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What is Quality Score?

Quality Score is a variable used in PPC advertising (I am referring specifically Google for this post although Yahoo! Call it quality index, and MSN also use this but it was first introduced by Google).  It is an algorithm used for ranking the relevancy of landing pages to their corresponding text advertisements and keywords. It focuses on the searcher being provided with specific and highly relevant adverts. Scoring increases from 0-10, with the higher the scores indicating a stronger correlation. Google has said recently that Adwords ranking in the future will be based more around the Quality Score and less around the amount bid by the webmaster.

How does Quality Score get calculated?

Quality Score is calculated through consideration of various factors:

• Click-Through Rate of keyword & the matched ad. Additionally, Google also takes into consideration the overall historic CTR of the entire AdWords account as well as the historic CTR of the display URLs in the ad group.
• Relevance of your ad text – ads with copy that contains the keyword will have a higher Quality Score than ads with copy that does not contain the keyword.
• Quality of landing page – does the page contain relevant & original content? Is the navigation efficient?
• Landing Page Load time – Google revealed in June 2008 that landing page load time impacts on Quality Score
• Geographical Considerations – Google has revealed that the accounts performance in the geographical region where the ad will be shown impacts Quality Score.

Quality Score Influences

Quality Score determines what position the ad will be shown at (rank) – the higher the better – and influences the cost per click (CPC) of ads. The higher the Quality Score, the lower the price you’ll pay per click.

So it is important that you optimise your Adwords PPC campaign in order to increase your quality score – it is an ABSOLUTE MUST if you want to reduce your spend and at the same time increase your sales.

Google PPC Advertising (Adwords) & Quality Score

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