To start off let’s take a look at what PPC is and the important role it plays in a successful marketing campaign for your business.
What is PPC? PPC or Pay-Per-Click is a form of digital marketing that involves advertisers paying a set fee for every occasion in which their ads are clicked on. As Ben Givon puts it, basically PPC is an online marketing method that buys user clicks as opposed to gradually improving SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and your ranking on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
PPC gives advertisers the opportunity to bid for a spot on Google’s sponsored results section depending on keywords and the content of the website. For instance, should a computer antivirus business bid on the keyword ‘antivirus software’ they increase their chances of securing a high placement on the search engine result pages.
For a PPC campaign to be successful you need to pay close attention to which keywords work better than others, which is done through research and trial and error. Secondly, once you have established which keywords are most effective in gathering traffic you need to arrange them into relative ad groups. Developing a well-rounded PPC campaign elicits benefits from search engines which include lower click costs and higher rankings on results pages.
PPC and Quality Score go hand in hand due to the fact that Quality Scores directly impact the overall cost and performance of the PPC campaigns.
Ben Givon’s breakdown of Google’s Quality Score: What is it and why is it important?
When Google or any other search engine ranks a paid search campaign it does so depending on how relevant and appropriate the keywords are in relation to what visitors search for and also as important it assesses the performance of PPC campaigns. Ultimately, the CPC (Cost Per Click) that your PPC campaign is charged is dictated by the Quality Score you receive from Google or other search engine companies.
The final Quality Score is influenced by a variety of elements, such as:
- The efficiency and applicability of landing pages.
- CTR (Click-Through Rate) performance.
- Keyword relevance and ad texts.
- Previous Google AdWords reputation.
Perhaps the most critical and decisive factor that Google looks at is the CTR (Click-Through Rate). Every time someone clicks on your paid ad after browsing the internet and searching for specific keywords, Google can decipher how relevant and appealing the ad campaign is for visitors; and subsequently compensates with higher placements on SERPs and decreased costs per click which drives up the profitability of the PPC campaign.
Google defines its Quality Score as:
‘Quality Score is an estimate of the quality of your ads, keywords, and landing pages. Higher quality ads can lead to lower prices and better ad positions.’
- ‘You can see your Quality Score by adding the Quality Score column to a report.’
- ‘The Quality Score is reported on a 1-10 scale and includes expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience.’
- ‘The more relevant your ads and landing pages are to the user, the more likely it is that you’ll see higher Quality Scores.’
- ‘Quality Score is an aggregated estimate of your overall performance in ad auctions and is not used at auction time to determine Ad Rank.’
What are the perks that come with increasing Google Quality Score
Your Google Quality Score has a huge influence on how well your PPC campaign performs. Working towards boosting your Quality Scores increases the likelihood of better turnouts for ROI (Return on Investment). Greater Google Quality Scores leads to decreased CPCon (Costs Per Conversion).
What is CPCon?
Cost Per Conversion or CPCon is the total cost paid by an advertiser every time a visitor completes the intended action, for example signing up for a newsletter or buying a product. However, each click does not necessarily end in a conversion therefore the cost per click tends to be lower than the cost per conversion. So it is to your advantage to have a higher Quality Score as both CPC and CPCon.
When you have a high Quality Score you know that Google approves of your Pay Per Click ad campaign and regards it as offering exactly what users are looking for.
Ben Givon’s tips to help increase your Google Quality Score
- Analysis and optimization of keywords: You need to constantly be researching the areas around keywords to boost your paid ad campaigns so that existing and new traffic can be drawn to the site. Divide your keywords into well-organized groups that can help increase the relevance and consumer engagement of each PPC campaign.
- Perfecting your Ad Campaign to increase CTR: Ensuring that your campaign has a high Click-Through Rate is an effective way of pushing your Quality Score up. You can do this by making sure the main keyword that you have bid on is highly visible and is featured in the URL, and you could also make potential customers feel a sense of urgency; this could include adding an expiring time period for a certain call to action or phrases like ‘exclusive, limited-time offer’ are a great way of enhancing AdWords CTR.
- Developing and improving your landing pages: Make the offer and the call to action clear from the start. Ensure the landing page is user-friendly and straightforward. Again, using cliché marketing phrases such as “limited stock” and “before offer expires” are an effective and potent method of making a potential consumer feel an overwhelming urge to make a quick and serious decision as to whether they will complete the call to action now or risk losing the offer or product. Another great way to convince hesitant customers is by using reviews and testimonials as they help establish a sense of reassurance and security.
Neil Patel offers his advice on how to improve your Google Quality Score:
“Target very specific keywords. Don’t do broad match. If you go after very specific keywords by doing exact match your ads will only show up for that specific keyword or phrase. When you go too broad you’re gonna end up paying more per click because Google’s gonna be showing your ads to a lot of people who aren’t clicking.”
To watch Neil Patel’s full video in which gives a few tips to increase your Quality Score click here.
According to Ben Givon, another important factor that impacts Quality Score is negative keywords. Eliminate unrelated search terms that can sway your rankings on Google’s Quality Score and can also increase overall costs because the cost per click increases whereas the number of conversions decreases due to the irrelevance of your ad campaign. Therefore, it is very important that your keywords are all relevant to what the target user is searching for.
On the topic of negative keywords Neil Patel gives the following example:
“For example, let’s say you’re selling computers. When someone types in ‘Apple’, because you’re also a reseller of Apple computers, you may want to add in the negative keyword of food. Because if you show up for ads related to Apple and someone is looking for the food, you’re gonna be wasting money per click, your Quality Score is gonna go down, and your ad costs are gonna go through the roof. So, make sure you add in negative keywords.”
So, the more relevant your PPC campaign is to users the higher the Quality Score will be. Of course, there are many other factors which have a direct influence on the way Google’s algorithm measures relevance but by ensuring that keyword organization and evaluations are constantly updated you can set your campaign up for success and strive towards increasing Return on Investment.
