By Contributor Mandy Ray
Google Quality Score
Digital marketing is essential for businesses as the world becomes more integrated with the online space. Our “5 Essential Digital Marketing Tactics for Small Business Growth” post emphasizes the importance of utilizing search engine optimization (SEO) and paid ads to increase website traffic. These boost visibility on search engines, establish brand awareness, and help businesses reach people actively browsing the web for products or services.
On Google, quality campaigns and an authentic user experience help you rank higher, boosting your Google quality score. A higher score will allow you to gain traction from original ad campaigns in better positions and enjoy outstanding results for lower cost-per-clicks. Continue reading for a guide to understanding Google quality score and how it can affect your advertising:
What is Google Quality Score?
Google quality score is the rating of the relevance and quality of your keywords, pay-per-click (PPC) ads, and landing pages. With Google aiming to provide a top-notch user experience, they incentivize advertisers to optimize their ad campaigns to gain a competitive advantage over other users. They do this by assigning a “quality” rating—from a scale of 1 to 10—to each keyword within every Google Ads account based on various factors relating to user experience.
Digital marketing firm Ayima’s feature on the Google quality score notes that each keyword starts with a Google Quality Score of 6, which is considered the average. Certain factors will either increase or decrease your ranking. These include the expected click-through rate, which is based on the historical performance of your account and estimates the likelihood of someone clicking on your ad. Ad relevance is also vital for a quality score; it measures how closely your ad matches the keywords within your account. The landing page experience is more user-centered, focusing on the page’s relevancy, loading speed, and usability. When these factors are optimized and perform well, you can boost your quality score.
How Google Quality Score Affects Your Ads
The cost-per-click
Your pay for your ads depends on various factors, but a high Google quality score can bring down those costs while boosting results. Forbes’ write-up on PPC ads highlights that the average CPC for Google Ads hovers around $2, but you can end up paying anywhere between $1 to $30.
The rate you pay for the click is based on Google’s formula: (ad rank of the ad below yours) / (your quality score) + $0.01. Your ad rank is calculated using (your maximum CPC bid) x (your ad’s quality score). So if you have a higher quality score, your CPC decreases, and your ad rank increases. You can spend as low as $0.10 for every $1.00 the average person spends on the same keyword clicks.
With more benefits
For high-quality and relevant ads, advertisers are incentivized to optimize their campaigns for better performance. This also allows users to enjoy good content since businesses aren’t just haphazardly putting together ad campaigns chock-full of random keywords to garner traffic. Aside from more conversions, quality content keeps you high on the rankings because it fosters trust in the search engine. Better quality ads benefit everyone involved, from your business to potential consumers and Google. It’s important to remember that you’re creating ad campaigns for people and not “targets.” You can optimize your ads based on Google’s criteria, but without authenticity and originality, you won’t achieve the best Google quality score and ranking if people aren’t clicking.
An article from
Entrepreneur points out that authenticity in marketing is crucial for capturing and building trust with your audience. This approach can help you gain and keep more consumers while boosting the performance of your ads, further supporting your Google quality score. While Google keeps you visible, the people who are searching for what you have to offer drive your ads and your business’s value.
Keetria is an entrepreneur, wellness advocate, and brand strategy coach for creatives & entrepreneurs with 16 years of public relations expertise working with some of the world’s leading brands, startups, media personalities, and entertainers. If you would like to work together, don’t hesitate to reach out!
