher in relation to competitive ads while having to pay a lower cost-per-click than other marketers – the advantage being more traffic for less money.Â
Factors Affecting Quality Score
So, what are the factors that affect quality score.Â
As this excellent blog post points out – quality score is determined by a combination of on-page and corresponding ad elements and the click through rate (how many impressions your ad has versus number of times someone clicks through).
Further – this blog post goes on to suggest that the on-page factors weigh more heavily before there is a clear rating on click-through-rate (such as when a new landing page and ad campaign is started) while the clickthrough rate becomes the predominant factor as more history is collected over the life of the campaign.
Wondering what the factors are that Google has determined impact quality score – they list them over at their Landing Page and Site Quality Guidelines page here.
Specifically, they organize them into 3 concepts:
- Relevancy (relevancy of the ad to something specific and corresponding clarity on landing page for the visitor to get what is promised in the ad) . Along with relevancy comes the notion of originality which means that if you are promoting affiliate products or products that others are also promoting – take an original approach to the landing page rather than simply re-using content and descriptions from other sites
- Transparency – Google makes it very clear that they want you to pay attention to clarity for your user around the business you are in, how your site interacts with the user’s computer (ex. opt-in forms, privacy and confidentiality agreements, etc…) and how you intend to use the user’s personal information
- Navigability (Is that even a word?) – this has everything to do with being honest and efficient for your user to get what was promised in the ads – avoid pop-ups, pop-unders, long-convoluted sales processes – make it easy for your visitor to get what you advertise
The message is clear – when you are first starting out with your ad campaigns and landing pages – pay special attention to the on-page quality – abide by the Google guidelines AND also pay very close attention to optimizing your Google Adwords keywords, ad groups and campaigns to ensure the best click through rates so that you get more traffic at a lower cost than your competition.
