How to Improve Quality Score in Google Ads

We’ve covered what Quality Score is and how it impacts your Ad Rank in a previous post. In this post, we are going to take a deeper look at the 3 main factors that can improve your Quality Score. These are; click-through-rate, ad relevance and landing page quality. We’ve also thrown in a section about Ad Extensions and how they affect your Quality Score. Before we begin, we think it’s important to mention that within your Google Ads account, you can access a performance report for each of these factors. You will be given a rating that’s either; above average, average or below average. Obviously, these ratings are self-explanatory but here are a few things you should be considering if you have been given a ‘below average’ status.

Expected Click-Through-Rate (CTR)

Expected CTR is a measure of how likely it is that someone will click your ad when it appears on their screen. Be that mobile, tablet or desktop. Checking your Expected CTR can give you a great indication as to how well your ads are performing. There are quite a few factors that can contribute to your CTR. So, if your Expected CTR is showing as ‘below average’ then there are a few things you could do to try and improve it…

Relevancy

You can start by changing your ad text so that it is more closely related to the particular keywords the respective ad is targeting. What we mean by this is; you should always try and identify specific search terms that will trigger certain keywords within your Ad group and write the ad with those search terms in mind. You can make this easier for yourself if you use exact match keywords within your campaign. Anyway, we go into a bit more depth on Ad relevance further down this post.

Urgency

Another action point you should consider, is looking at the writing style of your ad copy. Is it engaging enough? Try and put yourself in your prospective customer’s shoes; Google a search term that you want your ad to compete for and look at your competitor’s ads… would you honestly click on your ad over theirs? If you aren’t already, make sure that you are using Call-To-Actions (CTAs) in your ads, like: “Get Started Today“, “Buy Today and Get…“, “Find Your Ideal… Now” etc. Things like CTAs, exclusive discounts and countdowns all create a sense of urgency and make the user feel more compelled to click on your ad.

Finally, one of the best ways to improve the CTR of your ads, is to create Ad extensions…

Ad Extensions

We have included ad extensions as a way of improving your Quality Score because they can improve your CTR. Which of course, as you now know, heavily influences your Quality Score. Google did use to directly say that Ad formats (mainly referring to Ad extensions) were part of the Quality Score calculation. But now, explaining how Ad extensions can improve your Quality Score can be quite tricky. So, we are going to break it down into bite-size bullet points:

• If your Ad Rank is high enough, then providing you have created ad extensions, Google will show them;
• There are over 10 different types of ad extensions;
• They cause your ad to take up more space on the search engine results page;
• Consequently, because your ad is bigger, it’s more likely to catch the searcher’s eye;
• The knock on effect of this is that they are more likely to click on your ad;
• And what does this mean? Well, a higher CTR of course;
• If your CTR improves, so will your Quality Score;
• And if your Quality Score improves, so will your Ad Rank!
• But remember, you need to achieve a high enough Ad Rank in the first place, for extensions to be shown!

Sink your teeth into that one!

Ad Relevance

When we speak about ad relevance, we are referring to how closely your ad relates to the search term that has triggered your ad to show. Are you writing your ads with keywords from your ad group in either the headline and/or description of your ad? If the answer to this question is no, then you may be hit with the dreaded ‘below average’ status for your ad relevance.

Just think, the searcher wants to know straight away that your ad is offering exactly what they are looking for. Often the best way to achieve this, is by including your target keyword for that particular ad in the copy. This ensures that  Google and the searcher can immediately identify that your ad is exactly what they are both looking for.

Although it’s advised that you should have a minimum of 3 ads per ad group, you should always have as many as possible. This then provides Google with the opportunity to serve the best performing (which tends to be the most relevant as well) ad to the searcher. If your keyword list has been optimised so that you can be fairly confident on what search terms will trigger ads from that ad group, then you can create ads that address those exact search terms.

Landing Page Quality

Without a properly optimised landing page, the hard-earned cash spent on your AdWords campaign has effectively gone to waste. Think about it, your ad has won the auction and claimed the prize position at the top of a user’s screen, they click your ad and go to your landing page. However, they don’t like the look of it or they can’t find what they were looking for and press the back button.

You will be charged for the click, even though the user clicked off your landing page almost immediately. The phrase ‘close but no cigar’ springs to mind, and close is never enough in digital marketing. There are hundreds of things to factor in when creating a landing page. However, the main purpose of a successful landing page is giving the visitor what they are looking for, fast. It needs to be relevant to your ad and easy to navigate.

Imagine you are a second-hand car dealership and you’ve created an ad campaign advertising second-hand Porsche 911 cars. A searcher clicks on your ad and is directed to your landing page. Make sure your landing page shows the specific car they were searching for (in this case a Porsche 911) rather than all the sports cars you have to offer. Also, make sure it’s above the fold. What we mean by this is the top part of your landing page that the user will see as soon as the page loads. This way, when a user who is already interested in what you are selling clicks your ad, they are directed to a landing page that is more likely to convert them into customers!

We’re Here to Help

Mastering the art of creating attractive and effective landing pages takes months, if not years of practice. Here at BAK Digital we offer a landing page creation service designed to make sure your landing pages are the perfect platform to convert searchers into customers! Why not take a look…