Understanding The Quality Score
The Quality Score is an important metric affecting online advertising campaigns’ performance and cost. It measures the relevance and quality of your ads, keywords, and landing pages. A higher Quality Score indicates that your ads are more relevant to the searcher’s query, which leads to a lower cost-per-click and higher ad placement.
Today’s blog will help you understand the components of your Quality Score and how you can optimise your campaigns and improve their effectiveness.
What Is A Quality Score?
A quality score is a metric used by search engines, such as Google, to determine the relevance and quality of an advertisement or landing page. It is crucial in determining the ad position and cost-per-click in pay-per-click advertising campaigns. The score is calculated based on several factors:
- Keyword relevance
- Ad click-through rate,
- Landing page experience
- Historical account performance
A higher quality score indicates that the ad is relevant to the search query and offers a positive user experience, which ultimately leads to lower advertising costs and higher ad positions, which of course is what we want.
Components Of A Google Ads Quality Score
This score is based on three main components: expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience. By considering these three components, Google determines the quality score of an ad and uses it to rank ads in search results.
Expected clickthrough rate: measures the likelihood of users clicking on the ad based on its relevance to their search query. A higher clickthrough rate indicates a more effective ad.
Ad relevance: assesses how well the ad matches the user’s search and the keywords used. A relevant ad will receive a higher quality score.
Landing page experience: evaluates the user’s interaction with the landing page after clicking on the ad. Factors such as loading speed, mobile-friendliness, and relevant content contribute to a positive landing page experience.
When it comes to running your ads and improving your quality score you can do this by continually optimising the campaigns and ensuring the relevance and user experience of their ads and landing pages but will dive into some optimisation methods below to help with your quality scores.
Optimising Keywords
Choosing Relevant Keywords
I like to think of this stage a bit like SEO as when it comes to choosing relevant keywords for your website or online content, it is important to consider both their effectiveness and relevance.
Effective keywords are those that accurately reflect the content of your website and match the search queries of your target audience. However, relevance goes beyond just accuracy. It also includes considering the intent behind the search queries and understanding what your audience is looking for.
By choosing keywords that are relevant to your content, you can improve your chances of ranking higher in search engine results pages and attracting the right kind of traffic to your website. Additionally, relevant keywords can help you optimise your website and content for better user experience, ensuring that your website meets your audience’s expectations. Therefore, take the time to research and analyse the most relevant keywords for your specific niche or industry, as this can make a significant difference in your online visibility and success.
Keyword Research Explained And How To Carry Out
Using Negative Keywords
As well as telling Google the keywords you want to show up for, you can also tell them what you don’t want to show up for with the use of negative keywords.
Negative keywords are words or phrases that you specify to exclude from triggering your ads. By using negative keywords, you can prevent your ads from showing up in irrelevant searches. This can help reduce wasted clicks and improve the overall performance and ROI of your campaign. For example, if you are selling high-end luxury watches, you may want to add negative keywords such as “cheap”, “affordable”, or “discounted” to your campaigns to avoid clicks from users looking for less expensive options.
Negative keywords can also be added at the campaign or ad group levels, allowing you to further refine and control which keywords trigger your ads. Regularly reviewing and updating your list of negative keywords is important to ensure that your ads are not displayed in irrelevant search queries, saving you money and improving the effectiveness of your advertising efforts.
Enhancing Ad Relevance
Writing Compelling Ad Copy
Like your keywords, your ad copy needs to be relevant to these keywords and compelling to get the reader to click. A great thing with google ads now is they use something called responsive search ads. Prior to this, you used to only be able to have 3 headings and 2 descriptions where as now you get to have 15 headings and 4 descriptions! You can see you have much more opportunity to really make your ads work to their advantage.
The goal is to create persuasive and engaging content that grabs the reader’s attention and convinces them to take action, whether it is to make a purchase, sign up for a newsletter, or visit a website. To achieve this, it is important to understand the target audience and their needs, desires, and pain points. By addressing these effectively in the ad copy, you can create a connection and resonate with the reader. It is also important to keep the ad copy concise and to the point, avoiding unnecessary jargon or excessive detail.
Testing and analysing the performance of different ad copy variations is also crucial for optimising results and achieving the desired outcome. Whenever setting up ads I always recommend trying to create at least two ads per ad group so you can compare the data.
