Quality Score is the single most important number in your Google AdWords account. It determines the eligibility of your Ad to be ranked in the first page and the cost per click for your Ads.
Ad rank is the value that determines the position of the Ad.
Ad Rank = Max Bid x Quality Score
Higher the Quality Score, higher will be the Ad Rank. Now you might challenge my earlier statement that Quality Score is the single most important number. You can improve the Ad Rank by bidding for a larger amount. It certainly is possible but is not a sustainable strategy for large campaigns (where you have 1000s of keywords).
You can also pay less than your competitors for the same keyword
You Competitor
Max Bid $0.5 $0.75
Quality Score 9 5
Ad Rank 4.5 3.75
With 4.5 Ad rank, you can outrank your competitor and display your Ad at a higher position.
So how can you improve the Quality Score?
1. Improve Click Through Rate
Always remember this – Google wants to makes its user happy. If your Ad Copy, Display URL and headline is enticing enough to invoke a click then you have passed the first stage of Quality Score improvement.
2. Landing Page
Once you get the clicks the second factor that determines Quality score is the quality of landing page.
Will your landing page load faster than most websites (95%)?
Have you followed the best practices in landing page design?
Does your landing page have clear call to Action both in Messages and in Web elements(Buttons)?
The higher the Quality of the landing page, the more the chances for conversion.
3. Relevance
If your landing page invites high bounce rate then most likely the keyword that you bid for is not relevant to your landing page.
For Example: If you are bidding for the keyword “Best Business School in Europe” but your Business School has campuses only in US and a new campus will be set up in the coming year, then the user will not be satisfied with the landing page.
It is also important to focus on keyword relevance within an Ad Group. If you are using five keywords in an Ad Group then all the keywords should belong to a single theme. The Ad Copy should be relevant to the keywords in the AD Group. This can either be done with careful examination or you can use Dynamic Insertion in Ad copies.
4. Account Reputation
The reputation of your Google Adwords Account that you are operating is also important. If your account has a history of poor Quality Score then your Ads will be less likely to show when compared to high performing accounts. But out of all the above factors, Account reputation is least likely to influence the campaign. One encouraging thing is that your recent history is what Google will take into consideration.
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