If you run paid campaigns through Google AdWords, you should be familiar with the term Quality Score. Like just about everything Google does, it’s a rank assigned to your ads, and it’s based on a number of factors. The advantages to a higher Quality Score include:
- Lower Cost Per Click (CPC)
- Improved Ad Position
- Eligibility for advanced formats
Consider two ads for the same product. One has an ad rank of 4 (out of 10) and the other ranks at 7. Lower ad ranking can impact your ad’s position, or whether your ad is shown at all, which corresponds with a lower Clickthrough Rate (CTR). In the AdWords cycle, low CTR will in turn negatively impact your ad’s Quality Score.
Quick Tips for Improving Quality Score
An ad’s Quality Score is impacted by a number of factors, which include the keywords you’ve bid on, your ad’s relevancy to a user’s search, your ad copy, and your landing page. It’s important to make sure these are fine-tuned for best results. Performing an audit of your campaigns or having an AdWords specialist look at your account is a best practice to ensure you’re getting the most of your campaigns.
Add Extensions to Your Ads
In your campaign dashboard, you’ll see “Extensions” as a tab. Within the Extensions tab you can add, edit and apply ad extensions – locations, phone numbers, alternate sitelinks, and other calls to action that will not only help improve Quality Score, but make your ad more likely to get clicked on.