Quality Score Tool - Learn to Improve AdWords Quality Scores with WordStream

AdWords Quality Score is Google's way of keeping its user 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:

  • Encourage relevant results, even when the results are sponsored.
  • All of the major search engines (Google, Yahoo!, and Bing) have implemented a Quality Score algorithm for determining ad quality and relevancy.
  • This algorithm in turn affects ad pricing and ad positioning, offering advantages in pricing and exposure for more relevant ads and advertisers.

Because Google drives over 60% of the Internet's searches, and because the Google AdWords platform offers the greatest traffic opportunities, we'll focus on Google's algorithm in describing to you:

  1. What factors are included in AdWords Quality Score calculations.
  2. How you can get discounts and increased exposure with WordStream's Quality Score tools.

Free AdWords Quality Score Tool: Check & Improve Your Quality Score

WordStream's fast, free, secure AdWords Performance Grader is the easiest way to find out how your Quality Scores measure up to similar businesses, plus get tips on how you can raise your scores. You'll get an instant report including an overall grade for your AdWords account, plus insight into your performance along key metrics including Quality Score and click-through rate.

wordstream quality score tool

What Is AdWords Quality Score, Exactly?

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 straight-forward: 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."

How to Improve Your AdWords Quality Score

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:

  • The historical click-through rate (CTR) of the keyword and the matched ad on Google

  • Your AdWords account history, which is measured by the CTR of all the ads and keywords in your account

  • The historical CTR of the display URLs in the ad group

  • The quality of your landing page

  • The relevance of the keyword to the ads in its ad group

  • The relevance of the keyword and the matched ad to the search query

  • Your account's performance in the geographical region where the ad will be shown

  • Other relevance factors

So basically, you need to:

  • Maintain a high PPC click-through rate - The click-through rate is the percentage of people seeing your ad who actually click on it.
  • Create relevant ad groups - An ad group consists of an association of one or more specific keywords which in turn trigger the display of one or more text ads. Ideally, the ad copy used in your text ads should closely reflect the keywords that are being bid on.
  • Link your campaigns to relevant landing pages – The web page the user sees upon clicking your ad (i.e., the "destination URL") also has to closely reflect the keywords that were used to trigger your pay-per-click advertising. For example, if you buy an ad for the search query "custom cabinets," you should send the people who click on your ad to a page on your website that describes your custom cabinets.
  • Do it all over and over again.
So, now we have the "what":
  • You need to maintain high Quality Scores. 
  • You need to perform these four critical tasks to score well on the search engines' quality test. 
  • You need to carry them out continually.
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.

The How: WordStream AdWords Quality Score Tools

WordStream offers a suite of Quality Score tools uniquely designed to help search marketers carry out the proven best practices that improve relevance and raise Quality Scores. To learn more about WordStream's Quality Score management solutions:

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