to use quality score in PPC //
PPC Marketing is based on quality score. This score is calculated by Google and Microsoft along with your bid to determine your Ad rank.
However, it is often difficult to determine the impact of each lever on quality score.
We’ll explore each quality score and how they affect your campaign and account success.
This article was written with a Google-first view. Many of these strategies and methods can be applied to Microsoft Ads.
What factors are used to calculate the quality score?
Google uses three components to calculate the quality score
- Expected Click-Through Rate (CTR): This is the expected CTR of an ad compared to similar ads on the ad platform.
- Ad relevancy: How closely does the keyword used to trigger the ad link with the query? What does the landing page do to fulfill the ad’s promise of success?
- Landing Page Experience: Is the keyword used to find the landing page relevant? Is the page easy to navigate, minimal pop-ups and fast loading time for the user? )?
Important Note:Quality Score is calculated using the exact impressions for your keywords’ search terms. The quality score data will not be lost if you test a new match type.
You can remove a keyword if you do not copy it and make the changes in the copy. This can cause performance to be stifled.
Make sure to be careful when you make any changes to the syntax or keyword match types.
Expected CTR: How it’s calculated and its impact
Expected CTR can be difficult because it is a third of the quality score, but not within your control. Google assigns a keyword a score depending on its performance in the past. This can be:
- Above average.
- Average.
- Below the average
These scores are based on how you campaign performed against similar advertisers. Google may choose to compare you with other advertisers, so it is possible that a high CTR can sometimes be downgraded to an average or below average.
It is important to focus on the quality score criteria. It is important to optimize for good CTR rather than for high expected CTR.
You can see the expected CTR column of Google Ads’ UI to find out how your account is doing on this metric. Also, sort keywords according to their status. You should not discount keywords with lower expected CTR as they may be performing in other ways.
Higher expected CTRs indicate that you’re good at getting people to interact with your brand and make the ad network more money.
CPCs (cost per click) are a reward for the volume that you will represent in an auction. It is because lower search volume industries may struggle to achieve an above-average CTR. This shouldn’t affect their opinions about the campaign.
Ad relevancy: How it is calculated, and its impact
Ad relevance is the easiest to control and has the greatest influence on the other quality score factors.
Google checks the relevancy of keywords in the ad copy. It also examines the match between the query and the keyword idea. Scores are higher if the keywords match closely.
It is also important to distinguish between ad strength and ad relevance.
Ad strength refers to the creative quality of an ad. does NOT impact the quality score. It is calculated using:
- The top keywords are used in the ad copy.
- Uniqueness of headlines/descriptions.
- Using as many of the headlines/descriptions as possible.
Ad relevance is the relationship between the keyword, the ad and the landing page. This can be calculated by:
- Keyword density in ads and landing pages.
- The closest match between the query and the keyword that triggered your ad.
- The keyword captures whether the query’s intent matches the ad text.
Match types became more flexible to include intent, rather than spellings or order. The rules of engagement changed. To ensure that ad relevance matches, it’s not necessary to have every keyword.
Broad match keywords are more difficult to secure auction spots because they have a higher quality score.
|
Row Labels |
Average Quality Score |
Sum Of Conversions |
Avg. Cost |
| Cape Cod | 5.540540541 | 22 | 13.43923077 |
| Connecticut | 4.949152542 | 87.34 | 6.308888889 |
| Maine | 5.411764706 | 65.88 | 12.04962963 |
| Massachusetts | 5.142857143 | 54 | 5.325890411 |
| New Hampshire | 5.452380952 | 13 | 8.412142857 |
| Rhode Island | 4.666666667 | 31 | 7.80925 |
| Vermont | 5.2 | 5 | 9.5252 |
| (blank) | 905.97 | 3.932 | |
|
Grand Total |
5.182926829 |
1184.19 |
8.459032258 |
These campaigns use the same keywords and the same ads. The only differences are the location of the search, search volume, and auction prices.
The ability to match more closely with exact and phrase will allow for better matching (and often higher match types). The search volume and conversions may drop, however.
