Google Ads Quality Score

Author

Stephanie

Category

Marketing

Posted

February 09, 2024

Your Google ads quality plays a significant role in driving results for your online business marketing.

Google considers your ads’ quality to display before your target customers. 

Google uses quality score, which helps them determine the quality of your ads and rank it high on search engines and drive more results to your business.

In this article, we will talk more about Google ads quality score, how to calculate it, and improve it to drive more results to your business.

Benefits of Google ads quality score

Boost brand awareness

When Google notices and increases the quality of your ads and ranks them high, it helps place your business before many target customers. 

We focus on direct response and customer acquisition in e-commerce, lead gen, and mobile. When it comes to results and leads, we speak your language.

This lets these customers know more about your business and how they can solve their problems with the services or products you offer and can drive conversions and sales.

Lower the cost per conversion

When Google gives you a high-quality score for your ads, it signals that the quality of your ads meets what your target customers are looking for. There are many clicks on ads compared to the conversions from the ads. 

Google then charges more for cost per conversion from your ads. However, when Google increases your ad quality score, it lowers your cost per click and conversion.

Increase chances to rank your ads

Since google’s core mission is to give users useful information, they will rank up your ads and show them to many people. 

After all, your ads are quality and meet your potential customer’s search intent, which can lead them to get solutions to their pain points.

How to calculate quality score

When calculating your Google ads quality score, Google considers the factors below.

  1. Expected CTR
  2. landing page experience
  3. ad relevance
  4. Geographical factor
  5. How ads show well on devices ( mobile and desktop)

Google considers the first three factors more. We will discuss more on each element more.

Here is a general formula that Google uses to calculate Google ads quality score.

Expected CTR

This factor considers the performance of a brand’s keywords in its Google ads marketing. 

Remember to target customers and use keywords when searching for solutions online.

Google wants to see how your keywords will perform and increase click-through rates for your ads. 

Research by Databox shows what Google considers a reasonable click-through rate if you run ads.

They consider how your past keywords performed based on where they were placed when the ads went live.

Here is research that shows how valuable this factor is in determining the quality score of your Google ads.

So when Google uses this factor in calculating the quality score, it works on the possibility that your ad’s keywords will match what your target customers will search for when looking for solutions.

Your expected CTR can be below average, average, or above average. If your expected CTR is below average, your keywords are not more relevant to your customers’ reach. This can negatively affect your quality score.

Landing page experience

This is the second factor Google considers in calculating your Google ads quality score. 

Google wants to evaluate your landing page’s value and relevance to your target customers.

When your target customers click through your ads, they land on your website landing pages.

 It is essential to ensure that your potential customers get what they want from your landing pages. Here are some ways you can improve your landing page experience.

Offer quality and helpful content

Your target customers are indifferent buyer stages. They need different information to help them know more about your business products or services and engage with you. 

Research by Stackla says that 79% of customer buying decisions are driven by user-generated content.

The content should be easy to consume and understand. It should also give your target customers the answers you promised in your ad campaign

The report also shows that 61% of marketers believe authenticity makes content effective.

Make the content relevant to what your customers are searching for. Include images, screenshots, bullet points, infographics, and videos within the range.

Faster loading speeds

A slow-loading website can affect your ads’ quality score. Many people hate sites that have a slow loading speed. They will leave the website and find another with faster loading speeds

The data below shows how the bounce rate increases with increasing loading time.

When Google finds your website has slow loading speeds, they reduce the quality score of your ads. 

To improve your quality score, your website should load faster on mobile and desktop devices. 

Have excellent page design and navigation

Improve your landing page navigation to make it easy for readers to find what they want on your website. Once they land on the page, they can get it in time.

Your content should be well organized with clear and attractive call-to-action for target customers to take action that can lead to conversions and sales.

Build trust with target customers

You have done the work, drawn target customers to your business, and given them the content they want. It would be best if you got them to trust your business products or services.

Here are some factors you can consider to build that trust.

SSL certificate. Having an SSL certificate is essential to prevent your website from hacking. Your target customers want to make sure their private details are secure.

Social proof. Include social proof to build trusts, such as customer testimonials, ratings, and reviews

Customers will trust you more when they hear about how excellent your products are from your past customers. For example, here are some of our reviews from customers.

Link to the privacy policy. If your website has a privacy policy, give your target customers who land on your landing page a link. 

Ad relevance

In this factor, Google considers how ads match with customer search intent. It correlates between your ads and keywords match.

Keywords play a significant role here. It is essential to ensure your keywords are relevant and is what your target customers use to find solutions to their pains.

If your ads have the right keywords that target customers use, they are more likely to click your ads and increase your click-through rates, which can lead to conversions.

Your quality score will be increased as Google finds that your ads are relevant to target customers’ intent.

Performance of device

Google also checks out how your ads perform on mobile and desktop devices. Most target customers use mobile devices to search for information. 

