d search quality score: Is it vanity or valuable? //

Quality score. These two words are a source of fear for paid search professionals all over the world.

Okay, maybe not.

However, quality score can be confusing and cause heated debate.

What is a vanity metric?

Some practitioners believe that quality score is a vanity measure.

Others see quality score as a KPI that should be optimized and reported on a regular basis.

The debate continues.

The question is also whether quality score is an factor in ad rank.

(Spoiler alert: It is in fact a factor.

The most confusing PPC metric is the quality score.

Qualitative score definition

Let’s look at what quality score really is.

This article by Navah is a definition of quality score. It’s a score that Google and Microsoft calculate alongside your bid to determine your ad ranking.

The bottom line is that your quality score will determine where your ad appears and how much you pay per click.

What is the importance of quality score?

Do you need to focus on quality scores? Is it just a vanity metric or should you focus on improving quality score?

This is what Google’s official help files says:

The combined performance of the 3 components is used to calculate “Quality Score”.

• Expected clickthrough rates (CTR), The probability that your ad is clicked after it has been shown.
• Relevance of your advertisement to the user’s search intent.
• Experience on landing page: How useful and relevant your landing page is for people who click your advertisement.

Each component is given a rating of “Above Average,” “Average,” and “Below Average” based on the comparison with other ads that have shown for the same keyword in the past 90 days.

This could indicate an opportunity for improvement if one of these components is “Average” (or “Below average”)

– Quality Score, Google Ads Support

Google believes that advertisers should improve their quality score as a result of the above.

We all know Google tells advertisers that they should focus on things that make Google money, but not those that help their bottom line.

Payed search professionals believe that quality score is a significant metric. Larry Kim asserts that quality score is the “king of KPIs” in this 2013 article.

Kim’s argument is circular. Kim is correct in stating that CPA can be affected by quality scores.

Yes.

CPC and CPA are affected by quality score. You will pay more per conversion if you have a high CPC than an advertiser with a lower CPC.

It’s simple math. It’s also possible to argue that advertisers should lower their maximum CPCs in order to decrease CPA.

Although it’s not easy, is the effort to improve your quality score worthwhile?

Experts’ opinion

Experts in the field agree that it is.

Brad Geddes, the founder of PPC tool Adalysis has written several posts on improving quality scores. To help advertisers improve their quality score, the tool includes modules that show data on various levels of quality score.

Geddes demonstrates how to increase quality score by moving low-quality keywords to a new group in one article.

Optmyzr is another PPC tool that was created by Fred Vallaeys (ex-Googler). has modules to increase quality score.

In this article late 2022 Ashwin Balakrishnan, Optmyzr, states that quality score remains important.

Both Geddes and Vallaeys have my respect. They have been mentors to me in the search industry.

These tool founders must feel so strongly about quality that they have spent time and resources creating modules to improve it. Right?

So why is it that advertisers claim quality score is a vanity measure?

There are many reasons. Google doesn’t show a quality score on every keyword.

Robert Brady provided an example for a keyword that spent over $13,000 in 30 Days with no quality score.

Similar things have happened in my accounts: keywords with high spend but no quality score.

Ginny Marvin , Google Ads liaison, stated that quality scores won’t be displayed for keywords without “enough” exact matches. Keywords must also have “recent” exact matches impressions.

Why isn’t quality score included for every keyword if it is so vital? How can one optimize data that isn’t available?

Next is B2B. This is the world that I live in.

Low quality scores are a hallmark of B2B keywords. We won’t know the exact reasons, but it is likely that there are a few things:

• Comparable to B2C searches, low search volume
• Google can’t understand niche-specific terms.
• Ambiguity in B2C searches (e.g. “security solutions”, “renewable energie,” etc. ).
• There is a lot of competition – there are many advertisers with deep pockets competing for very few ambiguous search terms.
• Search engine algorithms are unable to understand intent, particularly in B2B.

This last bullet is particularly important and frustrating. Because:

• Geddes explains that “algorithms do not think, they only examine numbers.”
• Volume of B2B is less than that of B2C.
• There is overlap with B2C.

Engine algorithms are unable to understand intent and B2B marketers are often penalized with low quality scores, sometimes even for violating brand terms.

Hopkins’ article on quality states that Hopkins believes:

“These scores are calculated based on how your campaign performed against similar advertisers. Google may choose to compare you with other advertisers, so it’s possible for good CTR to be downgraded sometimes to an average or below average.

Here’s an example of one of our clients.

Three brand keywords have middling quality scores.

While two of the three keywords have double digit CTRs, one keyword – for a free account – has a lower expected CTR.

This is enough to make advertisers scream in frustration.

We often don’t put enough emphasis on improving the quality score of our B2B clients.

It’s just a waste of time dealing with engines that don’t understand B2B or ambiguity. This takes away time from more efficient optimizations, such as landing page or ad copy testing.

Setting the (quality score)

Now we’re back at the original question: Does quality score really matter?

You might not think so.

A KPI should not be the sole measure of quality. Clients shouldn’t be notified or obsessed with it every day.

It is important to not ignore it. Use quality score in a direction. Low quality scores should be used to point you towards other optimizations.

Ad groups that are tightly themed should be used

For example, small and tightly-themed ads groups are still very important .

We have improved our quality score and performance by dividing large ad group into smaller groups around a theme, and using ad copy that matches the theme.

Ad groups with tightly-themed themes still have a place in today’s RSA world.

Improve your landing pages

You can also use your quality score to improve landing pages.

This optimization is often overlooked and can yield huge benefits in terms of quality score and conversion rates.

Here’s another example from the client I mentioned above. This one has lower-than-expected brand quality scores.

Adalysis’s screenshot shows several landing pages that offer below-average experiences.

Adalysis links you to the pagespeed insight tool. This is a useful and free tool that can diagnose problems with page load speed. Here’s how one client’s page scored:

33 out of 100. It’s not so great.

It is easy to see how this landing page is bringing down its quality score and user experience.

The PageSpeed Insights tool provides diagnostics to identify “opportunities”, which can be used to improve pages.

This is because unused elements and blocking issues can slow down page loading time.

The step-by-step instructions for fixing the problem can be found by clicking the down arrow beside the “estimated savings”.

PPC marketers may view PageSpeed Insights as an “SEO thing.” We are not familiar with it.

Hopkins points out that SEO is essential to a healthy performance in PPC – and a holistic SEO marketing strategy.

If your client doesn’t have an SEO department, you might be able to work with them on improving their landing pages.

Speeding up page loading can have a positive impact on quality score and performance.

Is quality score a vanity metric or a metric to be measured? It is, in a sense, a vanity metric, especially for B2B marketers. It’s also an effective tool to improve PPC performance.

Search Engine land first published the post Quality Score in Paid Search: Vanity or Valuable?.