The quality score is an assessment within Google Adwords of an individual ad triggered by a keyword which, in combination with the bid amount determines the ranking of the ad relative to competitors.

In my Internet marketing book I define Quality Score as:

"Quality Score is assessment in paid search by Google AdWords (and now other search engines) of an individual ad triggered by a keyword which, in combination with the bid amount determines the ranking of the ad relative to competitors. The primary factor is the clickthrough rate for each ad, but Quality Score also considers the match between the keyword and the occurrence of the keyword in the text, historical clickthrough rates, the engagement of the searcher when they clickthrough to the site and the speed at which the page loads".

The use of quality scores is based on relevance. The mantra used by Google employees is ‘Relevance, Relevance, Relevance’. That is what they are looking to deliver to their customers through their paid and natural listings and by focusing on the relevance of your ads you will achieve better results. Of course, use of a quality score is also smart from a search engine’s point of view since it reduces transparency of the bidding process and encourages higher bids to overcome deficiencies in other aspects of the campaign.

A higher quality score of a keyword is a key goal for search marketers since it should deliver better campaign performance through

• A higher ad position within Google search results and the content network for that keyword at a given bid amount
• A lower minimum bid amount necessary for an ad to be served for the keyword that triggers it. Ads with a low quality score may not be displayed until a higher amount is bid.
• Greater eligibility for an ad to appear on a site on the content network and potentially improved positions within competitive listings

Google's definition of quality score

Understanding quality score is difficult since Google is not completely transparent on it’s approach; it does refer to the main factors but it doesn’t disclose “other relevance factors” or the relative weighting between them.

Anyone working on paid search should stay up-to-date on the Quality Score - you can check the latest disclosure on quality score, noting the order in which items are listed on this Google explanation of Quality Score

The relevant extract is:

"For calculating a keyword-targeted ad's position on a search result page:

• The matched keyword's CTR on Google; CTR on the Google Network is not considered
• The relevance of the keyword and ad to the search query
• The historical performance of your account, which is measured by CTR across all your keywords
• Other relevance factors"

Let’s look at the implications of this disclosure step-by-step.

• “The matched keyword's CTR on Google; CTR on the Google Network is not considered”

Implication 1. Clickthrough rate on the ad is given as the first factor. Higher CTR will result from more relevant ads, so this shows the importance of producing smaller, highly targeted ad groups which deliver creative with relevant ad text and offer for the search term entered. If you make extensive use of broad match for a limited range of phrases, your clickthrough rates will be lower than if you use exact or phrase match or if you use broad match on many keywords. The use of negative keywords will help increase CTR and so quality score.

Note that the clickthrough rate used takes into account expected clickthrough rate for a particular position since higher ad positions naturally tend to gain higher CTRs.

Implication 2. Clickthrough rate on the content network is not considered for results within Google search results page as is sometimes thought to be the case and is used as an argument against the content network.

• “The relevance of the keyword and ad to the search query”

Implication 3. You should make sure you have good Keyword relevance which is the degree of match between the keyword triggering the ad and the search term entered.

Implication 4. Ad text relevance is also important. This is degree of match between the words in the ad creative compared to the search term entered.

The importance of keyword relevance and ad text relevance in the quality score again shows that developing many more focused Ad Groups will give better results.

• “The historical performance of your account, which is measured by CTR across all your keywords”

Implication 5. The historical assessment of clickthrough rate suggests the importance of removing poorly performing keywords or Ad Groups. High volume brand keywords will have an effect in increasing CTR across the account which won’t occur if brand bidding is not used.

• “Other relevance factors”

Implication 6. Although in this current disclosure, Google doesn’t state that the landing page relevance is a factor, it has said this in the past and it is used for setting the permissible minimum bid amount. We can also speculate that Google could review whether ads are effective according to whether they are immediately followed by another click or search.

Assessing your keyword quality score in Google Adwords

In 2007, Google introduced a Quality Score rating which gives a crude guide of your quality score from Great, OK, to Poor, although you should find the majority are categorised as “Great” range in a well-maintained account.

Use the Google Keyword analysis tool to gain a Quality Score rating of your ads from Great, OK or Poor. Ask your agency.

To summarise, look at the example at the top of the page.

Here the ad in the top position will have a great quality score because of the factors that will help increase it’s clickthrough rate including the relevance shown to the searcher of the ad copy including the headline and description line 1 to the ad text, the inclusion of the brand name and a clear value proposition or reason to click in description line 1 and 2. The relevant ad copy also helps with the ad text relevance.

Additionally, because the ad group, shown in the bottom right, has been setup in the account so that the phrase match ‘laser eye surgery’ triggers the ad, this will increase the keyword relevance.

Finally, the use of negative keywords should increase clickthrough rate since the ad is less likely to be displayed for search terms for which it isn’t relevant and won’t receive clickthrough.

Update March 2008 - Google announces site speed / performance to be incorporated into quality score

• Read this post which explains how site load times will be incorporated into quality score

Suggested actions to take are:

• 1. Review your load times and look for these main culprits that : Interstitial pages, multiple redirects (from bid management or tracking tools), excessively slow servers, high page weights.
• 2. Optimise load times using these ten tips to speed up page download
• 3. Review your load time evaluation published by Google once they implement this feature - I imagine there will be 3 categories - Poor,OK, Good similar to those for Quality Score.