How to Improve Your Google Ads Quality Score

7 April 2020
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How to Improve Your Google Ads Quality Score

Google assigns a quality score to every ad campaign depending on multiple factors. The outcome of your score affects both the position of your ads and your cost per action. That is why it so important to ensure that your ads are high-quality. Your Quality Score depends on three main criteria:

  • Your click-through rate (CTR);
  • Ad relevance;
  • Landing page experience.

In this article, we are going to break down these key criteria in more detail.

Click-through rate (CTR)

Your expected CTR depends on a slew of factors, including your ad’s position, keywords, creative, landing page and many more. If you want to achieve strong click-through rates for your ads, the only thing you can rely on is your experience.

Moreover, the average click-through varies by industry.

How to Improve Your Google Ads Quality Score

The average CTR in Google Ads is 1.91% for search and 0.35% for display. But that’s just the average, so you probably shouldn’t focus on these figures.

Your job is to test, test, and test again. It’s the only way to keep your click-through rate as high as possible.

Ad relevance

Ad relevance is the level at which your ads and website match the user’s query. When assessing this parameter, Google estimates the relevance of your ads, keywords, and landing page. High ad relevance means that these campaign elements match the user’s query and search intent.

To improve your ad relevance, ask yourself the following questions:

  • Are there any keywords in my ad texts? If not, be sure to add relevant keywords to your campaigns.
  • Does my landing page match the ad? If not, adjust it accordingly.
  • Does my ad lead to a page that is most relevant to the user’s search query and a specific product/service? This basically means that if somebody is searching for a particular product on Google, you should redirect them to the product page rather than to the main page.

Landing page experience

Your landing page quality depends on multiple factors. Let’s consider each of them separately.

a) Relevance. Ensure your landing page is relevant to your ad copy and keyword.

b) Original content. The content you are offering should be unique to your site.

c) Contact information. Openly share information about your business and promote transparency if you want Google to consider your site trustworthy.

d) Easy navigation. Make sure your site is user-friendly and easy to navigate.

c) Quick landing page loading time. You can get insights into your page speed on desktop devices here. To test your mobile speed, use this tool.

e) Mobile-friendly click rate. This is defined as a percentage of mobile clicks that go to a mobile-friendly page.

How to Improve Your Google Ads Quality Score

If the mobile-friendly click rate of your website is less than 100%, you need to optimize it for mobile devices. Follow the link to find out whether your landing results in a mobile-friendly experience. 

3 proven steps to improve your Quality Score

1. Adopt a SKAG structure

SKAG stands for Single Keyword Ad Group. SKAGs are ad groups with just one root keyword in them. There are three variations of this keyword: exact match, phrase match, and broad match modified.

Here’s an example.

Let’s say you offer flower delivery services. Your keyword is “flower delivery”. There can be three variations of this keyword:

  • broad match modified: +flower +delivery;
  • phrase match: “flower delivery”:
  • exact match: [flower delivery].

There is no need to create a separate ad group for each match and overcomplicate the testing process. By following a SKAG structure, you can avoid competing with your own keywords and improve your relevancy and quality score.

2. Create negative keyword lists

You should continuously identify and exclude irrelevant keywords that are wasting your budget and don’t generate conversions.

3. A/B testing

Run an A/B test to compare the performance of various search terms, creatives, and landing pages.

Conclusions

Hopefully, these recommendations will help you optimize and improve your Google Ads Quality Score. Be sure to continuously test multiple approaches even if you are satisfied with your performance. Don’t forget that the key to long-lasting success on Google Ads lies in testing.

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