Quality Scores Explained

Expected CTR, Ad Relevance, Landing Page Experience

What is a quality score and why is it important? Quality scores (measured on a scale of 1-10) are a general indicator of how relevant and useful, according to Google’s algorithm, your keywords are for people viewing and clicking on your ads and landing pages. Google’s algorithm calculates quality scores using historical account performance data. (Check out Quality Score Calculator. See the link below.)

Quality scores are important because low-quality scores lead to higher Average CPC’s (cost-per-click) and lost conversion opportunities.

So what influences quality scores?

The three primary components that determine quality score are: Expected CTR (click-through-rate), Ad Relevance, and Landing Page Experience. Each metric plays a vital role in how keyword quality score calculation.

Expected CTR

Expected CTR indicates:

• The likelihood that an ad impression will lead to a relevant click within the context of the search query
• Is based on the keyword performance history
• The likelihood that the target keyword will exactly (or closely) match web users’ search queries

Expected CTR is an estimated metric calculated relative to the click-through rates of all other keywords in Google Ads, so it is not the same as your actual CTR.

Below average Expected CTR can occur for a few different reasons. If your bids are too low, your ads may not show high enough on the first page or not show up on the first page at all, making it less likely for web users to find and click on your ads. Another reason could be that your keywords may be too obscure and not trigger relevant search queries. And even if your keywords do trigger relevant search queries, the obscure phrasing in your keywords may lead web users to overlook your ads. This is a common issue for advertisers in highly specialized fields where a layperson may not be familiar with technical terminology and would therefore phrase search queries differently than they are “supposed to”.

To ensure Above Average or Average Expected CTR make sure that your bids are high enough (keeping your budget and goals in mind), refrain from using obscure terminology in your keywords, and express your keywords in layman’s terms. Most of these issues can be circumvented by performing thorough keyword research beforehand and easily fixed later on by following the steps mentioned earlier.

Ad Relevance

Ad Relevance indicates how relevant the ad copy is to the keywords in an ad group. Ad relevance is used to determine ad rank which directly affects how your ad’s position on the search results page(s).  See below for a quick breakdown of what each status reflects regarding this metric.

If, for example, you are a footwear vendor selling a variety of products, you may sell sneakers, dress shoes, laces, etc. You may run an ad group where you have keywords such as “black sneakers”, “loafers”, “high heels”, and a few ads that mention only sneakers in their ad copy.  In this case the other keywords and keyword variants besides “sneakers” will have an Ad Relevance of Below Average since the language in the ad copy is not reflective of the top keywords.

If this is a common problem in your account, this may indicate poor campaigns and/or ad group structure.  To bring up your Ad Relevance scores to Average or Above Average levels, we recommend creating separate ad groups for keywords with similar themes and creating ad copy that reflects those keywords.

So following the footwear example from above, the best approach would be to create separate ad groups with closely related keyword variants for “sneakers”, “loafers”, etc., respectively. Keyword variants for “sneakers” could include black sneakers, basketball sneakers, high-top sneakers, etc. You may opt to get even more granular with your ad group structure if your keyword variants are unique from each other.

Landing Page Experience

Landing Page Experience indicates whether your landing page provides a good user experience or not.

You can improve the landing page experience by following a structured landing page optimization process. This includes making sure the landing page content is concise and contains the relevant target keywords. The content should be authentic, so don’t focus too much on keyword littering, instead, focus on making your landing page interactive by providing value to website visitors. Examples of valuable content and offerings include embedded videos on the webpage, free downloadable PDFs, tools such as free calculators. By incorporating these types of content, you establish trust with potential customers and encourage them to click around the landing page. The more web users interact with the landing page, the better (lower) your bounce rates will be, resulting in potentially more leads at a higher conversion rate.

Also, make sure you provide a way for web users to navigate back to your website (or a relevant page on your website) in case they are looking for more information before converting.  Last but not least, check that your CTA’s (Call-to-Actions) are visible and positioned correctly on the page.

Don’t forget to check out the Quality Score Calculator! (Click Here)

Quality Scores

Keep in mind that for newer keywords you will usually start off with a higher quality score since there isn’t any performance data to accurately determine what your quality scores should be so there may be a disconnect between the Expected CTR, Ad Relevance, &, Landing Page Experience metrics and quality scores, however, such discrepancies normalize over time.

If you have keywords that have been paused, they will retain their quality scores from the time they were paused, so be careful to exclude these keywords from your analysis.

For competitive low volume keywords, your quality scores may remain higher than what the three metrics may indicate your quality scores should be. There may never be enough data for such keywords at any particular point in time to make an accurate assessment of their quality scores, however, don’t let that fool you. These types of keywords typically have higher CPC’s on average because they are of high value. If most of your keywords are like this then it may be a good time to revisit your keyword research strategy.

As long as you score average or above average on all three metrics for any particular keyword, your quality score should be at least a 6. If you are looking to lower your average cost-per-click and drive more conversions it would make sense to try to get as many keywords within the 7-10 range as possible.

Quality scores are just another metric.  What you should really ask yourself is “Am I getting the results I’m looking for?”, “What is my average account quality score?”, “Is it worth my time to focus on raising quality scores, or should I just focus on providing quality services/products?”.

If you are tired of trying to manage your Pay-Per-Click accounts without gaining any traction, we may be able to help.  If you would like more information, contact us, or learn more about our PPC Management Services or PPC Audit Services.