Research by Statista shows there will be more than 3.8 billion smartphone users by 2021. The number keeps growing every day.

If your ads don’t perform well on mobile devices, it could affect your quality score. 

Most of your target customers will not be able to see your ads which will lower your click-through rates and scores.

How to improve Google ads quality score

Now that you know what google ads’ quality score is, its benefits, and the factors that affect it, let’s look at how we can increase the score. 

Remember, Google favors ads with high-quality scores and can help you drive lots of traffic and increase conversions from your ads.

Run a/b tests

Your goal is to get the best-performing ads to help Google improve your quality score and lead you to achieve your business goals, right?

Well, you can run different tests on your ads. Since you know the factors that affect your quality score, you can consider them as you run your a/b test.

Collect data from your ads as you test them. It will help you know the ads that work best for your target customers’ relevance and those that will lead to conversions.

Use keywords that are not very competitive.

Keywords are the center of your Google ads. Using keywords that rank well on search engines is essential and not competitive. 

The keywords should also be what your customers use because you are running ads to draw them to your business.

To increase the ranking of your ads, ensure your keywords for your ad appear in the titles, ad copy, and URL of your Google ads.

Optimize your landing page

A great user experience on your landing pages signals to Google that what you offer is quality and meets your customer’s needs. 

When customers click through your website landing page and bounce back immediately, it signals to Google that your pages aren’t customers fused, and that can reduce your quality score.

On the other hand, high conversion and more dwell time are good indicators Google uses to improve your quality score.

Create high-quality ads

The quality of your ads drives target customers to click through to your website, where they engage with your brand and probably convert into customers.

When creating your ads, ensure they are of high quality. If you are using photos of your products, ensure they are high quality and attractive.

Your headlines should be clear and address customer pain points. Don’t forget to use the right ad extensions to provide more details on your products and lead target customers to take action.

Use the Google seller rating extension.

To build trust and increase your ad quality score, you can consider using this extension alongside other suitable Google ad extensions for your ads. It will help show reviews of your ads to target customers. Here is how they show in your ads.

And here are the sources that Google uses to get your ads’ ratings.

Add video to your landing pages.

Increased dwell time on your landing pages signals Google your landing pages are quality. 

Since it’s a factor, Google considers increasing quality score; you can use videos to increase dwell time.

Target customers engage more with video content. Research shows that it is among the top types of content marketers use.

They will quickly learn more about your business products or services when they click through to your website.

Automate PPC AD reporting

It can be difficult and time-consuming to monitor your ads’ performance manually. 

You can automate the process and get alerts about keywords with below-average scores. 

With the data insights, you can quickly know what to work on to improve your ad performance and improve the ad’s quality score.

Monitor your past ad performance

Google has a system where you can monitor your previous ads’ performance. 

You can track the performance and results of these ads to help you improve your current ones.

You can know the keywords and ads text ads that performed, then keep improving them to get more results and improve ad ranking and quality score.

Create focused ad groups

You want to increase ad relevance to attract more target customers to your business. 

Creating focused ad groups on a single theme is essential to increase ad relevance.

You can separate your different keywords into more focused ad groups. 

Keep keywords with high and low-quality scores in separate ad groups to easily make bidding for the keywords and manage them.

Use responsive search ads.

Even if you are running other types of ads, having at least one responsive ad is recommended. 

With this type of ad, you can test how your ads perform with the combination of your headlines and ads description. The more headline variations you use, the better. 

Wondering how this will help improve your quality score? Well, the more impressions and CTR you get from your ads, improve your quality score, as these metrics are what Google considers most in calculating the score.

Types of Google ads quality score

There are different quality scores that you must know about as a business marketing using ads to market their business. Here is a list of these ads’ quality scores

  1. display network quality score
  2. landing page quality score
  3. device-level quality score
  4. keyword-level quality score
  5. ad level quality score
  6. Ad group quality score
  7. Account-level quality score

It is essential to research and learn more about these types of ad quality scores as you run your Google ads.

Misconceptions about Google ads quality score

keyword stuffing doesn’t improve quality score

If you are thinking of stuffing keywords to improve your ads quality score, stop because it will not work. 

Using more keywords on the landing pages to increase quality scores will also not work.

Display and search ad scores don’t affect each other

If you are running display and search ads for your business marketing, don’t worry about the ads competing and affecting the quality score of each other.

How one display ad’s quality score can’t affect the other. Google uses different ways to determine the score of the two groups of ads, and their networks are various in influencing each other.

Pausing your ads doesn’t affect quality scores.

If you are running your ads, pausing them doesn’t affect the quality score. This is because the score determines how your Google ads or keywords perform.

Conclusion

You must work on your ad quality scores to help Google rank your ads well and drive more traffic and conversions. 

The above tips will guide you as you run your ads and improve their quality score so you can see more results from your Google ads.

What are you waiting for?

Work With Us