What is Quality Score?
Your Quality Score is Google's assessment of the quality and relevance of both your keywords and your Google Ads themselves. It is used to determine your cost per click (CPC) and multiplied by your maximum bid, to determine your ad ranking in the ad auction process. Your Quality Score depends on several factors, such as:
- Your click rate (CTR)
- The relevance of each keyword for its ad group
- Your landing pages quality and relevance
- The relevance of your ad text.
- The historical performance of your Google Ads
These are the main components that make up your Quality Score. It's important to stress that no one outside of Google knows exactly how much each factor makes up in the algorithm for the result, but we do know that the click-through percentage is the most important component. When more people see your ad and click on it, it's a strong indication to Google that your ads are relevant and useful to users. That's why Google rewards you with:
- Higher ad rankings
- Lower costs
Benefits of improving your Quality Score
By analyzing thousands of PPC accounts, it can be deduced that your Quality Score has a direct correlation with your success in Google Ads. By optimizing your Quality Score, you can get a higher return on investment (ROI). This is because higher quality results correlate with lower costs per conversion! Cost per conversion is different from cost per click.
The price per conversion is not how much you pay for each click, but how much you pay when someone does an action you want them to do, for example downloading your free e-book or signing up to your newsletter. As each click does not usually result in a conversion, the cost per conversion is generally higher than the cost per click.
How to strengthen your Quality Score
Since, as mentioned earlier, your Quality Score determines where and how often your ads appear, it is important to increase your Quality Score by working consistently with your account. This can be achieved by focusing on the following areas:
Keyword research - You can discover new and highly relevant keywords to add to your campaigns. Including opportunities for "long tail keywords" that can contribute to your overall traffic. Read more about keyword analysis.
Organizing keywords - Split your keywords into groups that can be more effectively linked to individual ad campaigns.
Ad text - Test ads that are more targeted to your individual ad groups. More effective ads get a higher CTR, one of the best ways to improve your Quality Score.
Optimisation of landing pages - Follow best practice principles for your landing pages to ensure your landing pages deliver what visitors are looking for.
Add negative keywords - Keep researching, identifying and excluding irrelevant keywords so you don't waste your ad dollars.
