I recently read a few articles about pay per click advertising (PPC); one in particular, a post by Andrew Goodman for ClickZ on Quality Score, got me thinking.
I’ve set up quite a few Google Adwords campaigns in my days as a search marketing specialist. And I learned many years ago about implementing best practices when creating campaigns …mainly because I always felt it was actually fun trying to get a better ROI.
Adwords Quality Score has been around for a long time, but it was made public… oh, around late ’06, I think (but don’t hold me to it). As Andrew notes: Quality Score multiplied by your bid still determines where you rank on the page against competitors in the advertising auction, so it is indeed important.
How the specifics are calculated is still a deep dark secret; but when one really takes a hard look at Quality Score, it is like an onion. Keep peeling back the outer layers (read: Campaign Optimization) and eventually you’ll get to the sweet center.
In Adwords, Quality Score is hidden by default. To turn it on you have to “Customize Columns” in the UI and “Show Quality Score”. Once you turn it on, every keyword in the ad group has a number between 0 and 10 appended to it.
I mentioned earlier that I’ve set up a few campaigns in my day, and for the most part I’m rewarded at the outset of a campaign with 6’s, 7’s and 10’s. I’m shocked – even incredulous – when Google slaps me down on the mat and gives me 3’s and 4’s on my perfectly beautiful brand new campaign. Threes and fours… what? That’s baloney!
That’s why I hate and love Quality Score. It’s like my best friend: the only friend who will praise you when you need it the most is also the guy you can trust to be honest with you when you’ve gone off track. Quality Score is merely telling me… “Look, chief: you’re good, but we both know you can do better. Now get in there and keep fine-tuning that ad group, and that ad creative, and that landing page too, while you’re at it. You hear me, Specialist?” “Yes sir, Mr. Google, sir!”
Sure enough, keep fine-tuning those elements and you’ll eventually get those sevens and tens in the Quality Score column. If you’re outsourcing your Adwords, do yourself and your consultant a favor: ask your specialist to give you a report that includes the Quality Score on all your keywords. You’ll keep him/her honest, and you’ll get the most quality visits for the lowest cost per click. If your specialist isn’t hitting sevens or better, it’s time to remind him/her that you both know (s)he can do better.
So how exactly do you elevate that Quality Score? Well, that would be by dint of campaign optimization …but that’s another story for another post…
