Low Quality Score

[buckeye04]

Hey guys, I'm having a hard time with a new affiliate campaign I just started. I have some great ad groups all with relevant keywords, but keep getting low QS for keywords (getting 2s and 3s). My QS have been low for the past few weeks now. Any alternative ideas on how I can raise them without increasing my bids tenfold?

[KenThompson]

See the thread in the main forum, "I thought I knew adwords."

Same situation, some advice.

[vickeyr]

dude, relevancy to a keyword is all (like 65%) adwords looks for and some seo value is good for a quality score of 8... thats what I found

see this video on my blog if it helps - Banner Exchange Network: It's All Happening Here!!: Google AdWords Bidding For Maximum ROI

[davidfstyles]

Hey, I've found being megga-relevant to the keyword bumps the quality score up to around 7/10... to sometimes 10/10.

By being megga-relevant... what I do is:

- have the keyword in the ad title and somewhere in the ad body copy
- on the landing page do SEO work for the keyword you are targeting ie) keyword in the title tag, meta tags, anchor text, <ALT> tags, 2%-3% keyword density etc

But you also need to make sure your website is an actual website. By that I mean have around 10-15 pages of content... rather than just a 1 page squeeze page or a 1 page pre-sell page. And the content should be relevant to the keywords you are listing. And Google 'latent semantic indexing'... all that means is use words that are related to your keywords.

From my experience I've found Google doesn't give good quality scores for thin 1-2 page websites. They used to when I started with them but then the Google Slap came into play :-(

Hope that helps.

[jaaproos]

As davidfstyles says here above, you need a real site. Also I would urge you to immediately kill the campaign, in order to prevent a bad history. May if you are talking about real volumes you should get an new account.

[buckeye04]

Well, the problem most likely is that I'm taking on a highly competitive campaign. I just thought I would test it using some longer tail keywords and see how things work for a bit. So far, my QS are 2s and 3s, and they want at least $1/click to get on the first page. It seems obsurd since some of these longer tail keywords have very little competition. That's what I'm not understanding, how I still need to bid $1 just to get my ads to show.

And this is an affiliate campaign as I stated in my first post, so I only have one review page that links to the offers I'm promoting. Do I really need multiple pages for an affiliate offer? Is there any other way to get higher QS since I only have one page?

[thinkgreen415]

Sounds like you got the Google Slap. Google really frowns upon affiliates and lead aggregation. I have been running campaigns for several years and found that once you get slapped, that account will never work again. This is why you see posts for people looking to buy old SEASONED Adwords accounts. Try Yahoo or Bing or another lower tier engine.

[Sue McDonald]

I agree you have been slapped by Google. Google likes unique content and to use the same landing page as everyone else is not unique content.

[buckeye04]

It's not the same landing page as everyone else. It is my own UNIQUE review page that I created. Within my review page I have my affiliate links in there.

I've also had this account for well over 2 years now. I've had QS that were low like this before but after some time, they went back up. I'm hoping they will do the same for this campaign as well. I just don't know how long it will take for the QS to go up again. But maybe Google has just gotten stricter on affiliate campaigning. I have other products that I sell on my own that I don't have problems with the low QS. These products also have several pages, not just one review page though.

I've only done Adwords with Google over the past few years. Would any of you recommend Yahoo or Bing? Which one has worked best for you?

[tryinhere]

Originally Posted by buckeye04

It's not the same landing page as everyone else. It is my own UNIQUE review page that I created. Within my review page I have my affiliate links in there.

I've also had this account for well over 2 years now. I've had QS that were low like this before but after some time, they went back up. I'm hoping they will do the same for this campaign as well. I just don't know how long it will take for the QS to go up again. But maybe Google has just gotten stricter on affiliate campaigning. I have other products that I sell on my own that I don't have problems with the low QS. These products also have several pages, not just one review page though.

I've only done Adwords with Google over the past few years. Would any of you recommend Yahoo or Bing? Which one has worked best for you?

As mentioned you need to build a new mini site, what you have is deemed as a bridge page / where the only purpose to foward to another site.

you will not be able to fix the poor ratings per say so scap it then rebuild and start again

[vikramd]

Originally Posted by davidfstyles

Hey, I've found being megga-relevant to the keyword bumps the quality score up to around 7/10... to sometimes 10/10.

By being megga-relevant... what I do is:

- have the keyword in the ad title and somewhere in the ad body copy
- on the landing page do SEO work for the keyword you are targeting ie) keyword in the title tag, meta tags, anchor text, <ALT> tags, 2%-3% keyword density etc

Hope that helps.

If you've done all this and still have the 2-3 quality score up your bid to $1 and let'er run for a few days. Set your budget low and sit back.

You can fix the quality score issues by having good click through rates. Write good ad copy and get your click throughs going.

This was happening to someone I was working with - they went back and SEO'd their page correctly but they were still stick with a QS of 3.

They had to run the ads and the QS went up to 7 & 8 within 2 days.

In addition to the SEO stuff:

1) Make sure you're not doing broad matches (unless you really want to)
2) One ad group per ad per keyword
3) Proper SEO
4) Privacy Page & Contact US Page + Terms of Service

I have several micro sites with only about 5pgs of content and my quality scores are 8-10 depending on the ad group.

Also - read the forums and Ad Words FAQ. You'll get misinformed when you wait for someone else to explain it to you.

[tryinhere]

Originally Posted by vikramd

You'll get misinformed when you wait for someone else to explain it to you.

Very true,

You can fix the quality score issues by having good click through rates. Write good ad copy and get your click throughs going.

I have to meet anyone yet who has fixed a q score with $ alone, that is if it is poor which in mst cases is q score 3 or below.

google is about user experience over and above shovelling $ hence all of the bans, you simply can not present crap and buy your way to the top.

you may have a chance of improving a q score if it is q score 4 and above with a higher price resulting in a higher ctr , with the new ad.

[buckeye04]

Some of my QSs have begun moving up from 2s and 3s, to 4s, 5s, 6s, and even some 7s! Maybe it was just the fact that my site was so new that I was getting so many low QSs. I also increased my bids a bit yesterday too. Hopefully this is the beginning of an upward trend!

[tryinhere]

Originally Posted by buckeye04

Some of my QSs have begun moving up from 2s and 3s, to 4s, 5s, 6s, and even some 7s! Maybe it was just the fact that my site was so new that I was getting so many low QSs. I also increased my bids a bit yesterday too. Hopefully this is the beginning of an upward trend!

thats good news for you, it is the first time i have seen low / poor q score fixed by price alone ? I need to eat my words

[John Hocking]

Some things to help your quality score.

One keyword phrase per ads group

Try to get your keyword in the ad title and or body.
This will help you with CTR.

Optimize your landing page for the keyword phrase.
Put the keyword in the page title
Put the keyword in the page headline and surrond with h1 tags

Use related LSI keywords to boost relevacy.

For example, if the page is about gardening. LSI keywords would be flower, shovel, garden hose, hoe. etc.

The support the them of the page and will help google validate the page.

Also provide links to follow off page like term of service, contact us etc.