Agency Insights: What You Need to Know About PPC Quality Scores

PPC agencies know that running a campaign requires a good understanding of the quality scores on search engines which often determines the fate of a PPC ad. It’s true; marketers even compare this tally to a credit score which determines if a person might qualify for a loan because a quality score directly impacts performance. 

But what else should you know about quality scores?

Let’s take a closer look at quality scores from the perspective of a PPC agency.

What You Should Know About Quality Scores?

We know that pay-per-click advertising is a type of marketing in which advertisers can place ads on search engines and social media. Marketers pick a target keyword for each ad and place bids for this ad to appear in the search results. In other words, advertisers compete in an auction to prioritize their ads on search engines.

But how does Google determine what this bid or cost should be?

Google uses quality scores to assess the quality of a PPC advert and the relevance of that same ad to the targeted keywords. This assessment is then used to calculate a cost per click (CPC) and the ad ranking during the ad auction process.

And that’s a basic description of what happens.

Each ad is scored between one and ten, with the best ads having a higher number. Google uses data from previous auctions to help determine the relevance of keywords and check the quality of a landing page and a copy. Also, Google considers your previous ad history and the all-important click-through rate.

The moral of the story is that a decent ad history plus a quality advertisement with high-scoring keywords will be given a better score that should see the ad feature higher in the ad rankings.

Why PPC Agencies Focus on the Quality Score?

While Google uses some secret factors to calculate a quality score, PPC agencies should stick to what they know and focus on improving the above factors. So that you know, quality scores exist in some form on all search engines; we will primarily focus on Google in this article to keep things simple.

No matter the search engine, lower costs and higher rankings are signs of a high quality score. It’s true; marketing agencies know that Google uses quality scores to audit a PPC campaign, which directly impacts the performance of the ads. Agencies will often say to clients that a lower quality score will result in lower conversion costs, which can severely restrict the reach and traffic a PPC ad is likely to receive.

PPC ads are optimized to achieve a better quality score and higher ad rankings. There are many ways a PPC agency can improve a quality score, and we will now consider a few examples of how they might do so.

How To Improve the Quality Score of PPC Ads?

Improving the quality score will result in a more effective and cost-efficient campaign. PPC agencies know the importance of transparency and focus on search intent and making the ad more relevant instead of trying to trick the algorithms.

     1. Relevance of the PPC Ad

PPC agencies make sure there is an orderly structure throughout each ad campaign. They do this by segmenting ads that target different types of keywords into categories, which can make the campaign appear more targeted to the algorithms.

It’s also critical for the copy in each ad to be highly relevant. The more targeted this copy comes across, the more likely Google will reward this via the quality score.

     2. Expected Click-through Rate

The expected click-through rate (CTR) is another crucial factor that agencies seek to improve. This statistic indicates the likelihood of a user clicking on the ad, and there are many ways for agencies to improve it. For instance, agencies can have their copywriters edit the text of a PPC ad to make it more compelling and maybe instruct the writer to input a better call-to-action. Google also pays attention to features, so it’s a good idea to highlight things like free shipping and other unique selling points.

     3. Quality of the Landing Page

Another way to improve a quality score is to refine and upgrade the landing page. At the very least, a landing page should be optimized for the chosen keywords, including the titles, subheadings, and body of text. The use of synonyms and other variations of the keywords is recommended, but it’s also wise to avoid keyword stuffing. As for appearance and functionality, Google likes speed, and all landing pages should be fully responsive and optimized for mobile devices.

A Word of Advice From Google 

As advised by Google, it’s necessary to look at other performance metrics on a Google Ads account and see which areas might be improved. For this reason, PPC agencies use the quality score as a filter to identify high-performing keywords and eliminate those that may not be working well. It’s not always easy to sport these things, but agencies have a lot of first-hand experience, which means they know what works, what needs to be changed, and exactly how it should be changed.

Final Thoughts

Quality scores matter. Google uses this number to rank every last PPC ad, which is directly correlated with the results of the entire campaign. Businesses can work to improve this score in-house. Still, it should go without saying that working with a reputable PPC agency is always the best way to go with such a complex task.

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