Google has made two further tweaks to how it calculates the Quality Score of each Google Adwords ad that appears in the search results. The tweaks are likely to significantly affect which ads appear at the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs).

The first change is a welcome acknowledgment of the fact that top-placed ads naturally get a boost in click-through rates (CTRs) by virtue of their position… while the reverse is true of lower-placed ads that may be as ‘relevant’ as those above them. Google is taking this discrepancy into account, which should result in higher quality scores for lower placed ads.

Secondly, Google is now making it easier for ads to occupy the positions above the natural search results. Previously, only ads with the highest ad rank and a minimum Quality Score would be placed here; now ads can be placed here if they meet the minimum Quality Score without having to be first in terms of Ad Rank.

Both of these changes should be welcome news to Google Adwords advertisers… but let’s not kid ourselves. As TechCrunch points out, the moves are also calculated to boost Google’s ad revenues. More ads above the organic search results means more clicks… which means more revenues for Google.

Source: Erick Schonfeld, “Google Tweaks AdWords To Reward “Quality” (And Juice Revenues)”, TechCrunch, October 31, 2008

In a recent Search Engine Watch article, David Szetela provides invaluable advice for organizing the keywords in your pay-per-click (PPC) campaign.

If you’re involved in PPC advertising, David’s articles (and all his articles) are a must-read. In summary, his three (3) tips are as follows:

1. If a keyword has received more than 500 impressions, but no clicks, pause or delete it. It is adversely affecting the relevant ad group’s quality score.
2. If a keyword has had 150-200 clicks but no conversions, pause or delete it. It’s not converting and is undermining your return on investment (ROI).
3. If a keyword gets just one conversion, keep it. If, after generating 30 or more conversions, the cost-per-conversion is still too high, lower the bid price. BUT if the cost per conversion is lower than your target, you might find that raising the bid price is worth it because you should see even more conversions.

Source: David Szetela, “Judging PPC Performance: Focus on Conversions, Part 2″, Search Engine Watch, October 6, 2008

Undoubtedly in response to numerous questions from concerned and confused Google Adwords advertisers, Google has posted an explanation of its Quality Score changes on its Adwords blog.

In short, here are Google’s responses to the main three issues on advertisers’ minds:

1. How will Quality Score be calculated?

Google will STILL consider (a) the historic performance of you account, evaluating the clickthrough rate (CTR) of all the ads and keywords in that account; and (b) your landing page quality. However, although Google will evaluate your overall Quality Score at the time of each search query, it will evaluate landing page quality less frequently.

2. What’s the impact of the removal of ‘Inactive for Search Status’?

Google believes that by making all keywords active it will better be able to evaluate keywords for any query where they may be relevant. The company has acknowledged that keywords previously marked as ‘inactive for search’ would otherwise never show ads on Google.com, even where they might have been a high quality match for certain queries. Now it’s giving such keywords a chance.

3. What’s the difference between ‘first page bid estimates’ and the old ‘minimum bids’?

Google says that for queries that don’t have much advertiser competition, the first page bid estimate should be relatively close to your existing minimum bid. However, queries with lots of advertiser competition may have much higher first page bid estimates. This is because you’ll probably need to bid above the old minimum bid to rank higher than the competition and show on the first page of paid search results.

Source: Trevor Claiborne, “Quality Score improvements to go live in coming days”, Inside Adwords, September 15, 2008

ClickZ reports that more brand advertisers are embracing search marketing.

Hooray… not.

This may be good news for the search engines and media agencies representing brand advertisers. But it’s NOT good news for direct response Internet marketers.

A major downside of brand advertisers pouring their bigger budgets into search marketing is having them bid up the cost of clicks. And because many, if not all, are likely to be motivated by BRANDING reasons, that means their spending won’t be constrained by the need to generate a reasonable return on investment (ROI).

In other words, without any real care about making their cost-per-click deliver a specific ROI, brand advertisers are likely to spend tons of money on getting that top #1 or #2 spot in the paid listings. All of which will bring up the cost of clicks for everyone else competing in that space.

Think brand advertisers won’t attack YOUR market? Think again. Niches to do with weight loss and dieting will have brands like Kellogg’s Special K and Weight Watchers to contend with. Finance and investment niches will have banks to fend off.

And you can probably think of other areas where a brand advertiser may barge in, all guns blazing, willing to spend whatever it takes to get prime positioning. (Quality Score, what Quality Score?)

Maybe I’m being a little harsh. Perhaps it won’t be so bad. It’s possible that some brands will embrace search marketing as a direct response medium.

But having worked closely with a large corporate that unapologetically regards search marketing as BOTH a direct response AND a branding vehicle, I am a little wary.

Could there be a silver lining? Could bid prices for the lower spots in the paid listings still be accessible to small marketers? Could brand advertisers essentially train searchers to ignore or lower their regard for the top positions (because brand advertisers are less likely to display ads that are as relevant)?

Share your thoughts!

Source: Anna Maria Virzi, “Search Is No Longer an Afterthought for Brands”, ClickZ, August 20, 2008

Last Thursday, Google announced improvements to its Quality Score, which it introduced in July 2005 to vary minimum bids for keywords based on relevance.

Google is making three key changes to Quality Score:

1. Quality Score will now be calculated at the time of each search query. On that basis, Google will evaluate an ad’s quality each time it matches a search query. Consequently, Quality Score will vary according to such factors as where an ad displays (Google, search partner, content site) and where the searcher is located (country, state).

2. Keywords will no longer be marked ‘inactive for search’. Rather than be deemed inactive for search due to low relevance and/or searches, all keywords will be able to have ads shown on Google and the content network (unless you’ve paused or deleted them).

