No marketer can truly say they understand Google AdWords until they’ve established a strong knowledge of Quality Score and its effect on PPC ads.

What is Quality Score?

Your quality score helps determine how well your PPC (pay-per-click) ads perform, and how much you’ll pay per ad, or CPC (cost-per-click). Google have been notoriously illusive when it comes to letting us know how much the big determining factors affect your overall score, but there are several elements which help either boost or reduce your score, such as:

  • The history of your AdWords account – including how well your previous ads have performed.
  • The relevance of your chosen keywords and advertising text.
  • The overall CTR (click-through rate) of your ads.
  • Landing page quality.

It is in Google’s best interests that your PPC ads are effective – after all, they receive payment with each ad which is clicked. The quality score provides a handy reference point to check your performance, and when your ads improve, your account is duly rewarded with higher ad rankings and lower costs. Higher quality ads also lead to more clicks, and the potential for more business.

Checking Your Quality Sore

There are many different types of Quality Score within AdWords, and it’s important to understand a little about them in order to help boost a low score or make the most of a high one. Your score will be reported on a scale between 1-10, and can be found under the ‘Keyword Analysis’ tab in your AdWords account. Google defines its Quality Score as a diagnostic tool, intended to help you stay on track and keep your ads as healthy as possible.

Boosting Your Quality Score

Optimising your Quality Score requires a multi-faceted approach, taking into account the factors which Google uses to decide how your account and keywords are performing overall.

The structure of your account is not relevant to your Quality Score, as long as it doesn’t affect the user experience – likewise, ad placement has no impact upon your score, though moving a keyword to a new ad (with new text) could change your score if it has an effect (negative or otherwise) on user experience. User experience is the key arbiter of getting healthier scores, and Google recommends AdWords adoptees focus on improving the end user experience as their ultimate goal, rather than panicking about their score, as healthy habits which improve matters for customers will lead to a better score overall.