PPC Minute: Quality Score

What Is It?

The Quality Score is a number from 1-10 that is assigned to each keyword in a Pay-Per-Click (example: Google AdWords) campaign. The Quality Score is about relevancy; it assesses the quality of the relationship between the ad copy and landing page and the keyword that you would like to advertise on.

How Is It Calculated?

Part of the formula is hidden, but Quality Score is determined by the search engine’s assessment of relevancy as well as historical click-through rates on your ads by users. New accounts with no historical data are evaluated based on the experience of other advertisers.

Why It’s Important?

A high Quality Score means that the search engine (example: Google) thinks that your ad and landing page would be useful to a user who typed in that keyword. It is a contributing factor to (not the only consideration) how often your ad will be served, in what position, and how much you will be charged per click.

When you have a high Quality Score, your click-through rate is also likely to be higher, and your ads are more likely to convert to purchases. This is because users are more likely to be interested in your ad when it is highly relevant to their search terms.

What’s a Good Quality Score?

One is the lowest and 10 is the highest, so the closer to 10, the better. Generally, a Quality Score below seven should be addressed as quickly as possible.  Also keep in mind that a low Quality Score can also keep your ads from being delivered.

How to Improve Your Quality Score

The best way to improve your Quality Score is to think like a search engine. The first priority of a search engine is serving search results to users that match their queries as closely as possible. If a user types in the search term “brown boots,” the search engine doesn’t want to serve ads that are for other types of footwear, such as slippers or sneakers, or even for boots that aren’t brown. So if you want to target the keyword “brown boots,” then your ad copy and landing page should match that keyword as closely as possible. If you are also selling red boots, you can set up another ad group.

The Bottom Line

Tracking your Quality Score helps you ensure that your ads get served on search engine ad platforms and that you get the maximum value from your advertising budget.

For help with your Quality Score, consult a Google Certified Partner.