We all work on many different types of optimization tactics, such as bid management, time of day/day of week strategies,  keywords and adcopy, tweaking settings within the engines, and more, all of which are important. Today I wanted to draw attention to one key element that all of these tweaks do impact but I feel might be getting overlooked: Quality Score.

The quality score can influence your position, what you pay per bid and even if your eligible to show for that specific keyword. Quality scoring is a system the search engines introduced to balance the ecosystem. When the ads display, they match the users’ needs as closely as possible. Relevant ads tend to earn more clicks, appear in a higher position, and bring advertisers the most success.

What influences quality score?

Quality score works on a scoring system from 1 through 10. The key factors that influence quality score are:

• Click through rate (CTR), essentially the relevance of the keyword you’re bidding on and adcopy to the users query.
• Landing page relevance (Google also added speed to this)
• Landing page user experience
• Account history

Quality score is determined every time someone does a search, so every time your keyword has the potential to trigger an ad.

Some useful insights:

• A score of 1 through 3 means you are hardly showing up – poor
• A score of 4 means you are showing but paying more per click that you should be. Limited eligibility.
• A score of 5 through 6 looks at your profit (CTR vs. Conversion Rate) – Average performance.
• A score of 7 through 10, the keyword is very competitive in the marketplace. Your ads are eligible to be served in response to search queries that contain the keyword.
• A score of 10 is usually brand terms
• If more than 60% of you scores are 6 and higher your entire account is in good shape.
• Impression weight will impact quality score. Higher volume keywords have more influence on the quality score. So high-volume bad performers can negatively impact the other keywords in the ad group and then up to the campaign and across the account. Conversely, high-volume good performers can improve the performance of the surrounding elements.
• Google introduced Ad Extensions a while back, quality score determines whether those extensions will show and how many they will show. For example, Google can show up to six site links, but may only show four or none depending on your quality score.

How can you improve quality score?

• Organize your account for maximum effectiveness. Create a separate ad group for each important product or service.
• Choose relevant keywords, assign match types, use negatives, and remove poor performers.  The exact match type is usually most relevant and may boost your quality score.
• Create straightforward, targeted, compelling ads. Remover under-performing ads. Use the query in the ad copy and display URL.
• Direct to relevant landing pages with quick load times, create a good user experience. Include the query on the landing pages. Remember that only visible HTML text is crawled.
• Fluctuations in impression volume can also impact your quality score. Recent performance helps determine the relevance of a keyword. However, fluctuations in impression volume may lead to less recent data to be used.
• Closely monitor performance of new keywords.
• Monitor keywords with a high impression weight and keep a close eye on their quality score.

Where to draw quality score reports:

Google Adwords: Under Campaigns > Keywords tab > Columns drop down > Customize Columns > Attributes > Add Qual. Score.

Microsoft Adcenter: Under Campaigns > Keywords tab > quality score is a mandatory column header.

One thing I would suggest you do is take a screenshot of your quality scores (particularly on your top keywords, the ones with the greatest impression weight) before you make any changes so you can monitor whether the change had an impact on them or not. The engines do not retroactively keep quality scores. For example, in April your quality score was 3/10 however you have done some great optimization and they have taken effect and now your quality score is 7/10. If you had to draw a report for April it would state your quality score as 7/10 (not 3/10).

The only way to capture bench marking for quality score, to ensure your strategies are sound, is to take a screenshot and then take another one a month later once the score gets an opportunity to rework. In my opinion I would download them once a month just as a habit moving forward. You never know when you may need to reference them.

Why is quality score so important?

In general, the higher you’re Quality Score, the lower your costs and the better your ad position.

It is an important metric to monitor, keep it top of mind, and know where you stand. It’s like weight, it’s easy to put on the pounds but hard to take it off.