Google Quality Score

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About two years ago Yahoo and Google implemented their quality score algorithms. Actually, Google started their scoring program way back in 2005 but they didn’t bother to tell their advertisers. Google only provided information about their quality score to their advertisers in 2007, and where told how to make it better.

Before the Google slap as it has become infamous for the old bid position model was used. Whoever had the most money could secure the top position. This did prove very lucrative for Google and Yahoo, however it also started effecting the click through rates for the ads, and users started losing trust in them. Everyone realized that just because advertiser had a lot of money to spend, they didn’t necessarily have the best products.

Search engines decided to factor in the quality of the landing pages that ads send users to, as well as the relevance and quality of ads. Let's take a closer look at what affects the quality score.

What is Quality Score?
Google says, "Quality Score is a dynamic variable calculated for each of your keywords. It combines a variety of factors and measures how relevant your keyword is to your ad text and to a user's search query."

You minimum CPC, and position in the search results is affected by your quality score. Whether you even shop up at all is affected by it. Better quality score allows you to bid lower with higher placements.

Where is my Quality Score?
In Google, your quality score can be found in the Ad Group level and in "keywords" tab. The quality score column should be next to the keyword status column. If you don't see it, then find the pull-down menu (show/hide columns) and select "Show Quality Score." The three indicators that are visible are "Poor," "OK," or "Great."

In Yahoo Panama, the quality score also appears in the ad group level and is called "Quality Index." Yahoo's indicators are five bars. Your goal is to fill all those bars.

Microsoft doesn't yet have quality score information in their AdCenter, but I understand they're close.

Minimum Bid
We all want to spend as little as possible on our keywords. Let's look at factors that affect minimum bid.

One factor is the historical CTR of each keyword. If you've had poor performance historically, then it may take some good performance time to have this work in your favor.

Keyword relevance to the ads in the ad group is another factor. If your keywords don't relate well to your ads, you get a lower quality score.

Similarly, if the landing page you're pointing to has little or no relevance to the keyword and your ad, you'll wind up with a poor quality score. This is one of the most important factors, which we'll cover next time in Part 2.

Other historical factors include the account history or the CTR of all ads and keywords in your account, and the display URLs in the ad group.

Keyword Position
The factors that will help you to increase your keyword position are similar to those for the minimum bid. Relevance again is vitally important. In this case, it's the relevance of the keyword and ad to the search query.

If you type in a search query and see ads with your query or one that is similar, which one will you click on? Making this match will help your score and create a better experience for the searcher.
Finally, as with the minimum bid factors, your account history will also affect your score positively or negatively. Keep an eye on your historical CTR for all of your keywords.

Quality score isn't just a new gimmick for the search engines. Search engines want to provide users with a good experience and trust. It's also designed to help advertisers drive quality, qualified traffic, to a site.