3. “First page bid” will replace the “minimum bid”. First page bids are an estimate of the bid it would take for your ad to reach the first page of search results in Google, based on the ‘exact match’ version of the keyword, the ad’s Quality Score, and current advertiser competition on that keyword.

So what do these changes mean?

Well, as far as a more dynamic Quality Score goes, it probably just confirms the need to keep keywords relevant. The good news is that, theoretically, YOUR ideas over what is relevant can be borne out by the behavior of your target market, rather than be deemed by Google. Provided, of course, that you get it right.

The lifting of the ‘inactive for search’ restraint is, I think, good news. Again, provided that you know more about your market than Google’s algorithm.

As for the replacement of the “minimum bid” with the “first page bid”… this sounds suspiciously like an excuse to make Google Adwords advertisers pay more. Hopefully not, but we won’t know until Google rolls out these “improvements” over the next few weeks.

Source: Trevor Claiborne, “Quality Score Improvements”, August 21, 2005

When I first began pay-per-click (PPC) advertising on Google Adwords a few years ago I learned to:

• gather together hundreds or thousands of keywords that seemed appropriate for my campaign (from the most highly searched on to the most obscure or “long-tail”);

• stick them into ad groups;

• write ads that matched those ad groups;

• create landing pages that matched those ads; and

…ta-da, I’d have a highly performing Google Adwords campaign!

Only it wasn’t as simple as that. And it certainly isn’t now…

While that was - and IS - broadly the right approach to take, a big problem emerged from gathering all those keywords… one that is even bigger now, given Google’s Quality Score.

You see, with so many keywords to organize, it was all too tempting to bunch lots of unrelated long-tail keywords into the same ad groups. After all, there was little justification in creating individual ad groups for keywords that rarely got searched on.

The result was, however, that I’d end up with generic ads that didn’t quite fit each of the long-tail keywords in a given ad group. And today, such an approach would more than likely lead to a low Google Quality Score. All of which amounted to – and would now amount to - low click-through rates (CTRs), high cost per click (CPC) rates, and low ad positions.

Does that imply that long-tail keywords should be abandoned?

Not necessarily. According to search engine marketing expert, David Szetela, all the keywords in an ad group should be tightly related to each other and to the ad text. So much so that he says PPC advertisers should make this our mantra:

“(Almost) every keyword should appear in the ad text.”

This is important for several reasons including the fact that Google bolds keywords that appear in the ad text which is likely to attract clicks and higher CTRs. Furthermore, it reflects RELEVANCE between the keyword and ad text, which is likely to have a positive impact on Quality Score. And, in sum, your ads will likely get higher CTRs, which will lead to higher quality scores, lower CPCs, higher ad positions… and in turn higher CTRs!

Mr Szetela further recommends you divide and group keywords in your keyword list based on who you are targeting and where they are in the research-shop-buy cycle. In other words, group together keywords that are likely to be used by people in research mode… other keywords used by those in shopping/comparing mode… and others used by people in buying mode.

What if you have some long-tail keywords that just can’t be grouped together in any meaningful way? Well, if they really are long-tail i.e. hardly ever searched on… and they don’t seem related to any other keywords… then… what are they doing in your keyword list? Get rid of ‘em!

Source: David Szetela, “Tightly-Themed Ad Groups: The PPC Pro Advantage”, Search Engine Watch, August 4, 2008

Good article by Christine Churchill in Web Marketing Today. Ms Churchill points out that one of the factors impacting on Google Quality Scores awarded to Google Adwords pay-per-click advertisers is landing page load time.

All else being equal, the longer the load time… the lower the quality score… and the lower the quality score, the higher your minimum bid price… and the lower your ability to place higher in the paid ad listings.

Without giving Ms Churchill’s article away, the main keys to speed up landing page load times are to:

1. Keep the page (file) size as small as possible. Ways to do this are to minimize (or at least optimize) images, media files (such as Flash), excessive scripts (e.g. javascript) and code that can be placed elsewhere (e.g. in a CSS file);
2. Use a static (e.g. standard HTML) rather than dynamic (e.g. PHP or ASP) page; and
3. Make sure your server is sufficiently fast.

Source: Christine Churchill, “Raise Your Quality Score and Save Money with Fast-Loading Landing Pages”, Web Marketing Today, August 12, 2008

David Rodnitzky makes a good point in the Search Marketing Standard. If the recession starts to bite online publishers reliant on advertising revenues, maybe, just maybe, Google won’t be able to be so picky when it comes to favoring some advertisers over others.

Online advertising has continued to grow, especially as more money has been taken out of off-line budgets and into what is unquestionably a medium that continues to attract more and more consumers. However, the economic downturn occurring in the United States, the United Kingdom and elsewhere means that marketers will have less money to spend overall, resulting in slower growth in online advertising expenditure.

Google, although continuing to perform strongly, missed Wall Street’s first quarter forecasts and is not immune to the effects of slower growth in ad spends.

So… in an effort to save revenues, will it drop its Quality Score standard?

Google’s Quality Score standard was introduced in 2006 to help ensure that landing pages for Google Adwords ads were relevant to the ads being displayed. Advertisers that Google regarded as having landing pages that were NOT sufficiently related to their ads were penalized with substantially higher bid prices - the idea being to deter such companies from running such campaigns.

Mr Rodnitzky points out that it’s all very well for Google to deter “low quality” advertisers when there are plenty of other advertisers willing to replace them. But what if the number of other advertisers starts to wane?

What if falling or stagnating Google Adwords revenues mean that Google will continue missing forecasts UNLESS it attracts more advertisers… such as those companies running lower quality ads that Google previously spurned?

I doubt that Google is anywhere close to relaxing its quality score for now… and it would be loathe to do an “about face” on this… but time - and the economic downturn - will tell…

Source: David Rodnitzky, “Is Quality Score Recession-Proof?”, Search Marketing Standard, July 21, 2008