The results are surprising, Quality Score and Cost Per Click are more clearly correlated when you look at Exact Match keywords.
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This experiment proves that the Google Ads quality score can be an effective diagnostic tool to help you improve your Ad Rank and save money on Google Ads.
The results from this experiment were used to influence our PPC strategy.
I controlled for keywords and other factors in this experiment and isolated the test to one campaign. By improving our expected click-through rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience, the quality score went from 1/10 to 8/10. The cost per click went down from an average of $14.74 to $2.47 CPC, an 82.7% difference
The Google Quality Score is a vital diagnostic tool in Google Ads. It is based on "historical impressions for exact searches of your keyword." Google's Quality Score ranges on a scale from 1 to 10.
While not a science, a higher quality score results in a lower cost per click. From my 2018 Adwords certification training, the Google quality score was once used to influence Ad Rank directly.
In 2018 the formula looked something like this.
CPC X Quality Score = Ad Rank
That is no longer the case. Other factors have been added to auctions. As of 2022, Ad rank is determined by the Ad Rank thresholds.
Today the Quality Score is technically a diagnostic tool that can help you fix your Ad rank.
No one knows their Ad Rank at auction, which changes with each auction, so the next best thing is a score that gives you an idea of where your Ad Rank should be based on historical data from your account.
An interesting aspect of the Google Quality Score is that advertisers could have a different quality score even if they sell the same product and use the same keywords.
So, even if your competition has higher bids than yours, you can still win a higher position at a lower price by using highly relevant keywords and ads.
Source: Google
The Google Quality Score is based on three factors.
These objective measures can dramatically affect your marketing costs. Ad extensions and variance can improve your ad relevance, expected CTR, and, thus, your Quality Score.
In contrast, advertising in the wrong language might hurt your ad relevance and expected CTR.
Ad relevance – This is how close your ad text matches the text on your landing page and ad group. The higher the bearing, the better. Using the same keyword in your ad text and landing page is an excellent way to improve this.
Because of the way match types work, having a variety of headlines also improves your ad relevance and expected CTR.
The expected clickthrough rate (CTR) is the estimated ratio that shows how often people who see your ad might end up clicking it.
To get your actual clickthrough rate take your total clicks divided by impressions.
Clicks/Impressions = CTR
The expected CTR is based on keyword selection, display URL, and text ad copy. Ad variance and other factors.
Ad extensions, such as call extensions or add-ons, increase your quality score and improve ad relevance and expected CTR.
Landing page experience is a critical and complex factor to improve.
It includes the mobile speed score and mobile-friendliness.
Other factors include keyword relevance.
Google wants to know that visitors will find what they are looking for when they click on your ads. It might make sense to you to advertise "shoes" and point those ads to a helpful blog about DIY landscaping, but it might not make sense to the user who clicked your ads.
Your score will suffer if the ad and landing page don't match up. That doesn't mean covering your landing page with your keyword; only a few repetitions are necessary.
Objective measures, such as mobile friendliness and core web vitals, affect the overall landing page experience.
Google Ads checks your page for speed and mobile friendliness and provides a score within your ads account.
You can see how mobile-friendly your website is by going to campaigns>landing pages.
In an ad account, I was directed to try a call-only ads campaign with no other ad types. This was a feature that Google was pushing. It's ideal for some businesses because there is no need for a website.
However, call-only ads were missing some essential features, mainly a landing page on a website, which means the ads had no landing page experience and, therefore, a lower quality score.
Call-only ads are more like text ads; they have a limited number of headlines and descriptions. The lack of ad variety did not help ad relevance or expected CTR.
In the first period, call-only ads had a quality score of 1/10 and an average cost per click of $14.74!
The first fix was to add a landing page and responsive ads to the Cincinnati Campaign.
A landing page gave these campaigns a landing page experience score.
Other parts of the landing page experience, like mobile friendliness and speed, help, but those are not always in your control.
Adding more ads to the ad group greatly improved ad relevance and expected CTR. Responsive ads shuffle through different ad text until they find an optimal combination, so adding a variety of combinations helps cover different user groups who might be typing in your keyword.