Increasing Ad Relevance With Ad Extensions
Ad extensions are extra pieces of information that can be added to an ad, providing additional context and value to potential customers. They come in various forms, such as:
- Sitelink extensions
- Structured snippets
- Callouts
- Call extensions
- Location extensions
- Review extensions
By incorporating these extensions into their ads, businesses can provide more helpful and relevant information to users, ultimately increasing the chances of them clicking on the ad and taking the desired action. For example, a sitelink extension can showcase additional landing pages within a website, while a call extension allows users to call a business directly. The top three we say you should include in your ads are:
- Sitelink extensions
- Structured snippets
- Callouts
And where possible you should try to include six to eight for each. You can see also from the below example of without and with extensions how they can really make your ads stand out further.
Improving Ad Group Structure
Improving the ad group structure is essential for optimising ad campaigns and increasing their effectiveness. One way to do this is by organising ad groups based on themes or specific keywords. As we know all is about making it relevant so by grouping similar keywords together in one ad group, it becomes easier to customise and tailor the ad copy to match the user’s search intent.
Another way to improve ad group structure is by creating tightly focused ad groups with fewer keywords. This allows for better control and management of the ads, as well as the ability to create more relevant ad copies and landing pages.
Additionally, it is important to regularly review and analyse the performance of each ad group to make necessary adjustments. This includes monitoring click-through rates, conversion rates, and other relevant metrics.
See A Viedo Here On Ad Group Structures
Improving Landing Page Experience
Creating Relevant Landing Pages
A landing page is the first thing a visitor sees when they click on your ad. Its the place you are taking them to to get the end result, whether that be purchasing, signing up, filling out a form etc. Therefore, it is essential to make the landing page relevant to the ad to ensure a seamless user experience. If you are running ads around wedding shoes then the page you send them to need to show this, otherwise they will click of and not reach the goal you want.
To create relevant landing pages, it is important to understand the target audience and their specific needs and motivations. Conducting market research and analyzing user data can provide valuable insights that can be used to tailor the landing page content to the visitors’ interests and preferences. Additionally, using clear and concise language, optimising for mobile devices, and incorporating persuasive elements such as compelling headlines and calls-to-action can also contribute to creating relevant landing pages that drive high conversions.
Increasing Page Load Speed
A slow loading time can lead to a higher bounce rate and a decrease in user satisfaction. There are several ways to improve page load speed and one effective method is to optimise images by compressing them without sacrificing quality. Large image files can significantly slow down a website, so using tools link Tinypng to reduce their size can make a big difference.
Also if you wanna know how to check your websites page speed you can use Googles page speed insights which will show you as the image below.
Optimising User Experience
User experience refers to how a user interacts with a product or service, and optimising it involves creating a seamless and enjoyable experience for the user. One way to do this is by improving website navigation. Users should be able to easily find what they are looking for and navigate through the website without any confusion or frustration. Another way to enhance user experience is through personalisation. By tailoring the content and experience to each individual user’s preferences and needs, businesses can create a more engaging and relevant experience.
Monitoring and Optimising
Regularly Reviewing and Analyzing Performance
The goal is to always test and learn. also the key with google is not making to many changes at once or not giving them enough time to relearn. In our blog on How To Set Up google Ads we talk on how long things can take but the goal is to compare the data and make the changes needed to improve the results.
Adjusting Bids and Budgets
Adjusting bids and budgets is a crucial aspect of managing advertising campaigns effectively. Bids determine how much an advertiser is willing to pay for each click on their ads, while budgets set the daily or monthly spending limit. Adjusting bids and budgets allows you to optimise your campaigns based on performance metrics. For example, if a campaign is not generating enough clicks or conversions, increasing the bid can increase the chances of the ad being shown in a more prominent position on the search results page. On the other hand, if a campaign is spending too quickly and not delivering the desired results, lowering the bid or setting a lower budget can help control costs. Continually monitoring and adjusting bids and budgets is necessary to ensure that advertising budgets are being optimally allocated and that campaigns are achieving the desired goals.
Key Takeaways
We have dived into a lot on how to improve your google ads quality score from finding the right keywords to ensuring you have the right landing pages but the keytake away is to take your time and really allow Google to understand what you want. Make small changes and as you see the results improve keep going!
If you’re ready to take your businesses Google ads to the next level but this all sounds like too much work, there is an alternative! Apply to work with us here at Mango&Wild on a monthly Google Ads Managemnet retainer and let’s work together to level up your business.
