What is Google Ads Quality Score and how does it affect Adwords ads? The QS formula unveiled by SEISO!
Quality Score: The SEISO study
In Google Ads, each keyword is subject to Google Quality Score measurement, which affects your CPCs and how your ads serve.
In this article, I will use what we learned from analyzing more than 15,000 Google Ads accounts with SEISO to reveal the formulas for calculating the Quality Score and help you improve it effectively!
- What is the weighted impact of each component of the QoS?
- How to prioritize optimizations?
- What are the best tactics to improve your Quality Score?
SEISO is a Google Ads campaign optimization tool used by more than 15,000 advertisers around the world.
How to know your Quality Score?
You will find the QS of each keyword directly in Google Ads by adding the dedicated column in your reports.
NB: The keywords put on standby retain the level of quality they had when they were last activated.
Here is how to display the Quality Score in Adwords.
But this vision does not allow you to work. To improve the results of your campaigns, you need to calculate your cost-weighted quality level with a tool like SEISO
What is the Quality Score?
The Quality Score is Google’s assessment of the quality and relevance of your keywords and to your ads.
The Quality Score is an index that takes a value from 1 to 10.
A KW cannot have less than 1 QS.
Depending on this rating, Google will apply a bonus or a penalty to you.
To display your ad in its SERP, Google will do a simple calculation taking into account your bid (CPC Max) and your Quality Score.
Auction X Quality Score = Ranking
The ranking is the same as the ad rank.
Concretely your position will improve if you increase your bids and/or if you have a great Quality Score.
What is a good Quality Score?
The scale goes from 1 to 10 but the average is not 5.
Why? Because the formula is more complicated than that (we reveal it in the following paragraph.
- QS> 6: You pay less for your clicks and your display more often
- QS = 6: You pay the fair price for your clicks
- QS <5: You pay too much for your clicks and you are under distributed
What elements are taken into account to determine the Quality Score in SEA?
The Quality Score is made up of 3 sub-indicators :
- Your click-through rate (CTR).
- Ad relevance
- The relevance of your landing page
Google measures QoS without using the keyword match type. The same broad keyword, expression or exact, will have the same quality score. Google determines the QoS of a keyword-based on exact targeting for a search.
Each of the indicators can have 3 values:
- below average
- Average
- above average
When we talk about average, it is the average compared to your competitors (those who bid on the same keyword).
In the following example, for example, more than 80% of the expenses are carried out on keywords less performing or similar in CTR than those of its direct competitors!
By observing the keywords, QS, and the ratings of these 3 indicators from more than 15,000 advertisers, we noticed that each indicator has a fixed impact on QS.
We, therefore, sought to find the weight of each indicator and how much each level of each indicator brings in terms of Q of S to make recommendations to our SEISO users!
Calculation of the Quality Score:
The base Quality Score being equal to 1 (lowest possible value for the element), this is how the other points of the QS are added:
We, therefore, deduce that the average Q of S is not 5 but the sum of the average scores + 1 is:
1 + 1.75 + 1 + 1.75 = 5.5
The Q of S being an integer value, the average Q of S is thus rounded to 6
We can check the result for example here:
For the first and the second keyword, we get a base of 1 to which is added 1.75 on the expected click rate (average level) and 1 on the relevance of the ad (average level). Or a total Quality Score of 3.75 rounded up to 4
For the third keyword, we get a base of 1 to which is added 3.75 on the expected click rate (level above the average). Or a total Quality Score of 4.75 rounded up to 5
Impact of the Quality Score on CPC and budgets
Impact of Quality Score on CPC
By making data reconciliations, several studies (the best known of which is that of Wordstream) show that we can smooth out the effect of the Quality Score on the CPCs of your ads.
Regarding the effect of the Quality Score on the Adwords budget, with SEISO we have a slightly different model which gives this:
Impact of the Quality Score on the Budget of Google Ads campaigns
- Improving CTR and LP has 2x more impact than ad relevance.
- Passing one of these 2 indicators to the next level will give you 2 QS points.
- Our analysis further confirms that the misconception that your Google Ads account performance history affects your Quality Score is wrong!
How to improve the Quality Score of your Google ads?
Remember that a high-quality score is Google’s way of saying that your PPC ad is meeting the needs of your potential customers.
The more you meet the needs of your potential customers, the less Google will charge you for the click of the ad.
After this general idea, let’s see the most effective optimizations for each component of the QS to position yourself above the average!
Quality Score: Expected Click Rate
Higher positions will not be more positive for your Quality Score. The expected click-through rate is compensated by Google.
However, remember to exclude unnecessary keywords!
Constantly find, identify and exclude irrelevant search terms that waste your budget.
With SEISO you will automatically have the lists of search terms to exclude!
www.seiso.io
Use ad extensions to maximize clicks on your ads.
Refine your targeting to avoid showing yourself on inconsistent queries.
For example with a broad targeting on the keyword “car”, you will be displayed on the query “engine maintenance”. Not practical if you are a car dealer: you will necessarily be clicked less and you will be penalized as a result!
Read more: How to write a successful Google Ads ad
Audit the quality of your keyword targeting with SEISO!
Quality Score: Ad relevance
Use copywriting consistent with the name of your ad group
Use the keyword in the ad text
It will definitely improve your click-through rate as well!
Quality Score: User-friendliness of the landing page
Ensure correct mobile UX (button spacing, responsive behavior).
Ensure an OK page load time (use Google Pagespeed to audit your page generation times).
Monitor bounce rates and time spent on site. Maybe your landing page is too generic or not specific enough for the user.
Incorporate the keyword purchased as well as the elements of your ad copywriting into your landing page.
Tip: You can use dynamic keyword integration techniques in your landing page so that you can use the same landing page for multiple keywords.
Understanding the Quality Score
Structure ad groups
Better research and organization of keywords and ad groups will naturally improve the perception of quality and consistency for Google.
Keyword research
Use the Queries report to identify new, highly relevant keywords to add to your campaigns, including long-tail opportunities that can contribute most of your overall traffic with great QoS potential.
Quality Score of Google Ads mobile ads
The ads have different QoS depending on the medium (mobile or desktop), even if the ads are identical.
Indeed, the expected click-through rate on mobile is different because the first three links get the majority of clicks. Google will therefore analyze the usability of the landing page differently and will take into account the ease of navigation on mobile (responsive design or mobile-optimized site).
In addition, location is important on mobile, as people search while on the go. So do not hesitate to cut the distribution on mobile with a -100% bid if your site is unusable on smartphones.
If possible, use extensions for mobile (application) and create ads with specific texts.
How to calculate the QS? What lessons can be learned from it?
You now know how to calculate the Quality Score for your Google Ads keywords.
Use this information to prioritize your actions!
And if you want to save time, test the free SEISO Google Ads audit tool for free to get personalized recommendations on optimizations!
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