Google Quality Score & the PPC Black Hole

Google Quality Score & The PPC Black Hole

Got on the Internet in 1986
Working online with search since 1996
Paid & Natural Search – all aspects
Worked in house within Ecommerce, Publishing & High Tech
Moved to i-level in 2008
Worked with Orange, Sony, COI
SEO Chick
Freelance through Seshet Consulting
Who am I?

Agenda
Quality Score
Deep Linking
Position Preference
Campaign Structure
Match Types & Ad Copy
Ongoing Optimisation

What is quality score?
"a dynamic variable assigned to each of your keywords. It’s calculated using a variety of factors and measures how relevant your keyword is to your ad group and to a user's search query."
--- Google

Why should you care?
Quality Score influences your ads' position on Google and the Google Network. It also partly determines your keywords' minimum bids.

Cracking open the black box of QS
QS is multiple math formulas - one each for calculating:
a) ad position on search
b) minimum bid
c) eligibility & position on a content site
d) Other relevance factors
When determining both minimum bid and positioning:
1) Google looks at CTR on Google, NOT the Google Network
2) Google looks at both the keyword's CTR and the account's overall CTR

DANGER! The Drop Zone The Drop Zone If you bid between the average CPC and the minimum bid, your position will drop like a stone so if position is important, bid more. You won’t pay more unless bidding increases.

Restructuring an Account
Move, don’t delete accounts to keep QS
Changing ad copy changes QS
Changing destination URL changes QS
QS is measured in context – don’t panic if changes aren’t instant

CTR
Is it too low?
Is it too high?
Does it seem to have changed?

Quality Score
Has it changed?
Is it OK, Poor or Great?
Is the ad showing no matter what the QS

What is “Deeplinking”?
“ Linking to a page of content within a website that bypasses the home page, or lie several layers within the site infrastructure.”

Why should you care?
Landing page relevancy to the whole adgroup influences your ads' position on Google and the Google Network. Relevancy of this page determines cost and quality of user experience.

Landing Page
Where are you landing people?
Is there anything on page relating to KW/ad?
Does ad relate to KW/landing page?
Does the page convert?
GOOGLE IS WATCHING! If user backs out (browser back button) you lose QS points – make that LP relevant!

Factors that Influence Cost
The keyword's clickthrough rate (CTR) on Google; CTR on the Google Network is not considered
The relevance of the keyword to its ad group
The quality of your landing page
The historical performance of your account, which is measured by CTR across all your keywords
Other relevance factors

Game It
Bid high – higher position & CTR – lower cost later
CTR across *ALL* keywords is measured – break down those big ad groups
Bring together semantic variances in single ad group – move the rest (aviation, dentist both in same group?)
Clear bad results/KW

What is Bid Placement
more control over the positioning of ads
Can set for single spot, range of high or low
No guarantees
Can lower CPC
Maintain optimal exposure – minimal bid

How Bid Placement Works
Activate it at campaign level

This will activate it for all ad groups on default setting of “any” for position preference

Set the position preference you wish

When to use Position Preference
When position doesn’t matter but budget is tight
When conversions increase when positioned in a certain slot
To target visibility to match organic result

Campaign Structure
Logical
Focused
Following structure of destination if feasible
Enables top line analysis
Changes or underperforming campaigns easy to spot
Easy to apply optimisation later

Campaigns
AdGroups focused singally, grouped in Campaign
AdGroups can have thousands of keywords but all related to tightly focused group
Fast check on performance

Ad Copy
Use website/publication for relevant copy
Analyse other relevant ad copy
Check sections related to AdGroup

Ad Copy
Clear call to action
Concise, targeted title
URL linked to focus of AdGroup
Keyword insertion where practical
Semantic variations of keywords employed
More than one creative per adgroup to ensure copy well optimised
Pause underperforming ads, create new ones from well performing ones

Ad Copy – Beware of...
Vague descriptions
Weak call to action
Pure description
Irrelevant copy to adgroup

PPC Match Types
Broad
Phrase
Exact
Negatives

Broad Match
Default option
Matches anything – including similar words – in any order
E.g. – ‘tall dark and handsome’ might also match ‘big (tall) black (dark) cab (handsome)’
Good for research or less fussy daters – can capture unexpectedly related search terms

Phrase Match
Matches terms in order they appear, with any text before or after
Good for shorter keyphrases of two or so words
E.g. – ‘hot tub’ will match ‘hot tub lover’ but not ‘hot sauna tub’
If keyword research done and confident with it or for the dater who has core requirements in their date, but is open to variety

Exact Match
Specific phrase in that order with no additional words
The least impressions but most targeted clicks
E.g. ‘likes long walks, dogs, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and good coffee’ will not match unless all keywords in that order present
Good for specifically targeted ads avoiding less targeted traffic or the date who knows exactly what they want and will settle for nothing more or less

Negative Keywords
Does not match when that keyword present
E.g. – “gorilla” – So if “hairy” is included as negative, ad will show for “Cadbury gorilla” but not “hairy gorilla”
Good to ensure no ad shown for undesirable/low conversion searches, keywords in other campaign, or for the date who knows what they absolutely don’t want in a date

Optimise your performance

Don’t pay for keywords that aren’t relevant… … use the search query report to find and negative match them

Create additional adgroups containing new targeted terms… … or add them to existing campaigns to increase relevance & lower cost

Focus, change, add, and remove ad creative… … don’t just let it ride

Wash, Rinse, Repeat Shine 

THANK YOU! [email_address] http://www.seshet.co.uk http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=10335408 http://www.seo-chicks.com http://www.twitter.com/JudithLewis

Google Quality Score & the PPC Black Hole

by a4uexpo Conference on May 05, 2009

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Google Quality Score & the PPC Black Hole — Presentation Transcript