Your Google Ads Quality Score has a significant impact on your ad rank and your overall costs. A high-quality score can spell success for your digital marketing efforts, but a low-quality score can negatively affect your paid search advertising profitability.
Though Google's pay-per-click (PPC) advertising system comes with many uncontrollable variables, your Quality Score is something you can control. Thankfully, with the right strategy, you can improve your score and increase your ads' chances of leading to conversions.
In this article, we'll highlight the most effective ways to increase your Quality Score. But first, it's crucial you have a clear understanding of how Google Ads determines your score.
What is a Quality Score?
Quality Score is the metric Google uses to rate the quality and relevance of your keywords, PPC ads, and landing pages. According to Google, "higher quality ads can lead to lower prices and better ad positions." Your Quality Score is affected by several factors, including:
- Your average click-through rate (CTR)
- How relevant your chosen keyword is to its ad group
- The quality and relevance of your ad and landing page
- The past performance of your Google Ads account
- User experience to convert
A complex Google algorithm uses these variables to rank your account on a scale of 1 to 10. Aim for a Quality Score between 7-10. While it depends on the type of keyword you're bidding on, a seven or higher will significantly improve your account.
You can check your quality scores at any time by adding the Quality Score column to a report and even break it down further into its components: overall Quality Score, landing page experience, ad relevance, and expected click-through-rate.
5 Ways to Increase Your Google Ads Quality Score
Improving your quality score is not a task you do once, it's a constant process. Even with high-quality scores, you should always be looking to boost your quality scores and improve your ad performance. Here are a few tips for increasing your Google Ads Quality Score.
Focus on Keywords
Keywords are central to the success of your paid search advertising efforts. Consider them the foundation of everything you do on Google Ads. Prioritize using high-intent keywords that resonate with your target audience and show Google your ads are worth showing on the search results page (SRP).
Start by using Keyword Planner to research new, highly-relevant keywords to add to your ad group. Make sure to also include these keywords in your ad copy, the header, and the landing page. If you have a low-quality score, one way to improve your Quality Score is to check your ad groups to the keyword level. Pulling out some keywords from your ad group or creating new ad groups can make your ad more relevant and increase your CTR.
In a PPC ad, you should use your target keyword at least 2-3 times. Be careful not to overdo it, as keyword stuffing can negatively affect the performance of your ad. Too many keywords and your ad will appear spammy, both to your target audience and Google's algorithms.
Faster Load Times
When a page takes a long time to load— especially on mobile devices— users are far more likely to abandon the page. In fact, more than half of the visits are abandoned if a mobile page takes longer than 3 seconds to load. Aim for 4 seconds or less on all pages you use in a PPC ad.
Take time to evaluate not just the content of your pages but their loading speed. Use the Google PageSpeed Insights tool to analyze load time for both mobile and desktop ad Quality Score and determine what factors could be hurting your score.
High-Quality Landing Page
Landing page quality plays a significant factor in google quality score. According to Google, "the more relevant your ads and landing pages are to the user, the more likely it is that you'll see higher Quality Scores." Your landing page should clearly state your keywords in the headings and copy to ensure search engine crawlers can easily determine the page's relevance. Remember, the more relevant your ads are to the search query, the more likely it will increase your CTR. And high CTR can lead to the path of higher or improve Quality Score and lower cost per click.
Create landing pages explicitly dedicated to the highest-priority keywords in your PPC ads. Your messaging on these pages must be straight-forward and use a call-to-action (CTA) that directs them towards conversion.
Add Testimonials
Customer testimonials are one of the easiest ways to make your landing page experience more relevant to users. Your testimonials should reinforce why the user decided to click on your ad and help nudge them through your sales funnel.
Testimonials should tell your leads something about your company that wouldn't hold the same weight if you say it yourself. In addition to helping the testimonials stand out on the page, Images and videos also make your customer reviews seem more credible.
Remember that regardless of the type of content the landing page includes, you must keep your messaging clear and consistent. It always corresponds directly to the content and call-to-action in your ad.
Minimize Clicks to Conversion
The fewer clicks it takes for a user to convert, the better your chances of making the sale. Each additional click required is another opportunity for users to change their minds and abandon the page.
Make your call-to-action clear in your ads and on your pages. The user experience should be seamless from the first click to final click at conversion time. Every step of the way should use cohesive messaging and branding.
Summary
Follow the tips to increase and improve your Quality Score on Google Ads, and you're sure to see an improvement in your score.
If you are not tech-savvy enough, or none of the above solutions improved your quality score, consider hiring a Google Ads consultant or work with a PPC agency.
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