Narayan

I'm sure everybody is aware that boosting the quality score up is the best way to lower your bid price on Google Adwords. This is often the key to get a break even campaign profitable.

Quality score (of a keyword, there are others too) is influenced by

1. CTR of ads per keyword
2. Relevancy of keywords with ad and landingpage
3. Landing Page quality

I want to discuss special things to boost quality score. Here are some things that worked for me so far:

for CTR:
- improving ad copy and split testing new ads constantely (obvious)
- using special chars in ad copy, like (TM)
- including keywords in ad copy
- including a question, promise of benefits, problem-solution
- using the whole ad, i.e. adding keyword to the display URL
- Capitalization of ad text
- some special ad copy like the "arrow" as seen on shoemoney.com

for Relevancy:
- include kewords in ad copy
- include keyword in domain
- create a subdomain of the keyword (i.e. keyword.yoursite.com)

for Landingpage:
- including keyword(s) in best on-page SEO techniques (title, h1 etc.)
- including LSI keywords (from AdWords keyword tool)
- writing unique content (Question to discuss: How important is unique here, what about i.e. wikipedia-quotes? Who has experiences?)
- adding links to authority sites (.gov .edu and wikipedia)
- adding "contact", "about", "privacy policy", "terms and conditions"
- adding more content than the landing page (any comments / own experiences on that?)

A special question goes about general keywords: It looks to me that it is easier to get a "Great" (8-10/10) on specific keywords, like "red spring apples". But what about the broad keywords that have the most traffic ("apples" in this example)?

How do you improve quality score (preferrable to great) for a broad keyword?
And how do you improve quality score in your ppc campaigns in general?

sp33dr4ge88

I had to reply because I've been doing all that you mentioned now for about 2 months for zip submits.

I now have a nickname for Google, the big *#!@@ it does what it wants and it's in control regardless.

I want to look at your example "apples" you are right it's hard as hell to get a good quality score for broad match... I've been fighting Google for 2 months now for a single keyword and have gone through 14 domains, various SEO techniques, header 1 tags, unique content you name it.

I'll have days where my site will get a 7/10 for 3 hours then back to a 4/10.... almost as if it's teasing the #@@ out of me and knows what I am trying to do.... keep in mind that's with changing nothing.

Some additional things that help is to have your exact ad copy from the ad in the title, meta keywords and description of your site, then also have the exact keyword phrase in a header 1 on your site.

Also domain age and if it's an authority domain have a lot to do with QS. I did a case study on this and used a domain name that was 6 years old from one of my sites, tested it on a 1 word keyword and was getting a 7/10 score with 11 cents clicks.... I then created a new site the one I am battling with now and had a 7/10 score and received 25 cent clicks for the same position. The site then got shot down to a 4/10 and as it stands now Google pushes it to a 7/10 for a few hours each week here and there but knocks it right back down to a 4/10.

When you are pushing 5k visitors a day, QS can make or break your business especially when doing zip submits that pay $1.50 a lead.... 1 QS point could mean an increase in 10% margin and in $$ sense could mean $300-$500 more profit per day.

If you have any more insight I'd love to hear it because quite frankly I am tried of battling the big #@@#!, I ve relied more on yahoo and msn lately.

Narayan

Interesting story sp33dr4ge88. I found it also strange that the first page bid changed for me drastically from $1.50 to $3.50 and back (current campain on a very competitive keyword right now), although there was no change in quality score. I also considered competition as a reason here. If some competitioners run ads in specific times of the day only, the first bid could go up during that period!?

A drop to 4 from 7 seems strange though. Have you any idea what the cause really is?

Domain Age is interesting, can someone support the idea further?

Narayan

So back to the topic: how do you improve quality score in your ppc campaigns in general?

Mike Morgan.

Nice post .

Mike

Narayan

Actually I wanted to start a discussion and not just post a little guide

Com'on, just share some things how you go to improve on quality score!

SimonHarrison

This , if you have not seen it is essential viewing:

YouTube - Introduction to the Google Ad Auction

Really highlights the reality that landing pages are the least important issue in the chain & CTR is GOD.

I would say everything you have mentioned on CTR is correct, I also use a domain which contains my primary keyword and I hypenate the domain name to ensure it's easy to read.

The only other issue really not mentioned is bid high as hell to start, get the CTR up, go head to head in a brutal bloody battle with the big boys, fight your way into CTR heaven in positions 2-5 and decrease bids slowly each day once you have the CTR.

I have a 8/10 (Great) QS . I have a CTR of 5.75% right now (on search), and the damm clicks are still costing me $2.72 each, still better than the $3.21 they were costing me.

Pretty much I would say your bang on, I make my ads as tempting as possible, keep split testing ads as much as you can until you find a winner that can't be beat and really the rest is in the hands of the Google Gods.

Narayan

I can hear you about the bid price. It seems to me very hard to get clearly profitable with a competetive campaign at least in say 2-3 weeks. Do you plan in getting to a $1.00 bid in the end? Because my guess would be you are even over break even right now.


Btw. PPC Blog: First Page Bid Quality Score Formula was an interesting test that shows, that initial (!) first page bid is extremely dependend on the landing page.

I knew the video, it's a good one. Making the auction easy to understand. In essence it shows why a good quality score allows you to bid low and still get high rankings.

Those both points lead exactly to the conclusion that those who manage to get a Great (possibly 9/10 or 10/10) will be those who can make a really profitable campaign.

