A company’s Google Quality Score provides a way to analyze the potential success of landing pages, ads and keywords.
Google likens the score to a car’s warning light, stating it “shows how healthy your ads and keywords are.”
We know that higher quality ads can lead to better ad positions, so the Google Quality Score is an important tool to use, however, it is just an estimate and should not be your most important key performance indicator (KPI) when it comes to decision-making related to paid search.
Your most important KPI should be based on whatever you’ve decided is the goal of your campaign. For example, most businesses use Google Ads as a way to generate leads, so improving conversion volume or cost per conversion should guide most of your optimizations.
Still, the Google Quality Score is a valuable tool for marketers and paid media professionals looking to extend the reach and success of their ads.
Google provides a quick guide to find your Google Quality Score which will offer up a number between 1 and 10 (the higher, the better).
It will pinpoint if your click-through rate (CTR), landing page and ad relevance scores are average, above average or below average (but a numerical score isn’t pinpointed for each category). Now that you have access to the scores, it’s time to analyze and improve them (assuming you don’t rank 10s across the board, in which case – fear not – you’re not alone).
Look for Themes
Once you have your Google Quality Score, it’s time to analyze. Looking for themes is a great way to start. Export your expected click-through rate, landing page and ad relevance scores for every keyword you use and find an average for each category.
By doing so, you can determine which areas are in the most need of help. Here, we break down improvement possibilities for each category.
Issues with Ad Relevance
Let’s say landing page and CTR scores are above average, but ad relevance—which measures how closely related your keyword is to your ads – is low. This means the ad copy needs some tweaking to better align the keyword with the intent behind the search. Since CTR and landing page experience are both high, keep bidding on this one, despite the needed tweaks!
Now, let’s say it’s your CTR that is struggling, while the other two areas are above average or average.
Issues with Click Through Rate
This likely means your ad isn’t compelling enough to be clicked on. Perhaps this means your call to action (CTA) is a bit weak. Tweak the copy to make it more interesting by giving people a preview of content from the landing page or being more direct.
Perhaps it’s your landing page that is not measuring up.
Issues with Landing Page
Your ad copy was compelling enough to get a click, but once people are there, the landing page isn’t resonating. There are a number of reasons why this may occur, and as a result, it can prove to be the most difficult score to improve.
Consider things like website speed and user experience. Are there issues in either category? Could the content of your landing page not match up to what is being promised by the keyword or ad copy? As with many things in marketing, you’ll have to test, test then test again to find out if you can improve performance.
Issues Across the Board
If after determining your average in all three areas: landing pages, CTRs and ad relevance, you realize all three areas are struggling, it’s likely time to do some more keyword research. Generally speaking, it’s a good starting point to have at least a 5 in one or two areas. If scores are below 5 in all three categories, it’s time to test new keywords.
The one instance when lower quality scores is okay is with a competitor campaign or conquesting campaign. These campaigns are working to attract traffic searching specifically for another company, so low scores related to that effort are still fine. In that case, focus on metrics like clicks and impressions.
What’s a Good Score?
So, how do you know when your Google Quality Score is good?
It’s all relative. A high-quality score is only correlated to a lower cost in results. Google gives preference to ads most likely to succeed because they don’t make money until someone clicks. In order to determine if someone will click on your text ad, Google uses ad rank, which is your CPC bid multiplied by your quality score.
So, the combination of how much you’re willing to pay and the quality of your ads only needs to be higher than your competitors to win the auction. You’ll be able to see your progress on this ongoing battle reflected in trends in your cost per click and cost per conversion. If those metrics are improving, you’re likely beating out the competition.
Digital marketers and ad folks have many loves, and two of those are numbers and testing. Because of that, finding, analyzing and attempting to improve a Google Quality Score is a well-worth-it project to take on.
About the Author: Mysti Eichinger is a paid media associate at Element Three, a full-service marketing consultancy in Indianapolis. The consultancy works across digital and traditional channels to solve business problems for clients that strive for market leadership.