Where your ad is shown on the page in relation to other ads is calculated using how much you bid and the quality of your ads and website. Google rewards advertisers who provide the best experience to searchers. This means that even if your competitor has higher bids than yours, you can still win a higher position at a lower price by using highly relevant keywords and ads.
Your Quality Score is Google’s rating of the quality and relevance of your keywords and ads. You should be aiming for the highest possible Quality Score to make sure your ads rank above your competitors (without having to pay a fortune).
Having a good understanding of what influences your Quality Score can help you build better ads in AdWords. Your Quality Score is calculated looking at:
- Ad relevance
- Expected click-through rate
- Landing page experience
Here are some tips on how to improve your Quality Score:
Create structured Ad groups
An organised advertising account is key to achieving a high Quality Score. Structure your campaigns into small, targeted ad groups to increase the relevancy of your ads. You can group them into themes, for example branded, non-branded, specific features and so on. Having small ad groups makes it easier when it comes to writing effective ad text.
Add negative keywords
These are keywords that stop your ad from showing for that particular search term. For example if you add “Adult” as a negative keyword, Google will not show your ad for any search term that contains “Adult”.
Adding negative keywords to your campaign can help you increase the relevancy of your ad and improve your Quality Score. You will be providing a better experience for the searcher by not showing them an ad they will not want to click on.
Optimise your ad text
Compelling ad text can lead to higher click-through rates. As a guide, make sure your ad text highlights your sites best features, identifies the benefits of using your site and includes a call-to-action. Use active verbs to further encourage the user to click.
Tailor your ad text to your keywords to increase the relevance of your ads and don’t forget to include a couple of keywords in your ad text.
Improve the load time of your landing page
How quickly your landing page loads will affect your Quality Score because it will impact the overall landing page experience. Use tools such as Google’s Page Speed Tool to check the speed of your landing page. It will help you determine what you need to do to improve your page speed.
Please note: there are upcoming changes to Quality Score reporting. From the week beginning 12th September, you’ll start seeing null Quality Scores (shown by “–“) when there aren’t enough impressions or clicks to accurately determine a keyword’s Quality Score. Read more here.