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Google uses Quality Score (QS) to improve the relevance of Adwords paid search ads to a search term. It is a variable that is attached to each of your keyword phrases and impacts both your minimum bid and the rank of your ad on the search response page.

In general the Quality Score is good for searchers, advertisers, and Google. It ties the search term, the ad copy, and the landing page together. The more relevant they are to each other, the better the experience for the searcher. The better the experience for the searcher, the higher the advertiser’s combination of click-through-rate and conversion rate. Improved results for the advertiser lead to more of the advertiser’s marketing budget going to Google.

From the general to the specific
What is frustrating for advertisers is that even when they know the general rules for improving Quality Score, it’s difficult to diagnose the cause of low QS for a particular keyword. Perhaps someday, as Alan Rimm-Kaufman has suggested, Google will find a way to be both open and secure with their QS algorithm.

In the meantime, let’s take a look at how Google describes Quality Score and some observations from practitioners. Then we’ll see what we can apply to paid search strategy.

The sources for this post are Google’s article on Quality Score in the Adwords Help Center, a summary of a Paid Search panel session at Search Engine Roundtable, and articles by Andrew Goodman and Alan Rimm-Kaufman.

Although Quality Score applies to keyword-targeted ads on content networks, the content networks are not a good advertising investment for B2B marketers. So I’m only going to discuss how QS relates to keyword-targeted ads on the Google search network.

Quality Score factors that are common to both minimum bid and ad rank

• “Your account history, which is measured by the clickthrough-rate (CTR) of all the ads and keywords in your account” Right away this points to the most important factor in Quality Score, CTR. The strongest indicator of the relevance of an ad is whether people click on it. This factor also points to the importance of history and consistency. Past behavior is taken to be an indicator of future behavior, so it pays to start an account with strong, well-developed campaigns from the very beginning.
• “Other relevance factors” What are these factors? How important are they? We don’t know.

Factors specific to minimum bid
These factors determine whether an ad for your keyword will display at all. If your max bid is less than Google’s minimum bid, the ad won’t be shown.

• “Keyword’s historical clickthrough rate (CTR) on Google.” If the CTR of the keyword is low across all Google advertisers, then your minimum bid will be higher. Why? Google knows that in general this is a keyword that searchers find less relevant. You can advertise on the keyword, but you’ll have to pay more.
• “Relevance of the keyword to the ads in its ad group.” The keywords in each adgroup should be closely related to the ad copy of the ads in that group. Thus the argument for tightly focused keywords in adgroups.
• “The quality of your landing page.” The more a landing page provides the information the searcher expects to find based on the search term and the ad copy, the higher its quality. Google has a lot of experience with judging quality to rank pages in the natural search index, so it knows what to look for. In fact, Google spokespeople and product architects have acknowledged that there is a similarity in their thinking about relevance and quality between the paid and organic side. You could even say that paid search is simply an extension of organic rankings, but where you can pay to improve your position.

Factors specific to your ad rank on the search result page
Once you start displaying ads for a keyword, then Google can use the history and relevance of the ad to assign the QS to the keyword’s ad rank.

• “The historical CTR of the ad and of the matched keyword on Google” Once again, CTR is the most important factor for Quality Score. But here, instead of looking across the ad network, it’s the CTR of your specific ad and keyword that is measured. Match type does not affect QS. Google only looks at exact matches to determine QS.
• “Relevance of the ad and the keyword to the search query” The more relevant the ad copy and the keyword is to the search query, the higher the QS and hence the higher the rank of the ad on the response page. This factor supports the recommendation of using a wide range of keywords in your campaign. The more specific your keywords the more likely you will have a very close match to the search query in your inventory.

How to increase your Adwords Quality Score

• Control what you can Many QS factors are under your control: relevancy across keyword, ad copy, and landing page; wide range of well-researched keywords; and intelligent bidding. Focus on these factors across the portfolio and let go of the factors that are not under your control.
• Focus on the experience of the buyer. B2B buyers want to find relevant information at all stages of their buying cycle. Use paid search to add value to the buyer by making it easy to find the information you have to offer.
• CTR is still the most important factor. Other factors are important, but people clicking on your ads is the most important measure of quality.
• Build a strong history. Start new accounts and campaigns on the right foot. Research your keywords, write strong ad copy, submit competitive bids. The experts say that if your keywords get assigned low Quality Scores that it is hard to climb out of the hole. Andrew Goodman recommends:
  • Narrow keywords
  • Hand built ads
  • Tailored landing pages that work
  • Geo-specific where it makes sense
  • Segmenting and microtargeting
• Better Quality Score is a competitive advantage. If you improve your Quality Score, you will get a better rank for your ad on the page for the same bid price. What’s more, if you are forcing competitors with a lower QS to make higher bids, you are effectively raising their cost of sales and forcing them into an unprofitable position.