Google Myth - Quality Score

[cgj1981]

For those of who do PPC advertising I am sure you have heard a lot about Quality Score over the years. Well now of course you can see your Google Quality Score by keywords in the AdWords reports.

Now there are many components that go into quality score and a lot of mythology that surrounds it.

However one thing does NOT factor into Quality Score.

KW Level Destination URLs do NOT factor in. (This was confirmed to us from a tailor presentation Google did at our offices last week to clear up the myths in marketplace about quality score.)

This in their opinion was one of the biggest myths so for those changing their kw level destination URLs, that alone will not alter your quality score.

[Traffic-Bug]

Adwords is a humbug in my opinion. It always eats up by daily budget rapidly and the traffic and clicks do not convert at all. What a waste of money

[cgj1981]

Well it all depends on how you use it and what your goals are. For some of the online travel companies who spend millions of dollars per month it is essentially their only form of marketing and without their company would not exist.
Same with some of the sole shops who sell niche products online.

[ptone]

Any more little nuggets from that presentation? Come on, spill the beans.

[jasonl70]

Originally Posted by Traffic-Bug

Adwords is a humbug in my opinion. It always eats up by daily budget rapidly and the traffic and clicks do not convert at all. What a waste of money

if it's not converting for you, you either:
a) picked the wrong keywords
b) worded your ad wrong, and did not get the correct traffic
c) landing page did not do it's job

if you get any of these wrong, then I'd say any marketing you do will underperform.. you need to know the 'converting' kw's whether it's seo, article marketing, or ppc..
that's one of the things that is great about ppc in my opinion - it let's you hone in on the best keywords very quickly, before you go and write hundreds of articles, or go on a link building spree.

[cgj1981]

Haha that was the main one...actually I will post some of them here...

What are the components of Quality Score?
• The historical CTR of the keyword
• Your account history, which is measured by the CTR of all the ads
and keywords in your account
• The historical CTR of the display URL’s in the ad group
• The relevance of the keyword to the ads in its ad group
• The relevance of the keyword and the matched ad to the search
query
• Your account's performance in the geographical region where the ad
will be shown


Misconception: There is only one Quality Score
Fact: There are separate Quality Scores used to set first page
bids and rank ads. In addition, the Quality Score is different for
search and content.

Misconception: Match types will not affect my Quality Score
Fact:Quality Score now assessed dynamically therefore the placement
of each can be different and therefore have different scores
• [red flowers], “red flowers”, ‘red flowers’ may all have different CTRs and
Quality Scores
• The Quality Score shown in the frontend is for the exact match version and is
listed there to give visibility into general overall health of the keyword
• Negative keywords help you eliminate irrelevant queries
– This helps improve your account’s performance

Misconception: Showing up in a higher position will benefit my QS
Fact:Quality Score is normalized to compensate for differences in
performance for ads in different positions
–An ad in a higher position is predisposed to get a better CTR
–An ad above the search results is predisposed to get a better CTR
•You can’t buy your way into top position with a low quality ad

Misconception: A high CTR means that I’ll have a high Quality Score
Fact:Quality Score (for First Page Bid and for AdRank on search) is
based on your ad’s performance on Google.com
•It is possible that your ad has a low Quality Score despite having a
stellar CTR because it does not perform well on Google properties

Misconception: My Quality Score suffers when my ad/keyword is
paused
Fact:Quality Score is not negatively affected by pausing an ad
because no performance data is being accrued
• Use ad scheduling to only show your ads when they perform at their
best
• Pause keywords and creatives that are out of season and resume
them next time they come in season
Fact:Quality Score is partially based on system-wide data so a paused
ad’s Quality Score could change when it is resumed.
• E.g. the keyword “Christmas Tree”will have a better Quality Score
around the holidays. If you unpause it in March, it may have a worse
Quality Score, however this is an external factor and not a penalty
because your keyword was paused.

Hope this helps

[ptone]

That's good stuff, CJ. Thank you!

[Eric Louviere]

wow, thanks - this is good info. there's some stuff there I did not know.

[lacraiger]

Originally Posted by Traffic-Bug

Adwords is a humbug in my opinion. It always eats up by daily budget rapidly and the traffic and clicks do not convert at all. What a waste of money

i wasted a crapload on adwords myself doing it the hard way. then i heard a great advice and took it - hire an expert to do it for you. you save time and money because that expert will you get you more clicks at a cheaper cost, saving you money in the long run.

[Nathan Hangen]

I think it is bogus that you suffer for learning your way through Adwords. If they base QS on prior campaigns, then they aren't allowing you to fix your mistakes.

[Samuel Lee]

Would agree that its always best to start with a lower budget on Adwords and a basic established and reputable plan. You can delegate to others, and some have had some great success, but what other posters have said is true, you need to learn the basics by yourself to begin with to fully use it to your potential. Interesting...

[cgj1981]

That was the main basis of quality score the only other thing I can think of is;

Quality Score for Content Network
What are the components of Quality Score?
• The ad's past performanceon this and similar sites
• The relevanceof the adsand keywords in the ad group to the site
• The quality of your landing page
• Other relevance factors
The Quality Score fordeterminingif aplacement-targetedad will
appear on a particular site depends on the campaign's bidding option.
• If the campaign usesCPMbidding, Quality Score is based on:
–The quality of your landing page
• If the campaign usesCPCbidding, Quality Score is based on:
–The historical CTRof the ad on this and similar sites
–The quality of your landing page

[Alp Bozkurt]

Hey what are you talking about???

Adwords (or PPC generally) is the biggest invent since the invent of television. -- from marketing side.

You start selling the next minute when your product is ready. What can be better than that?

Originally Posted by Traffic-Bug

Adwords is a humbug in my opinion. It always eats up by daily budget rapidly and the traffic and clicks do not convert at all. What a waste of money

[amber01]

You could be true there