Chapter 1: Quality Score in High Resolution

This series of blog posts did eventually become a book about quality score – in June 2011 ‘Quality Score in High Resolution‘ will be released. More details and ordering information can be found here. Quality Score is a number which Google assigns to every keyword you bid on in Adwords. It’s an important number, because it is used as part of the formula that determines when and where your ads are shown, and the formula that determines how much you pay each time someone clicks on one of your ads. The Quality Score of each keyword is calculated, in real-time, when someone executes a search for which your keyword is an eligible match – meaning that your text ad might be displayed. The calculation is complex, and the details of how it’s determined and the final Quality Score assigned to each keyword in each circumstance are kept secret by Google. Google has, however, shared some information about the factors which influence Quality Score. They’ve said that click-through rate (CTR) is the most important component, both at the keyword, account, and display URL levels. They’ve said that relevance – generally defined as topical symmetry between our keywords, text-ads, landing pages, and the search queries we’re matched to, is also a factor and appears to be the second most important. They’ve also described lesser factors – including various attributes of landing pages, the geography of the person searching, and the super vague and mysterious ‘other relevance factors’. This list (their exact actual disclosure is in the next chapter) certainly gives us an idea of what factors influence Quality Score, but it is far from precise. We still don’t know how each factor is rated or the amount of influence each factor has over the final score a keyword is given in different situations. This lack of specificity combined with the important role it plays in the success or failure of our Adwords paid search accounts is the reason there is so much speculation about Quality Score. ============= About This Post This is preview material from our upcoming Google Adwords Quality Score in High Resolution ebook. Comments and discussion are most welcome – changes and updates will be made before the final book is released. Other Posted Chapters:

1. Preface: Quality Score in High Resolution
2. Chapter 1: Quality Score in High Resolution
3. Chapter 3: Reviewing Official Google Quality Score Information.
4. Chapter 4: Why Google Has Quality Score (Pt 1 and Pt 2)

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