I recently mentioned but did not explain “Quality Score” as a factor in reducing the effectiveness of click ads.
When you buy a click ad you are bidding on position. If you are willing to pay $3 a click your ad is going to be higher on the page than someone who will only pay up to $2.50 per click.
Maybe.
Because if you think about it, what about if your ad is really bad and no one clicks on it? Then Google will make less money than if they put the other guy’s ad above yours. Even though he is paying less per click, if he is going to get a lot more clicks, Google makes more money that way.
PLUS it means they are delivering a better visitor experience. People want to see what they are looking for appear first, not something disrelated that shouldn’t be there.
Google handles this by factoring in a quality score number (from 1 to 10) in with the bid amount on the keyword, so a lower quality score means a lower position despite how much you are willing to pay per click.
You still pay as much per click, you just appear lower on the page where fewer people will see and click on your ad.
So one way to reduce your cost per click – or in reverse, increase the number of clicks you get for your daily budget dollars, is to improve your quality score for important (high search volume) keywords.
Make sense?
So how do you do that?
Tune in tomorrow to find out.