Quality Score and What it Really Means

 

360Partners recently engaged a potential client with a request similar to those of many marketing executives: “Our PPC account is not hitting our intended metrics. Why?” Though this company had a sizeable budget allocated to paid search and had internal resources in place to manage the spend, their account was not performing at the level they had anticipated. When 360Partners analyzed the account, it became very apparent that quality score was the main obstacle in preventing account success. In this month’s newsletter, 360Partners will explain what is quality score and how it is calculated.

What is quality score and how is it calculated?

 

Search engines take ownership in ensuring that the quality of ads listed in their results pages are of the highest quality. The reasoning is that if the user experience is positive, users will come to better trust and utilize the search results they are given. This means they are more likely to click on PPC ads and clicking on ads has a direct correlation to maximizing revenue for the engine. Essentially, quality score is the variable that helps search engines ensure users are having positive experiences when they click on PPC ads. For advertisers, quality score is the variable that determines the ranking of your ads and how much you will have to pay for the traffic. Because it is a variable, advertisers are able to improve their quality score, thus paying less for the traffic they receive.

There are a number of factors that determine quality score. Each search engine has given high level suggestions on the factors most important to them, but none have revealed the exact formula for calculating the number. From what is known, these are the most important things in determining quality score:

Click through rate: The historical click-through rate (CTR) of the keyword and matched ad is a key indicator that the user experience was successful.

Ad copy relevance: When ad copy is highly related to the keyword, it is assumed to be a better user experience by the search engine. It can be postulated that ad copy that contains the searched query will have a higher quality score.

Landing page quality: Recently, the search engines have begun to evaluate the user experience beyond the click. The overall experience (load time, privacy policy, etc) of the landing page has an influence on quality score.

Other factors: SEM experts have postulated that other factors contribute to quality score like geographical targeting, conversion rates, actual bid, URL click-through rate, and more.

Quality Score Will Make or Break Your Paid Search Campaign

For most industries, the cost of PPC marketing is on the rise. Average click prices have steadily increased year over year and advertisers are feeling less comfortable with the overall efficiency of their PPC efforts. Jupiter Research recently reported that nearly almost 33% of companies report not being confident in most areas of their PPC management. If you think your PPC efficiency could improve, 360Partners recommends evaluating your quality score. It’s a great indicator of whether or not you’re paying too much for traffic. Many times, simple changes can improve quality scores and lower your costs while maintaining high quality traffic.

Search engines enable all of us to find what we want, when we want it. The engines connect potential customers with relevant information about your industry and they do it when consumer interest is high. There is great value in being present in those search transactions. It allows businesses to control the messaging and shape the customer to have more favorable views of your business. 360Partners has had many conversations with companies with competitors who are actively controlling the conversation with potential customers. Despite using PPC, their competitors were still beating them. Because these companies had lower quality scores, the budget was exhausted sooner and the traffic was more expensive. Lower quality scores enable competitors to increase their marketing budgets which can increase the amount of quality traffic being sent their way.

Finally, many advertisers have tested paid search and immediately come to the conclusion that the economics don’t work. Almost always, this is due to low quality scores, increasing costs and realizing the difficulty in hitting your ROI goals. If advertisers could increase their quality scores, often times they will find their PPC marketing to be the most effective and economical process for acquiring customers.

How to Improve Your Quality Score

There are many ways in which advertisers can improve their quality scores. 360Partners recommends focusing on these specific areas:

Create highly specific ad groups. Each ad group should contain keywords specific to a unique theme. The more specific the theme, the better. Tightly woven ad groups allow for greater tracking, ad copy, optimization, and quality score.

Include your keyword(s) in your ad copy and headline/title. With strong ad groups, 360Partners recommends gearing ad copy to include the specific keywords in each ad group. We’ve found that users are more likely to convert when they see queries they’ve keyed into the search engines show in the actual ad copy. This will have positive results in your quality score.

Test multiple ads. 360Partners recommends testing multiple variations of ad copy in each ad group. The key variables of click-through and conversion rate should be analyzed and improved upon. Effectively testing ad copy will improve quality score.

Avoid duplicate keywords across ad groups. Search engines show only one ad per advertiser on a particular keyword. There is no need to duplicate keywords in different ad groups or campaigns, unless you are using a different match type. Identical keywords compete against each other and the better performing keyword triggers your ad. This can negatively influence quality score.

Have a high quality landing page. Advertisers need to provide PPC traffic a relevant experience on their landing pages. 360Partners defines a relevant experience as having fast load times, rich content, a strong conversion opportunity, and good transparency. When users are given a good experience on the landing page, the quality scores will be higher.

360Partners Has a Quality Score Process

When 360Partners works with new clients, one of the first things we do is review the existing PPC account. Too often we find the account with poor structure. This structure creates low quality scores and offsets the performance and potential of the account. For these reasons, 360Partners has built in a methodical process to ensure quality scores are high. We recommend being thorough in your account builds and ensuring quality scores remain high.

If you’re interested in having 360Partners analyze your quality scores and make recommendations on how you can specifically improve your PPC account, reach out to us! We’re happy to pass along customized advice to help you and your business succeed.

About the author: Mike Craig leads an account team at 360Partners. He and his team serve a variety of lead gen clients. Prior to joining 360Partners, Mike received his Masters of Advertising from the University of Texas-Austin. He researched about new and innovative methods of marketing online. Mike can be reached at mike@360partners.com