One of the most enticing aspects of Pay Per Click Marketing has been the ability to achieve high search positioning results through bidding top dollar on specific keywords. An additional factor has come into play determining where PPC ads will be positioned - the Quality Score. According to Primevisibility.com, “PPC Quality Score refers to the relationship between the keyword, text ad, and landing page.” Page Rank (web page quality score) is a fairly common term used in Search Engine Optimization but now it’s PPC marketers who are going to need to become familiar with the term ‘Quality Score’.
The Quality Score formula is largely based on the relationship that occurs between the keyword, text ad and landing page. The top tier search engines have implemented the quality score feature in PPC marketer’s accounts to improve the search quality as well as the experience for its viewers by offering highly relevant results during searches. Let’s take some time and look at the 3 main parts that make up the Quality Score for PPC marketing.
- Keyword
- Keywords that marketers are bidding on need to properly represent the offer or site that they will be promoting. To some people this may be obvious but many new PPC marketers have been known to make the mistake of not choosing the correct keywords. For example, if you are promoting a shoe product it would make sense that your keywords relate to that category. Keywords relating to hair products wouldn’t be a good fit and would have a negative mark on your quality score. Many PPC marketers may start campaigns with lists of 100’s to 1,000’s of keywords but most will narrow those lists down to the ones which convert best for them and will find that those keywords are always relevant to the offer that they are promoting.
- Text Ad
- As PPC marketers know, the ad copy is what grabs the attention of the viewer. It’s important to remember while attempting to grab the attention of the viewer, the body of the ad text still needs to correspond with the keyword that the viewer is searching for. It’s all too tempting to create a body of text that is full of false promises or too good to be true offers, but seasoned marketers know that there is very little to gain by tricking the viewer into to clicking on that type of ad. When developing your title and ad text, be sure your keyword(s) are used. It will have a positive effect on your quality score as well as make a connection with the viewer’s need.
- Landing Page
- This is very similar to how the search keyword needs to be in line with the ad text. If your ad text is promoting the world’s most comfortable pair of shoes at 50% off, once the viewer clicks on that ad they need to be taken to a landing page which has that product on it as well as the 50% off discount clearly shown. A negative example would be if the viewer clicks on that ad and are taken to a generic shoe site with no discounts listed. Your quality score will be negatively affected, and chances are you spent your bid amount on a viewer that is not going to purchase that product.
As you can see, the Quality Score is greatly affected by the relationship that occurs between each step the viewer takes. The more relevant each step is to the previous one, the greater your quality score will be. While bidding top dollar will still allow you to achieve a high ranking in the paid search results section, the Quality Score has become a factor in determining where exactly your ad will be shown in those top positions.
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