Keyword quality score dropping, what to do?

[spartanic]

My Adwords campaign is totally screwed up. One of my high converting keywords was doing pretty good but for some reason after a few weeks the quality score starting dropping.

I've been split testing my ad copy and getting a decent CTR but it still dropped. Now its down to 4! Keyword relevancy, landing page & loading times are "Good".

What the heck is going on? Seems like Adwords quality score in general is getting more anal by the minute.

[socomplete]

I would try adding another page to your website or blog, or you can write more content.

[dburk]

Hi spartanic,

Nearly two thirds of QS is made up of your CTR. The standard is set at the individual keyword level, so a CTR that is above average for all keywords in general might be very poor for a specific keyword. It's not how good your CTR is compared to other keywords that count, it's how good your CTR is compared to other advertisers bidding on the same keyword. So while you may view your CTR as good, it may not be nearly as good as your competitor's average.

My advice would be to study your competition and try to take the best of what they are doing as your baseline. Then endeavor to improve on it. Some keywords need to generate a very high CTR to earn a decent QS.

[Lucid]

Don is absolutely right. While you may think your CTR is good, the QS is calculated against other advertisers. So if you have a QS of 5 with a 8% CTR, it means you are not doing as well as the average competitor for that keyword who may get 10% or the elite who may have CTRs of 12% or more.

This free Adwords FAQ PDF download explain it all.

[searchnology]

I also speculate it is your CTR but how do you know your landing page is "good"?

[Lucid]

Originally Posted by searchnology

I also speculate it is your CTR but how do you know your landing page is "good"?

What people have got to understand is that Google's rating of poor and OK has nothing to do with aesthetics. It has everything to do with their policies and guidelines.

Example. One such policy is that they won't allow you to promote anything to do with gambling. If they determine that your site is about gambling, you get a poor landing page quality which brings down your QS to one. It could be the greatest looking and most fabulous site in history. Your keywords could all be very relevant. But you'll still get a poor site rating because gambling sites are against their policy.

Same with bridge pages, which is having links to an affiliate's sales page, or squeeze pages or any of the kinds of products or services you are promoting. Google Adwords guidelines and policies.