Hi all,
Continuing on the Pay Per Click (PPC) post on Pay per click landing pages that convert, I will be looking at the important factors that influence Google Adwords Quality Score. This score measures the relevance of the keywords that form a tightly knit ad that in turn is relevant to a landing page. The higher the targeting and the relevancy along the chain, the greater is the quality score.

Quality score is important in determining the ad rank using the formula Ad rank = Quality Score * Maximum Cost Per Click (CPC). A higher quality score can still give your ad a higher rank if the cost per click is reasonable. For ads with poor quality score, the ad rank can be increased if the cost per click is hiked up. This leads to the advertiser paying through his nose which is certainly a recipe for disaster in the long run.

There are numerous components that make up the quality score. All these components work in tandem to boost the quality score.  The most important factors amongst them are discussed below.

1) Relevancy of Keywords:
The action starts here at the most basic level. If you can get this right, then you are well on your way to achieving a good quality score. Google assigns values of poor, ok and great to the keywords you use in an ad in your campaign. This can be seem in the Adwords interface by customising the columns to show quality score. Though these values are not the be all end all to achieving good quality score, they are a good pointer of things to come.

When you kickstart and Adwords campaign, there is a factor called the minimum bid. If your keywords are not relevant to the ad text in a certain ad group, then Google will ask you to increase your minimum bid to activate a keyword.

The quality score determines a keyword’s  minimum bid through its Click Through Rate (CTR), relevance of the keyword to its ad text, the landing page  that the ad when clicked leads to and other relevancy factors. The idea here is to bag the lowest minimum bid that Google can afford. This comes down to relevant keyword targeting, using the keyword in the ad text and the ensuing landing page. This can improve the quality score.

2) Ad Copy:
Google’s philosophy is to provide the most relevant search experience to a user. The ad text for your target keyword must contain the keyword, explain a benefit of the product or service you offer and have a great call to action. An ad that  invites lower number of clicks and hence lower CTR reduces the quality score and a consequence of this is the increase in bid prices for the keywords targeted in that ad.

3) Landing Page Factor:
The landing page can improve the quality score of a campaign if the keywords used in the ad that leads to the landing page is completely in harmony with the keywords used on the landing page.  A great landing page can improve the ad positions and increase your Return on Investment (ROI) as a result of higher conversions.

Another important factor is the intent. If you are selling blue widgets and your keywords and ad reflect this clearly, then the landing page should focus on blue widgets. This serial relevancy starting from keywords to the landing page will provide a delightful experience to the user looking for such a product and will result in higher conversions of casual visitors into paying customers. From sales point of view, it is important that the call to action is clear and easy for the user to implement. Keeping the sales funnel nice and simple pays big dividends.

According to Google, the 3 most important factors that determine a good quality site are:
1) Relevant and Original Content:
Content should be original and the copy on the landing page must be relevant to what the ad promises. If a product is advertised in the ad, the landing page should contain links to buy that specific product and not a listing of products.

2) Transparency:
Transparency is about building trust with your customers. You must deliver what the ad promises and if you are collecting personal information, you have to state what you intend to do with the collected information.

3) Navigability:
Google suggests using a short and easy path to deliver the product or service promised in the ad. If your call to action on the landing page is clear and the user can take action easily, then that goes towards improving the quality score. A good easy to use navigation retains the user’s interest and encourages return visits.

Check out Google’s Landing Page and Site Quality Guidelines for Adwords to get a good idea of what is deemed a quality site in Google’s eyes.

Netconcepts is an Auckland pay per click marketing firm that specialises in providing their customers the best ROI by following industry standard ppc practices and delivering great results to the satisfaction of our customers.