The higher your Google Ads Quality Score is for each of your keywords, the lower the Cost per Click (CPC) you are going to pay for your traffic.
You can reduce your CPC and improve your average position at the same time by increasing the Quality Score for each of your keywords.
Sound easy? Google’s Quality Score is based on a 1-10 scale and is determined by three factors:
- Ad Relevance
- Expected Click-Through Rate (CTR)
- Landing Page Experience
You can add these scores within the Google Ads platform at keyword level, or run a report within Google Ads to see how well each of your keywords performs for each of these factors and their score.
Here are my tips to help you improve the Quality Score of your keywords this year:
Target Very Specific Keywords
Broad Match is ill-advised except in exceptional circumstances. If you have broad match keywords in your account you are going to appear for lots of search terms that aren’t relevant to your ads, and perhaps not even your business. These aren’t going to fare too well when it comes to Quality Score.
Grouping your related keywords into Ad Groups or even creating Single Keyword Ad Groups (SKAGs) allows you to make sure that all of your Ads contain the users’ search terms, thus scoring highly in the Ad Relevance category. This should naturally increase your CTR in the process as your ad is appearing for more relevant searches.
Note that a “—” in the Quality Score column means that there aren’t enough searches that exactly match your keyword to determine its Quality Score.
Use Ad Extensions
Since 2013 Google has been including Ad Extensions as part of the Quality Score, so try to include as many of them as you can within your Ads.
When ranking your ads, Google factors in on the relevance, clickthrough rates, and the prominence of the extensions or formats on the search results page. So make your Ad Extensions as enticing as you can.
The three main Extensions you should be aiming to include at a minimum are: Sitelink, Callout and Structured snippet. It’s still early days for Image Extensions but they are provind go increase the click-through rate and number of conversions for my clients. These may or may not be relevant to your business so only run the ones that work for you.
A/B Test Your Ad Copy
Testing your ad copy should be a regular task for any Google Ads expert. Continually optimising your Ads will allow you to increase your Quality Score by determining which ads are performing best. On top of this, testing your ad copy should also improve the quality of visitors to your site, and your conversion rate too.
Responsive Search Ads allow for 15 Headlines and Descriptions. Once they have picked up a number of impressions and clicks, Google will give you a score on how well they are performing. I recommend that you replace the ones that are performing poorly and not getting many impressions. This is optimal for determining which are performing the best.
Add Negative Keywords
Keeping on top of negative keywords very important for any account. Thse days, even Exact Match keywords bring in irrelevant traffic. And if you’re using Phrase Match or even Broad Match then I recommend you check the Search Terms’ report as often as you can in order to scope out irrelevant keywords that your ads have been appearing for, and add as negatives. These can be done at Account, Campaign or Ad Group level.
These reports won’t be available prior to your account being live, so you can use the Google Keyword Planner tool and Google Trends to help you find search terms to add to your negatives list in order to reduce wasted spend from the start.
Optimise Landing Pages
Landing page optimisation has certainly become an important skill for Google Ads experts since the Quality Score metric was added back in 2005.
By optimisation, I am referring to the relevance of the search terms, the page load time and the geographical relevance. Be sure to check your ad copy against what is actually on the landing pages as this plays a big part in your Landing page Experience score.
Make sure you are choosing the most relevant page for each of your keywords on the site. This may include creating new pages so that they are more relevant, particularly if Google is giving you low Landing Page Experience scores.
The conversion rate is also a factor. It’s not only important to your business but to your Google Ads Quality Score too. Both PPC experts and SEOs alike will recommend continual testing of your landing page to improve the Conversion Rate.
Why is Quality Score important?
The Quality Score in Google Ads gives you a sense of how well your ad quality compares to your competitors. A higher QS means that your ad and landing page are more relevant and useful to a potential customer who is searching for your keyword, compared to your competitors.
This score gives you an idea where it might be beneficial to improve your ads, landing pages and keyword choices.
Need help increasing your Google Ads Quality Score? Get in touch today and I will be glad to help.