Understanding and

Improving AdWords

Quality Score

Larry Kim, Founder, CTO

Will Eisner, VP, Product

July 21, 2011

Performance Media Platform for online marketers to buy,

track, manage, optimize and report on media across all

major search, social and display networks.

• If you’ve ever felt that…

– You’re spending too much on PPC

– Your competitors seem to be beating you in PPC

– You’re dissatisfied with your ROI with PPC

– You’re overwhelmed by Quality Score

– All of the Above!!

• Improving your AdWords Quality Score can help

improve all of the above!

Should you care about Quality Score?

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• The Purpose of Quality Score

• What AdWords Quality Score Means to You

• How Quality Score is Calculated

• Example: How Quality Score Impacts Impressions,

Ad Position and Cost-Per-Click

• How to Improve your Quality Score

• 3 Common Quality Score Myths!

• Q & A

Today’s Agenda

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But First, Let Us Introduce Ourselves :)

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• Larry

– Been doing PPC & SEO for 10 Years!

– Both In-house and as a consultant

– 3 Years ago, he started WordStream!

• Will

– Most recently created a social marketing platform for businesses

• Today WordStream is an industry-leading provider of a PPC Management Platformand Keyword Research Tools

• We help people get their website found on the internet!

The Purpose of Quality Score

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• It’s a measure of Relevancy

– Insures customers find what they’re looking for

– Gives advertisers a reward for creating relevant ads

– Provides search engines with a sustainable business model

• Quality Score is a set of algorithms that enable this 3-way synergy.

How Quality Score is Calculated (in Detail) for Google

Search

• The factors that determine Quality Score (according to Google) are:

– Click Through Rate

– Ad Text Relevancy

– Landing Page Relevancy

– “Other Factors”

• In a nutshell, a high-quality ad is one that

– Is relevant to the search query

– Accurately describes the product

– Is relevant to it’s landing page

• Google gives you a score from 1-10 for each keyword

• Lets take a look at these components in detail.

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Historical Click-through Rate (CTR)

• Click Through Rate is the most significant component of Quality Score

– Relevant ads get more clicks

– Google uses the “wisdom of the crowds” to infer relevancy

– Google considers the CTR of your ads and keywords, as well as your campaign and account, and even other competitor accounts

• Google normalizes Click Through Rate by ad position

– Low relevancy ads can’t buy themselves a high CTR

• So the key to Quality Score is getting high click-through rates!

– There are published best-practices from Google that tend to produce higher CTR’s

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Keyword, Ad Text & Landing Page Relevance Factors

• The Relevance of the Keyword to the ads in it’s ad group

– Keywords in your ad group must be relevant to your ads

– Keywords in your ad group should be repeated in your ad text

• Relevance of the keyword and matched ad to the search query

– The search query that a customer searches for must be relevant to the keywords in your ad group and the ad itself

• Landing Page Factors

– Relevancy: The landing page should be relevant to the keywords and ad text

– Content: The website should feature unique content relevant to your ad, have a privacy policy, avoid pop-ups, and load quickly.

• “Other Factors”

– Google’s black box - they don’t tell us anything about this…

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The Importance of Quality Score

• Quality Score affects:

– Impressions

– Ad Position

– Cost-Per-Click

• It indirectly affects conversions as well

• We’ve talked about what Quality Score is and how it’s calculated…

• Let’s do a detailed example to show exactly how Quality Score impacts these important metrics!

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How Quality Score Affects Impressions

• Google would rather display no ads at all than display poor quality score ads.

• Quality Score plays a role in determining if a keyword is relevant enough to enter an ad auction

• Higher Quality Score = More Impressions & Exposure

• Minimum First Page Bid is the also inversely proportional to your Quality Score, which means even more Impressions

• A high Quality Score makes your ads eligible for being displayed above the search results!

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How Quality Score Affects Ad Rank & Actual Cost Per Click

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An Example Calculation of Ad Rank and Actual CPC:

WordStream - Summary

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• Follow Google’s Best Practices to improve Click Through Rate

and Quality Score:

– Use specific keywords and negative keywords

– Group together closely related keywords

– Write relevant text ads and destination pages

– Repeat! (But this is actually a lot of work…)

Example of How to Improve Quality Score

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• WordStream’s PPC Platform is focused on maximizing relevancy, CTR & Quality Score

• We have innovative technologies that enable Google Best Practices including:

– PPC Campaign Builders

– Keyword Expansion Tools

– Negative Keyword Tools

– Ad Group Segmentation Tools

– Keyword Organization Tools

– QueryStream Management Platform

– Ad Text Tools

Leverage Tools Outside of AdWords to Improve Quality Score

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• Shocking Quality Score Truths Revealed

• Plus tips on how to overcome these Top 3 Quality Score issues...

3 Popular Quality Score Misconceptions!

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• History of keywords, ad texts and landing pages is preserved when the account is restructured

– Visible history is reset

– History to calculate Quality Score is preserved

• Best Practice:

– Continuously experiment with improved account structure

– You can always go back if it wasn’t a success!

– “A few bad days of test performance will not ruin your Quality Scores. In order to optimize your client’s accounts, we encourage you to run targeted tests on your keywords, ad texts and bids” – Google AdWords Agency Blog

1) Myth: Quality Score is Lost During An Optimization

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• Changing a keyword from broad to exact match will never improve an advertiser’s quality score. • Quality Score is based only on the performance of

the exact match subset of a broad match keyword.

2) Myth: Broad Match Hurts Quality Score

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Determines quality score

Exact Match

[Electric Guitar]

Phrase Match

Expanded Match

“Blue Electric Guitars”

Guitar Strings

Broad Match

Electric Guitar

Figure Courtesy of Google

• Quality Score is normalized to compensate for differences in performance for ads in different positions

– An ad in a higher position is predisposed to get a better CTR

– An ad above the search results is predisposed to get a better CTR

• A low quality ad can’t buy its way into a top position!

3) Myth: Raising Bids Raises Quality Score

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e.g. expect 20% CTR

e.g. expect 2% CTR

Summary:

Understanding and Improving AdWords Quality Score

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1. Quality Score is an objective measurement of the quality of an advertiser’s keywords.

– It’s a score from 1-10. Higher is better.

2. Quality Score influences your impressions, minimum first page bid, ad rank, and your cost per click, and indirectly, your conversion rates

– These factors are critical for realizing ROI

3. Take Action – Perform Account Optimizations that Raise Click Through Rate

– Selecting specific keywords

– Matching them up with Relevant Ads & Landing Pages!

– WordStream for PPC automates these and other PPC management tasks.

Your Questions

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Thank you for attending WordStream’s webinar on Understanding and

Improving Quality Score.

Don’t forget to sign up for our Free Quality Score Toolkit:

www.wordstream.com/qstk-webinar

Or talk to one of our AdWords Certified Professionals about optimizing your account for Quality Score:

www.wordstream.com/assessment-webinar

Find out more about Acquisio here:

http://mkt.acquisio.com/request-demo-1012.html