What Is Quality Score and How it Can Save Your Small Business Hundreds (or Thousands) of Dollars
Chris Mulvaney is the CEO of CMDS. I make things... I’m the creative entrepreneur with passion for (re)making brands and inventing solutions to problems no one knows exist.
Like it or not, ad space at the top of Google search pages continues to expand; so it is more important than ever to make sure your small businesses ads have a great ranking and stand out. Quality score (QS) optimization is one way to maintain a high ranking (without breaking the bank) among the rest. According to Google support, “Having a high Quality Score means that our systems think your ad and landing page are relevant and useful to someone looking at your ad.” You’re probably wondering how small businesses can get a high QS. Our marketing professionals at CMDS, a top Marketing Agency in NJ, have put together a little QS 101 below to help you understand. Let’s dive in:
Quality Score 101
Quality Score is a metric Google uses to determine what position advertisers paid ads should place in on the SERP and how much they pay. Quality Score is calculated on an individual keyword basis, and is one of the most important factors in Google’s paid-search algorithm.
Simply put, along with your actual bid and competitors’ bids, your Quality Score helps determine how much Google will charge you for each click on your ad. Google wants to serve relevant ads, so they reward advertisers with high QS by charging less. Conversely, advertisers that don’t provide targeted, relevant advertising are penalized.
High Quality Scores Means More Money in Your Wallet What
Quality Score Factors Are Important
A number of factors determine a quality score including expected click through rate and ad relevance. Google measures these factors and multiplies your maximum cost-per-click bid to establish Ad Rank. More relevant ads generally receive a higher click-through rate (CTR), so CTR is one of the major components of a Quality Score. Other factors that can influence your QS include:
- Click through rate (CTR) history: This is based on previous clicks and impressions. When searchers click on an ad, it signals Google that the ad fulfills their need.
- Quality of landing page: The landing page that is associated with each ad needs to be relevant to the search query, responsive and easy-to-navigate.
- Keyword relevance: Determine how closely the ad matches the user’s search intent. When the keywords you bid on directly relate to the ad triggered, there is a higher chance they will relate to the user’s search query.
- Ad text relevance: This takes into account how relevant your ad text is to what a person is searching for.
- Geographic performance: How well the ad performs in the regions targeted.
- Targeted devices: How well the ads perform on different devices, such as laptops, smartphones, and tablets.
- Account performance history: Tracking the history of the keyword and URL’s past CTR is important. The account needs to be optimized to perform.
Why Should Businesses Care?
All of this may still seem confusing and you may be wondering how it affects your small business. QS is indeed a direct reflection of the “health” of your PPC account and plays a large part in the performance of your campaigns. Whether you’re testing a brand new ad or introducing different keywords, QS can directly influence the ad position and bid estimate, the actual cost per click (CPC) and cost per conversion. Overall, higher quality ads typically lead to lower costs and better ad positions. Lower costs, mean that you can collect more clicks for the same budget than someone with a lower QS. By working through QS best practices with CMDS, business owners will see an increase in the performance statistics most important to them – budget and reach. Contact us to get started today.