Quality Score – A Closer Look

Emerging trends in q-score
First CPC (.01 more than competitor)
>Then Rank
>>Then CTR
>>>Then Landing Page
>>>>Then Max CPC

Artificial CPC inflation
Engines are defining quality
Is relevance really rewarded?

Understanding the metrics involved:
CPM publishers metric
CPC network metric
CPA advertiser metric
CTR is primary measure of ad quality
Relative CTR (relative is key):
-relative to the rank on the page (if you’re in the top position, google expects you to get a strong CTR). This is why ad rank testing is so important!
-chart quality-score against rank and CTR (CTR y-axis) rank (x-axis).

Your key metric: value per impression

CTR X Conversion Rate
=Total Outcomes/Impressions

*qualifying words raise conversion but may lower CTR

“cheap” can drive high CTR, although what’s the effect on you brand AND can you fulfill that promise.

Throughput Checklist
1.track total throughput (ctr x conversion together for all ad copy variants
2.creative should match the scope and quality of your offer
3.Align kw, creative & landing pages
4.experiment with different grouping structures
5.use day-parting to focus on high demand and conversion periods

*more transparency
*more precision
*give advertisers the benefit of the doubt when data is thin

Non-brand CAN compete

Yahoo Quality-Index (QI)
Historical: CTR normalized to position
Expected Performance: determined by relevance factors considered by Yahoo
*in the absence of historical data, it really comes down to will consumers click on your ad.

QI affects:
Position
Pricing
Filtering
User Exper

-the ad gets the quality index (1-5 bars) for all keywords
-reflects exact match and sponsored search only!
-ad quality of competitor may affect your ad q
-moving keywords into new ad groups loses historical data
-turning off ad groups cause QI to reboot and restart measuring historical data and quality

Rankings determined by bid and ad quality

Ads with a lower QI have a strong chance of not showing

QI:
Is the text compelling?
Are you using ad teting?
What do your ad group keywords look like?
Are you really giving the user a good experience?

Google’s QS
-they look at a healthy ecosystem (advertisers, publishers, and users).

-CTR
Ad text
Keyword

For keywords that have 0 impression, Google will look at that keyword historically

When a very relevant advertiser comes in (which is you of course), you have to stick with it until the algorithm adapts to your strong CTR.

Advertiser (account performance)
-Landing Page
Relevant to keywords?
Relevant to ad text?
Spammy? (what are you privacy standards)?
Useful and unique?
Fast? (how long doe it take to load?) –can drive down q-score

Quality score bidding system, although CTR still a factor

Q-score wisdom:
1. obsess over user experience, not q-score. You’ll eventually get it
2. Don’t be afraid to make changes
3. broad matches don’t affect quality-score (don’t worry to much about low CTR for broad)
4. CTR is still a large component of quality score
5. Keyword match type doesn’t matter for quality-score (changing match type won’t improve q-score)
6. the algorithm is constantly changing and evolving

Avoid

Keywords:
Avoid extremely long keywords – most queries are only 2-4 words (recommended)
Avoid keywords which user don’t associate with your business

Ad text:
Avoid generic ad text. Especially on specific keywords (broad match!)
If you don’t have the keyword on your ad, you could lose a conv.

Landing page
Avoid taking the user to a general page for a specific keyword
Make sure your page loads right across all browsers

QS: once a day/ or several times a day (based on min CPC changing) – landing page is over weeks.
Minimum CPCs are related to q-score
Ad diagnostic tool: also check load time on page
SQR:

-q score not influenced by how much you bid.
-many SERPs on google are just not relevant for many queries (e.g. informational)

DKI may not allow your ad to stand out since most competitors are using this
Pause/delete keywords ad texts that are not
Anything below a certain number of imp
Anything below a CTR threshold

Google analytics data is not included in QS

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