What is Google ads auction?

The process that determines whether or not your ad will be shown and the ad position it will have on the page. Every time someone searches on Google, a new ad auction starts. It’s an RTB (Real-time bidding) through Google’s ad-exchange called as Google Doubleclick.

What is the Google ads Quality score?

QS is an aggregated estimate of how well a keyword has performed in past ad auctions for a particular ad group. It is based on past performance data. Google assigns a number from 0-10 to every keyword that’s been used in an ad group. And, the more this number, the better Google ads quality score and better conversion rate. The 3 components that Google considers to calculate the keyword’s QS:

  1. CTR (Click-through rate)
  2. Ad relevance( Query-keyword relevance, Keyword-ad relevance)
  3. Landing page quality (navigability, spiderability, transparency, load time).

CTR(60-65%) is the major factor in determining QS followed by Relevance(20-25%) and then landing page quality(15-20%). (An estimation).

Why the same keyword has different QS in different ad-groups?

We notice in our ad campaigns that the same keyword has different QS in different ad groups. This is because the same keyword has performed differently in different ad groups. The reason is when a keyword is used in an ad group, it has unique CTR, ad relevance and landing page experience. The settings (targeting, ad text, landing page, ad formats etc.) done at ad group level impacts the estimation of above 3 factors.

Also, an important point to mention here is that most digital marketers think that A Single Keyword Ad Group(SKAG) is the hack to get a higher quality score but it’s not at all like that. There is no need to have the same phrase in your landing page as in the query. As Google takes into account the context of your landing page and not the exact phrases used in the query. You must focus on user experience instead of the loading your content with keywords.

Even, no need to have all the match types for every keyword with the intent of increasing the chances of getting impressions because if your ad gets impression with exact keyword then it’ll get with broad or BMM as well. Instead, the good practice is to use smart bidding and broad keyword strategy so that Google algorithm can optimize with more data.

Why Google doesn’t use QS in determining Ad-rank & how Google calculates Ad-rank!!

  • The quality score represents the past performance of a keyword. It represents how that keyword has performed in past auctions. It’s more of keyword-based while ad-rank is calculated at the time someone does a search and triggers your ad to compete in the auction process.
  • According to Adventureppc , Google doesn’t provide your ad with the ad rank based on this QS but it takes into account the real-time signals to calculate more precise measurements of expected CTR, ad relevance and landing page quality.
  • Google takes into account real-time signals such as user query and user’s other attributes like type of search terms, device used, language, location, time, other ads competing in that auction etc. And based on these signals, it determines the expected CTR, ad relevance and landing page quality. Now, calculating these 3 factors, Google assigns a rank to the ads competing in that auction.
  • So, keep in mind, every time your ad competes in an ad auction, it’ll have different ad rank and won’t depend on your past performance-based keyword QS. (Sources: Google, Adventureppc)

So, to have a better ad-rank in the auction:

  • You must try to make your ad copy relevant to the keyword used
  • Make your landing page content thematically related to ad copy.
  • The right use of images and text on landing page
  • Optimize the landing pages
  • Unique content
  • Use of ad extensions
  • Using Google’s smart ad campaigns like the new smart shopping campaign, smart display campaign, smart campaign.

We hope you have come to know something that will help you make the right decisions in creating Google ads.

Feel free to ask anything regarding Google ads. We’ll be happy to answer you.