Quality Score improvements to go live in coming days

[anshu18]

Here is Google update information:

Last month, Google has posted about upcoming Quality Score improvements --
* Quality Score is now more accurate -- because it is calculated at the time of each search query

* Keywords are no longer marked 'inactive for search' -- all keywords are active because they are evaluated for every relevant query

* 'First page bid estimates' replace 'minimum bids' in your account -- providing a more actionable and useful metric to advertisers

and today, Google is following up to notify that these changes will take effect in all advertisers' accounts over the next few days.

[eric56hk]

Thanks for the updated information, good to know!

[advancedfuture]

doubt it will allow me to get cheaper clicks!

[CustardMite]

Our accounts switched over to the new style overnight.

Difficult to see whether there's any real impact yet, though we are having one issue.

According to the official Adwords blog, "queries without many advertisers competing for placement, the first page bid estimate should be relatively close to your existing minimum bid."

But one of our keywords only has one competitor, and despite getting a 10% clickthrough rate, and having a £0.05 minimum bid previously, now they need to pay £0.35 to get a page 1 ranking (according to the new stats).

This doesn't affect us, as we were paying £0.50 to appear top (and we still are appearing top), but it's a slight concern.

We tried bidding £0.01 as an experiment, and the advert disappeared, so there must still be some kind of minimum bid threshold; we just don't know what it is any more...

[muchacho79]

In my account I'm still not seeing 'first page bid' - the min bid has disappeared, yet the min bid to appear on first page isn't there yet (even going into customise columns).

[CustardMite]

Incidentally, has anybody seen a keyword get 9/10?

I've got hundreds of 10/10, and thousands of 8/10, but no 9's. Anyone got one?

[muchacho79]

Cheers for PM.

Like you, lots of 10/10s but no 9/10s.

I wonder if this scoring system will be available on reports - so that week by week you can see at a glance if your QS is improving or not.

Before I had a good idea QS was improving as min bid would drop.

I think the way to go might be to start low and raise bids gradually, if 100% impressions isn't being reached. As opposed to go in with huge bids.

[Michael T.]

I like the new features and improvements.

I don't have any 9/10 QS.

Really weird.

[muchacho79]

Like all changes it'll just take getting used to.

My only concern is that these 8/10 - 9/10 - 10/10 etc won't be available on reports - so you'll have to keep manually checking each keyword (and min bid for 1st page) to see if the QS for that keyword has improved or not.

As I say, I'm sure things will be fine.

[CustardMite]

That's your only concern? I have about a dozen!

[Toplink]

This is absolute BS! Found the new keyword analysis tool. Great when you have hundreds to look at, and now you have to click each in turn!

Estimated bid to be on first page = 6c. My bid? $1.25. Still no ads appearing. Not even competitors. Go figure! Going to bed, I've really got the shits with big G.

[robertpriolo]

Originally Posted by anshu18

Here is Google update information:

Last month, Google has posted about upcoming Quality Score improvements --
* Quality Score is now more accurate -- because it is calculated at the time of each search query

* Keywords are no longer marked 'inactive for search' -- all keywords are active because they are evaluated for every relevant query

* 'First page bid estimates' replace 'minimum bids' in your account -- providing a more actionable and useful metric to advertisers

and today, Google is following up to notify that these changes will take effect in all advertisers' accounts over the next few days.

I have been thoroughly testing the new system recently, which is why I have not been posting as much these past couple of weeks, but from what I have noticed there is nothing all that different that before other than the fact that they now tell you how much to get on the first page so that those who thought 0.05 cent bids in a $10 market are quickly corrected.

Its makes understanding the bidding process a little easier since it just out right tells you what the first page is going for whether it be 0.20 or $20 min bids.

but as far as the quality score, its seems to be the same as it was before. The only difference is that it now has a scale from 1 to 10. Which technically it had this before, but min cpc was the indicator.

example if your min cpc was 0.05 then that would currently indicate a QS scale score of 7. min cpcs around 0.20 are about 5 to 6 on the scale and 0.50 and 1 min bids are 3 and 4 on the scale.

I have also been doing a series of tests to see what landing page changes effect the QS scale and it does not seem to be much different.

I tested a squeeze page with the bare minimums and also tested a site with many sub pages, articles and etc. I did not notice any changes in QS. I am still testing and I am sure I will post up more follow ups on this as time goes on...

So in final

QS is now more easy to understand, but does not seem to be changed.

keywords are no longer marked as inactive, but you will not get impressions on your old inactives on the new system. The ads will just simply not show and tell you that QS is to low to be displayed. I noticed that QS of 4 and below will not be shown


first page bids make it easier for the newbie to understand that min bid does not equal traffic and for those entering competative markets they will understand that $1 and $2 bids are still low balling.

Anyone else have any findings?

[muchacho79]

Yes Rob, I found similar and posted it here:
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showt...05#post9246205

The only query I have, is min bids are shown on my weekly keyword reports, so I knew at a glance by looking over previous weeks, if my QS had improved/got worse.

If they are taking this out, I hope they will replace it with the Quality Score */10 rating, otherwise you'll have to check each keyword individually, to see whether the QS has gone up/down. This is useful as you'll then have an idea of whether your keyword may no longer be receiving impressions.

Also, if the number of ads for a particular keyword isn't enough to fill the first page then I think, first page bid = min bid... they are both the same.

Still, this information would be useful to know 'at a glance' rather than having to go into keyword level and checking it there.