PPC Quality Score Factors

Updated January 11, 2023

What’s Important to Google & Your Audience

If you’re using Google AdWords to drive qualified traffic to your website, you absolutely need to understand Quality Score. It affects how much you pay-per-click. It’s also a window into how well an ad is attracting your target audience. In this post, I’ll explain Quality Score factors and how it affects your AdWords campaign effectiveness.

Quality Score Factors in AdWords

The simple definition of Quality Score is an estimate of how relevant your AdWords ad is. When you first create a keyword it will be given a blank quality score (ranking it around a 6/10). But after it has been used once (viewed by a searcher) it will be given its own Quality Score. According to Google’s Support Guide, here are the main Quality Score factors and how to improve it:

• A keyword’s expected clickthrough rate (CTR). This is based on past human behavior to predict future performance.
• Display URL’s past CTR. Again if your URL got lots of clicks in the past, it’s a good indication that humans will continue to click on it.
• Account history. Google looks at all the moving parts of your AdWords account to see how well it’s performed.
• Landing Page Relevance. When a human clicks on an ad, an expectation is created. Your landing page should fulfill that expectation. If they bounce (leave quickly), you’ve got work to do. If your prospect hangs around and completes a form/calls a number, it’s an indication you’re on the right track.
• Keyword to Ad Relevance. There needs to be a high correlation between the keyword and your ad. Without a close match, it creates a poor human experience.
• Regional or Geographic Performance. Some business terms are specific to a local area. Google measures how successful your AdWords account is in the regions where your ads are shown.
• Targeted Devices. In case you haven’t noticed, everyone has a smartphone now. Making sure your ads are performing on various types of devices including desktops/laptops, tablets, and smartphones is critical to account performance.

Pay Now or Pay Later

Not paying attention to Quality Score factors can affect your wallet. Meaning, if you’re not measuring and attending to account and ad quality, you’ll be spending more than you need to in AdWords. If your account has a good reputation, you’ll have higher scores which leads to lower Cost Per Clicks (CPC). Your Quality Score factors also affect where your ad shows up (in first position or in last place below the fold).

If you’re new to AdWords, you may be spending more than you need to. You could actually save money by hiring a professional to manage your account. A pro can make the necessary tweaks to improve your Quality Score factors.

Have you dabbled with AdWords? How did you manage your Quality Score factors?