PPC Advertising: Raising Your Quality Score

For one of my clients, we’ve developed animated explainer videos that we’re using for YouTube advertising. For each video, I’ve created a corresponding landing page that lives on our website. This page is only accessible to those who watch our ads/videos and click on the call to action. It’s been running for a little more than a month; we’ve closely identified our audience, our cost-per-click (CPC) is around $2.25, and we’re getting a nice increase in site traffic and calls. I’m carefully monitoring and tracking this effort, and we’re raising our quality score. 

What is a Quality Score and why does it matter? 

Landing pages are often a potential customer’s first interaction with a brand, and they set the stage for an ongoing relationship. Quality Score is an approximation of your keywords’ and ads’ relevance to your target audience. It’s usually represented as a number from 1-10. Search engines and social media platforms use this metric to decide which ads to show and how much to charge for each click or impression. 

Google ads pioneered Quality Score in their ad rank algorithm to reward those advertisers with relevant ads with a lower CPC. Most PPC platforms use this formula to determine where your ads appear. CPC Bid x Quality Score = Ad Rank.

Quality Score Guidelines

• Landing page experience: Is your ad’s landing page relevant to visitors’ intent, helping them accomplish their objectives quickly and transparently?
• Ad click-through rate (CTR)/Engagement: Are your ads clicked as often as competing ads?
• Ad relevance: Do your ads align with your audiences’ interests and intent?
• Post-click conversion rate: Are visitors likely to convert or take meaningful action after clicking your ad?
• Recency: Are your ads recently published or updated regularly?

God only knows what goes on with algorithms, but landing pages are one part of the of the PPC campaign process over which we do have control. We can provide relevant content, fast loading time and make sure our sites look great across all devices. 

Quality Score across platforms

Savvy PPC advertisers understand the nuance of each platform and customize their campaigns for the best results. 

• Google. Google Ads’ emphasize the overall user experience. Your landing pages must be relevant to keywords and ads that your visitors clicked on, but it’s just as important to that your landing page loads quickly, is secure, and looks great on all screens. 
• Facebook. Quality is measured using feedback on your ads and the post-click experience. Your ad is ranked against ads that competed for the same audience, ads that have the same optimization goal and your expected conversion rate.
• Twitter. There’s no mention of landing pages. Most of Twitter ads’ conversions happen within their platform in the form of likes, retweets, content engagement and follows.

Algorithms are opaque, so it can be difficult to know what’s working or not. Strive for clean, simple messaging that’s visually pleasing. A call to action that’s accessible. Monitor your ad and check frequently. 

PPC Advertising: Raising Your Quality Score. Talk to Top of Mind Marketing about your content program, including online advertising and PPC campaigns. Get it right and make it work for you