If you’re a digital advertiser who wants people to click on your ads, how do you know what each click and PPC campaign is worth so that you can determine if it’s worth its spend? Can each click be measured in monetary terms before the ad is created? The answer is yes – with Quality Score. Here’s what a keyword Quality Score (QS) is, how it impacts your advertising and what you can do to capitalise on it.
What Is A Quality Score?
QS is a tool that Google created to measure the relevance of a keyword. Once Google has compiled enough data, the keywords that advertisers use are given a score between 1 and 10. The higher the score, the better the keyword. The score you receive represents how relevant your keywords are, and how successful they’ll be when used in ads, written content and other digital marketing efforts.
Why Does Google Use It
Google uses QS as a guide as to which ads are more relevant than others. Ads which contain keywords with a higher score are therefore published more often on websites and pages that are relevant to the chosen keywords.
Because Google earns money from digital marketing advertising efforts, it’s a substantial incentive. Google wants to provide internet users with adverts that are relevant to them, their interests and their internet browsing patterns. If the right adverts are published in the right places, to the right people, they’ll receive more clicks. The more clicks the ads get, the more money Google earns. Therefore, it’s essential for Google to publish ads with a high QS. It’s up to the advertisers to choose keywords which will earn them the best score.
Why Quality Scores Matter
When advertisers receive a QS, they can use it to decide the following factors:
· Which ads are eligible to enter the ad auction on Google,
· How eligible ads are ranked against each other, and
· How much advertisers need to pay per click.
Remember, the higher the score, the better the keyword. Some low-scoring keywords aren’t even considered during ad auctions, which means that ads with irrelevant keywords won’t stand a chance.
It’s therefore critical that you optimise your keywords to increase your ranking and ad relevance. Advertisers can bid on keywords during the auction, but at the end of the day, the QS is what matters. If a substantial bid is made on a low-scoring keyword, it still won’t be published with other high-scoring, relevant ads. All you need to do is invest in keyword research as part of your paid search efforts – which is something that Sprocket Digital is happy to help you with.
