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| Five quick tips to improve paid search quality scores |
Quality score is a thorn that we may never be able to remove completely from our sides. Though Google gives some information regarding why quality scores are low, sometimes the explanations just don't make any sense. How many times have you had keywords that seemed perfectly relevant, with high CTRs and matching landing pages, yet you still have quality score issues? It can be a mystery.
So the thorn remains, itching, stinging and making it's uncomfortable presence known.
I've attacked the quality score plague before, but many of those fixes deal with larger outbreaks. What about individual keywords or ad groups? What are the quick fixes or test you can implement for fast quality score improvement?
Here are five solutions that you can implement today that should help improve low quality score, and at least make that thorn a little less of a nuisance.
Pause or revise your worst performing ads.
Click through rate is likely the most important factor for quality score, so a number of these recommendations focus on improving that particular stat.
The first place you should look are your ads themselves. How many are you running? It should always be more than one, and should realistically be 2-4 at one time, but that doesn't mean these ads should stay the same. Depending on how long your ads have been running or how many impressions/clicks they've accumulated, you'll be able to determine which are the "winners" and which are not. When you have low quality scores in certain ad groups, take a look at the ads you are running and either pause or revise those with the lowest click through rates (note: DO NOT DELETE ADS; this will make your quality scores worse!). Take the successful elements from your best performing ads and test new variations or messages, or work in completely new ads that you think will drive high response.
Insert more keywords into ads.
Ad relevancy plays a big role in quality score itself, but again it is the CTR that is most important. Go through your ads, especially in your top volume ad groups and those with low quality scores, and make sure there are at least two instances of high-relevancy keywords in the ads themselves (preferably in the headline and body).
Dynamic keyword insertion in headlines is an obvious tactic to drive higher CTR and ensure maximum relevancy in headlines, but how often do you use this method in the description lines? Depending on your ad groups and keywords, implementing keyword insertion into ad text may result in additional CTR gains.
Finally, check your display URLs in ads. Many people are not aware that your display URLs do not need to exactly match destination URLs - in fact, they don't even need to be real! As long as the root domain matches and is live, the directories can say just about anything they want. This means that your ad display URLs can uniquely match ad groups and keywords, resulting in additional keyword quality as well as more bold-text opportunities.
Restructure Your Ad Groups
Low quality scores are often a result of ad groups and keywords that are just too broad and are not focused enough. Cut ad groups down to less than 20 keywords a piece, and make sure they are extremely targeted around specific keyword head terms and phrases. This means if you have one keyword using "cheap" and others using "best", split them out into separate groups. All head terms and phrases should be in unique groups, followed by groups that are separated by qualifiers. The result of this will be highly focused ad groups that can be reflected in ad text, which will end up with higher CTRs and a more concise structure.
Well-organized groups will also help with success measurement and will assist in determining low value keywords and ads.
Well-organized groups will also help with success measurement and will assist in determining low value keywords and ads.
Try Modified Broad Match
Different match type variations will impact your quality scores, so the first thing you want to test out are quality score differences between all three match types. You may end up with a quality score of 6 or 7 for an exact match keyword that is 3 or 4 for the same broad match keyword.
But sometimes there are keywords where volume is significantly affected or where exact/phrase match doesn't make sense, but where broad is resulting in low quality scores. In these cases, test out modified broad match keywords (learn more here). This match type works in between broad and phrase, so you have more control over your broad match, but keywords do not have to come in the exact order as in phrase match. Using MBM keywords will refine the scope of your keywords, possibly resulting in higher CTRs and quality scores.
But sometimes there are keywords where volume is significantly affected or where exact/phrase match doesn't make sense, but where broad is resulting in low quality scores. In these cases, test out modified broad match keywords (learn more here). This match type works in between broad and phrase, so you have more control over your broad match, but keywords do not have to come in the exact order as in phrase match. Using MBM keywords will refine the scope of your keywords, possibly resulting in higher CTRs and quality scores.
Negative Keywords
This might seem obvious, but aside from ads themselves negative keywords are the best way to increase CTR (again helping with quality score). Negative keyword lists should constantly be growing. Each week or so should consist of a search query report scan and negative keyword list expansion. Over time this effort will lead to continued CTR growth and quality score improvements.
Making these simple improvements to your paid search programs will have benefits to both your click through rates and your quality scores. Although there may be larger account history, keyword relevancy, landing page or structural issues at hand, optimizing your campaigns using the recommendations above may lead to incremental and immediate quality score gains.
This might seem obvious, but aside from ads themselves negative keywords are the best way to increase CTR (again helping with quality score). Negative keyword lists should constantly be growing. Each week or so should consist of a search query report scan and negative keyword list expansion. Over time this effort will lead to continued CTR growth and quality score improvements.
Making these simple improvements to your paid search programs will have benefits to both your click through rates and your quality scores. Although there may be larger account history, keyword relevancy, landing page or structural issues at hand, optimizing your campaigns using the recommendations above may lead to incremental and immediate quality score gains.