So the question remains, how do you get a single word keyword to a great?

The answer must be somewhere in CTR+relevancy (both in ad and landing page) ...

So I would say the following:

- make all the basics from the first post right
then especially:
- make a winner ad with a 10%+ CTR (on position 3-4 or so)
- add a lot of UNIQUE and RELEVANT (keywords, LSI keywords) content to your landing page

What do you say?

SimonHarrison

I'll come back to this later , I'm with my daughter for most of today. I have a 8/10 rating right now on a single keyword / landing page, I've done nothing different to what's been listed in this thread and I still am not profitable, that's with a 8/10 QS, 6.8% + CTR, 100% customised landing page for the keyword and a 17% conversion on a trial offer product paying me $38 per sale.

I have NO idea how you manage to get a 10/10, the only weak factor in the chain for me would be backlinks to the landing page perhaps telling Google, it's not much of an authority on the subject.

I'm breaking even JUST, but I tried to decrease bid price last night, and my CTR dropped increasing bid price, the irony..

Typically I just follow that concept, sometimes it doesn't always pan out, and it's typically based on how competitive the keyword is. I'm profitable in a lot of campaigns but this was the first time I just wanted to go crazy and try something insanely competitive, something I wouldn't normally touch.

I was trying for bravados sake to be honest, I just wanted to see if I could do , hang with the big boys on a ridiculously competitive phrase and see if I could crack it, it's looking like I can't.

I think in reality you need a list'/backend product to make a ROI on some of the top 10 keywords in search, a single product even a trial offer can't generate enough to pay for the clicks.

I submitting some pad files and stuff today for some instant backlinks, gonna web2.0 it as well see if it helps any with the landing page, might even get some organic into the bundle, but if no joy I'll lick my wounds and admit PPC on terms like "weight loss" etc is just to hard for a new guy to come in and kick ass with. I think you need guru PPC status to crack some of the top searched keywords in the mainstream "niches".

For the record even with my QS , trying to pull into 2nd/3rd on what I'm bidding on would require somewhere in the region of $5.00 per click even with my setup, I tried it briefly, the CTR did improve obviously but the drop in CPC wasn't enough to compensate.

It's a huge balancing act.

Narayan

Thanks for the report. I learned that google rates CTR relative to the position of the ad. So I understand it that you can have a Great and a Lower Bid if you get a 5% in position 7 ?!

SimonHarrison

Google basically says, the higher your CTR, the lower your CPC, however the anomoly if you like is that in order to get a high CTR , presuming all other conditions are met such as relevency, good advert, targeting and so forth, you have to have a high CPC.

You can bully your way in but eventually you have lower that CPC in order to generate a ROI, and if the keyword is incredibly competitive, lowering your CPC manually even marginally results in a lower CTR which then causes Google to automatically increase your CPC , there's a conundrum for you. Or , if your max bid isn't sufficient, Google will simply stop showing your ad. So it amounts to a tight rope walk.

You could easily have somebody in position 7, who's at 7 with a low QS and somebody who's at 7 with a great QS (8+) however the latter woudl be paying much less for position 7.

Equally you could have a guy at position 2-3 with a QS of 5, but it would be costing him the earth to stay there. The same guy with a QS of 8 could be in position 2-3 for half what the other guy was. I'm not paying attention here to the fact that potentially a guy with a QS of 5 ,may not actually get shown even if he massively overpaid, but I woudl suspect with a CTR of 5% + it would be sufficient.

Narayan

If you have a higher CTR than an ad in the same average position (and let it be 7), shouldn't that mean your QS will be higher (considered all other factors equal)? Hence lower CPC? To profit from the better CTR, the only thing you would have to bid to become visible would be the minimum bid for 1st page, in theory. If the adcopy is better, this would result in higher CTR compared to ads in the same position.

Currently my goal is to figure out how we can get a broader keyword to a great quality score. The easiest answer could be: make a better ad for that keyword with higher CTR

Let's have a look at some specifics. Who can say something about the impact of the following to QS:

- Unique (definately not copied) content
- Amount of content on Landingpage
- Additional content like blogposts on the same site, linked from the landingpage
(did it, but wasnt unique, did have no visual effect on QS, removed it again)
- Age of Domain
- Page-Rank and Authority of the Domain
- Backlinks of the Domain
(I have a 8/10 on a broad keyword selling from an established domain with unique content. I get a 7/10 on a new domain, that also has some duplicated content on it.)

?

Narayan

Want to share this video about 2 almost identical campaigns withdifferent qualityscore, which makes all the difference:

2009-04-06_1313

sp33dr4ge88

Here's another thing to take into consideration. I fought like hell for 1 keyword recently and established my CTR, got to about position 5-7, decent and okay ROI. BTW my QS is 8/10 right now.

What I noticed now even if you increase your drastically it's hard to move up in position, it's almost like you need to start about in spots 1-3.

Lately though I've been having a major problem, any campaign I create even with a unique landing page, seo'd and all, I get "ads rarely show" no matter what I do, I think my account is screwed or I just have too many landing pages sharing the same IP

Narayan

Yes:

- improve CTR by good adcopy
- harmony in the mix of keyword/ad/landingpage
- use relevant (keywords and LSI keywords) and unique content on landingpage

and check all things from the first posting.
It seems CTR is the top thing to improve by constant splittesting to a better performing ad.

Narayan

What were the main factor for moving to 8 from below?

Any more information for "ads rarely show"? Due to what? Due to low quality score or any other information?