Updated January 11, 2023
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AdWords Columns Revisited
As part of the ongoing AdWords evolution, we have started to see new column options popping up in some of the accounts we manage. As we’ve said in the past, taking care of your Quality Score is a vitally important part of running PPC campaigns on Google. So now, having the option to look at historic Quality Scores, can really help users see how their accounts are progressing.
Why Care About Quality Score
As you should know by now your Quality Score is one of the most important factors that Google takes into account when deciding where your ads will show. Quality Score is part of the holy trinity: QS + AdRank + Bid = where your ad is going to be displayed. So, if you want your ads showing near the top of the first page, you need to be paying attention to your QS.
QS itself is made up of three factors: Ad Relevance, Expected CTR and Landing Page Experience. Of those three factors you can directly influence two: Ad Relevance and Landing Page experience. By optimizing your landing page, and the text in your ad you can improve your Quality Score, which in turn, will reduce the amount of money you need to bid to get your ads to the front page. In short; higher Quality Score = saved $$$ and better performance. What’s not to like.
What’s in the New Columns
The new columns we now have broken up the quality score. So instead of having to hover over your QS you can directly see how your Ad Relevance, Expected CTR and Landing Page Experience are performing. But the real value comes in the historical Ad Relevance, Expected CTR and Landing Page Experience columns, which allow you to see how your Quality Score is changing over time.
This will allow you to really see if the changes you made to that landing page are working, or if that little tweak you made to an ad is paying off instead of having to guess or manually record the information yourself. Third party tools like Optmyzr have offered this for a while, but by bringing it in-house Google has made our lives a little bit easier.
So, now with access to historical data, it is easier to track improvement over time so you can push your AdWords account forward. What columns do you think Google need to add next?
Photo credit – Top: Wikipedia