The landing page experience: How it’s calculated and its impact
PPCs’ closest approach to technical SEO is landing page experience. This metric must be used by both digital marketing channels. Google crawls the page looking for the following:
- Page load time: Does it load in less than two seconds?
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS: Does the page adhere to the CLS rules? That is, does the page render in the 5 second time limit?
- Layout – Is it easy for humans to navigate and access the page?
- Keyword relevancy: Does the page’s content convey the intended intent of the ad?
This component of quality score must be calculated by the adbot.
PPC landing pages do not need to be followed or indexed. It is best that paid landing pages not be indexed or followed so they can use templatized material and not have to go through the navigation bar.
A good landing page experience is usually the source of a high conversion rate. You will see your conversion rates rise naturally as a result.
Five tips to maximize your quality score
Quality score is generally more of a health indicator that a KPI. It unlocks valuable workflows and data within accounts.
These are five ways to maximize your quality score
- To increase the equity in your account, you can use branded campaigns.
- Instead of focusing on search volume, focus on conversational keyword champions.
- To improve the landing page experience, use behavior analytics
- As keywords age, there will be fluctuations in quality scores.
- Your SEO team can partner with you to gain quality score insights.
1. Branded campaigns can be used to increase the equity in the account
Performance Max campaigns are able to mix branded and unbranded search. This is why they perform so well. Branded terms have higher conversion rates and lower CPCs. They also have a higher CTR, better keyword to ad relevance, and a near-perfect keyword match to landing page relevance.
A branded campaign can help your account achieve some important things.
- Traffic to Sequester is branded from traffic that is not branded.
- You can provide data points that show the algorithm which terms you are high-converting.
- Your audience will appreciate your ability to communicate meaningfully.
This campaign will enable net-new campaigns/ad group/keywords to take advantage of the halo effect from your branded campaign (starting at an average of 6-7 instead than 5).
2. Instead of focusing on search volume, focus on conversational keyword champions
Search patterns have changed beyond the formulaic query. ChatGPT and AI in Google search have made it easier to use chatbots. Although broad queries may have higher search volumes, simple queries can also be a trap for quality scores due to expected CTR and auction price. Because:
- Underbidding can result in impressions for low-value SERP placements which don’t generate clicks. This will result in a lower actual CTR. It is the seed data that determines the expected CTR.
- Broad concepts such as “attorney” will attract a lot more intent than the one you want/need. It doesn’t matter how well you rank for it. Your ad won’t reach a wide audience.
Investing in conversational terms will ensure:
- Optimizing for voice search and transnational intent is the best way to go.
- Safety from excessively cheap clicks that clog up your budget, or unintended costly auctions.
3. Improve landing page experience with behavior analytics
One of the best ways to find out what’s causing your users joy or despair is behavioral analytics. Are you having trouble with your landing page experience? Hotjar (paid and Microsoft Clarity) are two tools that can help you pinpoint the problem.
These insights can help you identify the issues that are preventing your site from loading quickly, such as slow loading due to large images/videos or hidden forms.
Cookie consent modules that don’t align with the rest of a page are one of the leading causes of friction. This could be because the cookie consent module is too large or difficult to understand once it’s finished. This will help improve landing page experience scores and enhance customer experience.
4. As keywords age, there will be fluctuations in keyword quality.
A keyword that is well-integrated with data will usually settle between 7-9.
It might have a high score all through its life, but it is normal for keywords to reach the average 5-6 score over time as it receives thousands of clicks and impressions.
Low search volume industries are also more likely to struggle to escape low quality score land, if they don’t have high equity through branded marketing campaigns.
A keyword could drop a few points and still be acceptable. It’s likely that there is an underlying problem.
5. Your SEO team can partner with you to gain quality score insights
Your quality score conversation must include your SEO team.
SEO is essential to a healthy PPC performance and a holistic SEO strategy.
Discuss with your clients whether a subdomain will better serve their brand than the main site’s organic pages or the no-follow/noindex pages.
Pay-per-click optimization: Increasing quality score
The quality score is still a useful account optimization guide.
It should not be considered a KPI but must be included in account management.
Search Engine Land first published the post Quality score: How to Use It in PPC.