Your Quality Score heavily impacts your ad position, cost per click (CPC) and return on investment (ROI). Exactly how does that happen?
The Way Ad Position is Influenced by Quality Score
Although Google won’t disclose the exact method for Quality Score, most would agree that there’s an immediate association that links ad position to Quality Score. In essence, a good guide to follow would be that ad position equals maximum CPC x Quality Score. For instance, ads with a good Quality Score for the same bid will likely rank higher than bids that cost more money but have a lower Quality Score.
How Frequently Your Ad Appears
It’s important to understand that besides ranking, your Quality Score also determines how frequently your ads will appear. Have you ever noticed, for example, how sometimes your ads will show up while other times they won’t when you perform a search for your keywords? This is because Google rotates ads so that other ads can have the opportunity to get clicked. This allows Google to determine which ads are producing the best revenue for their impressions. A low Quality Score won’t be rotated in as often and likely not at all for an extremely low Quality Score.
The Way CPCs are Influenced by Quality Score
You will have to pay more for clicks if you have a low Quality Score. For example, an ad with a Quality Score of 10 might cost .15 per click, a Quality Score of 7 might cost .25 and a Quality Score of 3 or 4 might cost .50 to $1.00.
It isn’t difficult to misjudge the effect that Quality Score can have on your ranking and ROI. However, consider that .30 is a 100% increase over .15 with respect to ROI. That doesn’t even include the volume increase you’ll experience!
Application of This Information
Always be aware of your Quality Score. It’s more important than your bid, your CTR, your landing page or anything else, and it critically affects your whole campaign. Choose a high Quality Score over fast profits so you can improve your earnings in the long run. This will mean setting aside short-term profits to please Google and customers by investing time in creating high quality landing pages and cutting low CTR ads – even if they are converting.