Adding too much variety can backfire; for example, if your impressions are split between a completely relevant headline and an utterly irrelevant headline, would you expect ad relevance to go up or down?
Expected click-through rate and ad relevance are also related to the keyword you are advertising, including the target keywords in the ads and landing page. Adding a landing page improved both of these measures.
Adding Ad extensions also Improves expected CTR and ad relevance; this gives the user more stuff to click on and helps fit the intent of a given query.
Notably, you'd probably only see 10/10 scores with branded terms, so getting an 8/10 score is on the high end.
In the first period, "Rent A Dumpster" had a 1/10 quality score, which puts the average CPC for that phrase at $14.74 per click.
After adding more advertisements and a landing page in the second period, the same campaign and keyword ended with a quality score of 8/10, which lowered the average CPC for "Rent A Dumpster" to $2.47 CPC.
That is an 82.7% difference in CPC. That is an astronomical savings!
Why did this work? Well, it's simple. An ad that better matches what the user expects and provides a better experience is more likely to keep users on the Google platform, which should be rewarded.
Why ad quality matters
The quality components of Ad Rank are used in several different ways and can affect the following things:
Source: Google
- Ad auction eligibility: Our measures of ad quality help determine the Ad Rank thresholds for your ad, and whether your ad is qualified to appear at all.
- Your actual cost-per-click (CPC): Higher quality ads can often lead to lower CPCs. That means you pay less per click when your ads are higher quality.
- Eligibility for ad assets and other ad formats: Ad Rank determines whether or not your ad is eligible to be displayed with ad assets and other ad formats, such as sitelinks.
From period to period, the quality score went from 1/10 to 8/10. The cost per click went down from an average of $14.74 to $2.47 CPC, or 82.7%.
What? Why? How?
Because there was no landing page with the call-only ad campaign, the landing page experience scored 0. By adding an optimized landing page, this score increased. The landing page also helped improve the Ad Relevance.
Since the Adgroup also lacked a variety of Ad types, Ad Relevance and Expected CTR also suffered. These scores were improved by adding other types of ads beyond call-only ads.
Think about it; the computer automates what headlines and descriptions are shown. Simply providing more variety would allow the ads to find an optimized and relevant combination.
Ultimately, the same keywords in the same campaign and location had entirely different costs.
If a keyword receives 500 impressions at auction, you can add a column to your dashboard to see your Quality Score estimate. It's based on your keywords, ads, and landing pages.
The Google Quality Score is made up of three components. Those components are the Expected clickthrough rate, Ad relevance, and the Landing page experience.
The Google Quality Score is a diagnostic tool that can help you fix your Ad rank.
Yes. The Quality Score is technically a diagnostic tool for Ad Rank. Ad Rank determines your costs. By providing a better experience, you can improve your Ad Rank and save money.
The results are surprising, Quality Score and Cost Per Click are more clearly correlated when you look at Exact Match keywords.
I love WordPress for its customizations. Styling code snippets enhances user perceptions. Copy and paste the code below to style your WordPress code blocks.
The code snippet plugin changed my life. I no longer edit the raw PHP files to add simple functions like titles to users' profiles.
By restructuring your account and using hyper-targeted ad text, CPA can be reduced.
YMYL stands for "Your Money or Your Life." Google uses YMYL to help understand if a web page's main content could impact people's safety, health, or financial well-being.
With slight modifications to Optinmonster's native A/B testing capabilities, it becomes an excellent CRO testing tool.
The results are surprising, Quality Score and Cost Per Click are more clearly correlated when you look at Exact Match keywords.
I love WordPress for its customizations. Styling code snippets enhances user perceptions. Copy and paste the code below to style your WordPress code blocks.
The code snippet plugin changed my life. I no longer edit the raw PHP files to add simple functions like titles to users' profiles.
By restructuring your account and using hyper-targeted ad text, CPA can be reduced.
YMYL stands for "Your Money or Your Life." Google uses YMYL to help understand if a web page's main content could impact people's safety, health, or financial well-being.
With slight modifications to Optinmonster's native A/B testing capabilities, it becomes an excellent CRO testing tool.