AdWords is one of the best places for PPC advertising. However, the trouble is that a lot of businesses are not using this platform to its full potential. It’s easy to determine your performance by taking a look at your Google Ads score. Low-quality scores can destroy your bottom line, producing performances that are way below par. Achieving a high-quality score, on the other hand, is going to set you up for a higher return on your investment (ROI). With that being said, in this blog post, we are going to reveal what a low quality score is in Google Ads, as well as helping you to understand why you may have received a low score.
What is AdWords Quality Score?
This is often deemed one of the most important things that people need to fix on their AdWords Account. The score is essentially an estimation of the relevance of your landing pages, keywords, and ads to the person who is viewing it. If you have a high-quality score, therefore, this is more likely to lead to better position ads and lower costs. The importance of this cannot be ignored!
What is a bad score?
Now that you know why your AdWords Quality Score is so important, it is vital to understand the sort of score you should be aiming for! Of course, achieving a 10 is something that we all want. However, for some keywords, it can be as easy as taking a trip to Mars.
When you first add a new keyword to your account, you will see that a Quality Score of 6 is assigned from Google as a starting point. From here, a number of different factors are going to determine whether your score skyrockets or sinks. This includes landing page experience, ad relevance, and expected CTR.
A good or bad score is going to depend on the type of keyword you are trying to rank. We can assume, though, that anything below 6 is considered a bad score. After all, if Google gives you a 6 when you’re just starting out, no one should be applauded for going downwards, right? The only time whereby a score less than 6 would be acceptable is when you are trying to rank for the competition’s keywords. However, when it comes to branded keywords, you should be aiming for a score of 8 or above, and for high-intent commercial keywords, a score between 7 and 9 is the aim. For low-intent keywords, a score of 7 is good.
Why have your keywords got low quality scores?
Now that you know what is a good score and what is a bad score, you may be feeling a little bit alarmed that some of your keywords have got low scores. Now, you need to work out why this may be the case! There are a number of different reasons why your keyword quality score may be low. So, let’s take a look at some of them…
Your CTR is poor
The main determinant when it comes to a positive quality score is a high click-through rate. If you have a low CTR for a particular keyword, there is a very good chance that you are going to get a bad quality score to go with it, which can end up being costly in the long-run. There are a number of different ways you can improve your AdWords CTR. Some examples are as follows…
- Simplify your ad
- Use negative keywords to limit non targeted impressions
- Make sure your keywords are highly relevant
- Include your price in your ad
- Put your keywords in the title and body of your ad
- Include calls to action, attractive adjectives, and promotional offers in your ads
Lack of cohesion and relevancy
A lot of advertisers get a poor keyword quality score because their ad groups and campaigns have not been organised. You need to make certain that your ad groups are kept to around 15 to 25 related keywords that are advertising for one specific item. For example, let’s say you sell pens, you don’t have to have an ad group for every colour of pen, you can split these up. The benefit of splitting out this ad group is that it will enable you to put your high-volume keywords on your landing page and in your ads. For instance, if you sell bathroom cabinets, it is highly advised that the keyword “bathroom cabinets” is in the headline of your landing page and the title of your ad.
You use short-tail keywords
The final reason why you may have attained a poor quality score is because you use short-tail keywords. For example, you use keywords like wall paintings, instead of something like colourful contemporary wall paintings. Using long-tail keywords is an excellent way of improving your quality score, boosting your conversions and your expected CTR.
Some misconceptions about your AdWords Quality Score
There are a number of different misconceptions that people have when it comes to using AdWords for their Quality Score. This includes the fact that display and search quality score impact each other – they don’t! A lot of people also believe that their quality score will suffer if a keyword or ad is paused. This is not the case. Moreover, your quality score is also not going to be altered by changing your keyword match types.
If you are unsure regarding how to find long tail keywords that are of a good quality, there are a number of different tools out there that can help you to do this. For example, putting together search query reports and seeing exactly what users have typed into Google is advised.
So there you have it: hopefully, you now have a better understanding of what makes a good score and what makes a bad score when it comes to Google Ads. From ad relevance and landing page experience; there is a lot that needs to be considered. If you have a low score on any of your keywords, it is imperative to take the steps to rectify this so you can get a higher quality score.
We Can Help
If you want expert help for your campaign from an expert Google Ads Agency, get in touch with Australian Internet Advertising today on 1300 304 640.
