
Quality Score is Google’s way of keeping its users happy, and high Quality Scores save YOU, the advertiser, a lot of money. So how does this system work?
A search engine’s consumer base consists of the people doing the searching. To keep these people coming back, search engines try to ensure that searchers find what they are looking for. They do this in the following way:
Because Google drives over 60% of the Internet’s searches, and because Google Ads offers the greatest traffic opportunities, we’ll focus on Google’s algorithm in describing to you:
WordStream’s fast, free, secure Google Ads Performance Grader is the single easiest way to find out how your Quality Scores measure up to similar businesses, plus get actionable insights on how you can raise your scores. You’ll get an instant report including an overall grade for your Google Ads account, plus insight into your performance along key metrics including Quality Score and click-through rate.
If you want to learn more about the components of Quality Score, stick around. If you’re just here to check your Quality Score, see how it stacks up to your competitors, and get real insights into how to improve it, go ahead and take our Google Ads Performance Grader for a free spin. It’s the definitive quality score tool on the market today.
Well, according to Google:
Quality Score for Google and the search network is a dynamic metric assigned to each of your keywords. It’s calculated using a variety of factors and measures how relevant your keyword is to your ad group and to a user’s search query. The higher a keyword’s Quality Score, the lower its cost-per-clicks (CPCs) and the better its ad position.
So why is this important? Lowering your cost per click and improving ad position is crucial to maximizing value for PPC ad campaigns. Generally, you’ll set a maximum bid for every keyword. You’re telling Google, “I’ll spend this much, but I can’t go any higher.” In determining how much you pay for ad positioning, Google will take your Quality Score into account, and offer you pricing discounts for higher scores.
Ad position is pretty straightforward: it’s the position in which your ad will show to a searcher in the event that there are multiple competing advertisers for a single keyword search. Better ad position means better exposure, and Google will offer you the same ad position for less if it deems your ads, keywords and account history sufficiently “relevant.”
High Quality Scores are obviously important if you want to get the best advertising value and rate of return possible. The question then becomes, how are the scores calculated? Google reports that the core components of Quality Score are as follows:
So basically, you need to:
So, now we have the “what”:
The most difficult thing here is the never-ending maintenance. Achieving high Quality Scores and managing PPC campaigns is an iterative process. It requires close attention to the factors mentioned above, and periodic adjustment.
Many of these processes central to the creation of high Quality Scores and genuinely profitable PPC campaigns are mundane, repetitive, and laborious, precisely the types of tasks that can discourage even the most energetic, talented thinkers and Web marketers. The types of tasks that are ripe for PPC automation.
WordStream’s Quality Score tools are uniquely designed to help search marketers carry out the proven best practices that improve relevance and raise Quality Scores. Find out how you can raise your Quality Scores with our free Google Ads Performance Grader.