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‎3 Little Known Factors to Improve AdWords Quality Score (and CVR)

by StillHill
3 replies
  • SEO
    • |
‎3 Little Known Factors to Improve AdWords Quality Score (and CVR)

Whever people talk about improving your AdWords quality score, many people talk about CTR, bounce rate etc... while these are important factors, here are some lesser known ways to increase your QS... (Disclaimer: any links I post are to free tools, and I do not own them!)

These things will also improve your conversions, which incidentally ALSO improves your QS. These are things that have been tested with Millions of dollars of adspend (proven methods).

If you're just focusing on CTR you are really missing the boat...

So here they are...

1. Page load time - yes, this is a huge factor.. bigger than you can imagine. Call your web host and tell them to turn on gzip (sometimes called mod_deflate). You can get your page to load by 5-10x with this feature. It takes about 5 seconds for your web host to enable this feature on your server.

And guess what? A faster loading page also means a better CVR page!

Check for html compression: WhatsMyIP.org | HTTP Compression Test

2. Be W3C Compliant
a. check your pages for W3C compliance.. The W3C Markup Validation Service Plug in your URL and it will give you a free report... fix all errors it tells you.
b. If you are using wordpress, make sure you are using the latest version. Custom themes, make sure you run through the validator.

3. Test Pages For Browser Compatibility - Yes this can affect QS in many ways. Why? Because cvr does affect QS. If your page is jacked on IE7 do you know you could be missing out on as much as 20% cvr?

Check all versions of IE with any of these tools:

Adobe Browser Lab (free, need adobe account which is also free) https://browserlab.adobe.com/en-us/index.html

IETester (free download no catch or gimmicks)
My DebugBar | IETester / Browser Compatibility Check for Internet Explorer Versions from 5.5 to 10

For firefox and Chrome, just make sure you have the latest versions installed and check manually.

Make sure you are compatible from IE 7-9, FireFox and Chrome.. those who are really anal can also check Safari as well.

Hope this helps you out!
#adwords #cvr #factors #improve #quality #score
  • Profile picture of the author dburk
    Hi StillHill,

    I have been doing AdWords advertising for a long time and have never seen any evidence that suggest conversion rates effect QS, nor anything published that suggested it, until now (this post). How did you come to this conclusion? What are you basing this claim upon?
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    • Profile picture of the author StillHill
      Don,

      We have conducted many tests on this... Over and Over again we've seen campaigns with good CTR tank with high cpc when they did not convert. Using the same offers, KW and different ads (that garnered the same ctr relatively) when the offer started converting traffic scaled and cpc dropped.

      In our experince cvr and ctr are the two biggest factors in determining quality score.. remember, like CTR, CVR is also a user "vote".

      Google also knows if the same user who converted, searches the same term again (during a short time span). This can also hurt you as this tell s Google that you most likely did not help them.

      Google knows ALL... it would scare you to see the amount of cookies and stuff Google themselves puts on users computers.

      Peter
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      Got AdWords? Let me help you explode your sales
      http://www.dunbargroupllc.com

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      • Profile picture of the author dburk
        Originally Posted by StillHill View Post

        Don,

        We have conducted many tests on this... Over and Over again we've seen campaigns with good CTR tank with high cpc when they did not convert. Using the same offers, KW and different ads (that garnered the same ctr relatively) when the offer started converting traffic scaled and cpc dropped.
        Hi Peter,

        This part I believe and makes sense to me. Conversions are important to the success of a campaign, I just haven't seen a direct relationship between conversion rates and Quality scores. I pour over my data nearly every day for more than a million keywords and just do not see what you are seeing in regards to CVR and QS.

        Please note that I am not questioning the sample size of your data, just the validity of your conclusions drawn from that data.

        Originally Posted by StillHill View Post

        In our experince cvr and ctr are the two biggest factors in determining quality score.. remember, like CTR, CVR is also a user "vote".
        Again, I agree that CTR is not only a major factor, it appears to be the most heavily weighted factor. I am just not buying the conversion rate theory.

        If you are looking at your data, as a whole, you may see a correlation and jump to a conclusion of causation based upon a spurious relationship. A basic principle of science and statistics is that correlation does not imply causation. If you based your conclusion simply on a correlation of aggregate data then it may well be an invalid conclusion.

        At best, correlations are merely hints to possible causes. I too see a correlation in the aggregate data. However, when I use Set theory to divide my data into data sets based on QS, or conversions, the correlations disappear. This evidence tends to invalidate your theory. For your theory to be valid the correlation should appear within these discreet data sets, and they do not appear with any consistency, therefore I must draw a different conclusion from yours.

        Perhaps a better explanation for the correlation that we both seem to see in the aggregate data is from a third cause that you have not considered. A well managed campaign will purge ads that have high CPC in combination with relatively low conversion rates, as this would surely tank a campaign's profitability. This would naturally create a correlation, in the aggregate data, between higher conversion rates and higher quality scores, though not valid as a cause of higher quality scores. The correlation seems to be a natural result of the actively managed campaigns, and does not point toward a cause of higher QS.

        Originally Posted by StillHill View Post

        Google also knows if the same user who converted, searches the same term again (during a short time span). This can also hurt you as this tell s Google that you most likely did not help them.

        Google knows ALL... it would scare you to see the amount of cookies and stuff Google themselves puts on users computers.
        While I generally agree, those facts do not seem pertinent to my point.

        If your theory was valid I should be able to easily see conclusive evidence within my own data, and I do not. Maybe you have a method of analysis that I do not possess, if so please share.
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        * Get Results - Outsource Your PPC Management |
        *         Don Burk Advertising & Marketing - www.donburk.com

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