Okay, we have been having an interesting discussion on my thread "Is qs ....misleading + unfair?" and I am happy to accept that I was on the wrong track there. However, a new thought occurs which may appeal to those with a mathematical/ statistical bent to put me right. Namely, are attempts to achieve "a perfect ten" in QS ultimately a waste of time? Is that pursuit a "red herring", i.e. false objective, and ultimately unobtainable? For the purpose of the argument I posit that all adverts can be made equally effective, i.e. CTR would be the same for all in any given position, and all advertisers can achieve equal ranking for all keywords in terms of those factors they can influence and that are used by Google to calculate QS, i.e. ad text, landing page quality and so on. Then, Other factors like historic CTR and overall keyword performance would tend towards a norm, and The only influence on position becomes the bid, and The only influence on CTR becomes the position. Therefore, ultimately, every keyword will only achieve average performance for its particular position and the Quality Score for all keywords would become 5 (assuming that is what Google defines as average.) So, my point is that we should not be surprised to see QS tending towards 5 since that is the what the system is ultimately designed to do. (In fact, a QS of 5 indicates that a keyword is perfectly "optimized" for whatever position it is occupying.) Okay, I know what I posit is never going to happen because we are all human and not Google mainframes (and QS will therefore remain an indicative but objectively dubious measure) but, is my reasoning sound?
A QS of 10 is very attainable, I'd go so far as to say it's easy to get an 8 - 10 QS when you know what you're doing. False.At minimum you can use the display url to differentiate your ad for certain terms. URLs are unique, at least in term of display/Google AdWords. Again not true. Some advertisers have a distinct advantage over other advertisers in certain areas, specifically in ROI. If we sell the same products and you're business is more efficient than mine you can bid at a higher level and maintain profitability at price points where I can't. That aside, the theoretical argument that "all advertisers can" anything is never going to happen. The reality is there are A LOT more advertisers that don't know what they are doing then the opposite. They introduce variables into the auction that no one can foresee or predict. If you see your QS in the neighborhood of 5 you're going something wrong, or, everyone else is just doing that much better than you.
I think as long as the minimum bid for your advert is less than the amount you're willing to pay then don't worry about that extra two points. Getting a quality score of 10 isn't going to make the amount you actually have to spend to get the position in google any less.
I did already acknowledge that what I proposed will not happen, My post is an attempt to understand how the QS formula works. Let me put it another way. I contend that if you were to freeze all campaigns, keywords, bids, landing pages etc, as they are at this moment in time without further advertiser input and then left the adwords system to run ad infinitum then all QS scores would eventually end up at 5 - It may take 6 months, 6 years or 6000 years but eventually they would all be 5. I must disagree. Assuming 5 represents average performance it presumably means you are doing about average. Not knowing how it is calculated or the distribution curve of scores it is actually impossible to say whether you are doing better or worse than the majority. But, accepting your argument that, "The reality is there are A LOT more advertisers that don't know what they are doing than the opposite." it would suggest that you are actually doing better than the majority.
5 may be the average across the whole of Adwords (or it may not - I've still never seen a 9, so I have no reason to believe that they average 5), but I would suggest that the average for people who know what they are doing is probably between 7.5 - 8.0 (though it may be lower in some cases). This is where you should be, if you understand what the Quality Score is, and how it works. There are a number of objectives that you should bear in mind when optimising your campaign. Typically, I optimise three, with occasional nods in the direction of ROI. 1) Quality Score. The higher it is, the less it costs per click to appear in each position, or the higher you can appear for the same bid - whichever you prefer, it's good. 2) Clickthrough Rate. The higher it is, the lower you can bid, and still spend your budget. More clicks = more conversions, for the same spend (assuming that you qualify the traffic - see 3) 3) Conversion Rate. There's no point in paying for a click that doesn't convert. It's a waste of money. Qualify your traffic with a good keyword list and advert. ROI is only an issue if you can are deciding whether to invest your spend in PPC or elsewhere (or splitting the spend between Google, Yahoo etc). By testing new adverts, you can improve your QS - nobody writes an unbeatable advert first time, every time. And as you improve your QS, your optimum bid will move.
What niche is that in? Let me ask you this what you bidding like when it was at 5-6? Did your CPC cost drop down tremendously by having it at 9?
I think I mentioned somewhere about inflexibility in the QS reporting system and that screenshot is a perfect example - you get exactly the same message for any score from 4 upwards (or I do, anyway). Not really a lot of help! PS. Okay, so now we've seen a 9 but has anybody seen a 7 yet? Oh, and although there have been reports of a 1/10 I have not personally seen one of them either!
I have everything from (a very occasional) 5 to 10, except 9. The visible Quality Score isn't quite the same as the one used to rank you, but they should be similar. The problem is that a well-designed account will generally have a very high QS to begin with, so you won't see a gradual improvement over time. If I take over an account with low Quality Scores, I tend to create a new account, rather than fix the old one. This does result in lower bids for the same keywords in the same positions, as a rule.
That is reasonable. The problem for me is that at the switch over to the new system my account did have a good QS. The majority of my keywords were "Great" (and had been for c.18 months!) with scores of 8 and a few 10s. The rest mostly 6s with a few 2s or 3s (with good reason but they were important for me even if Google could not appreciate why). My campaign had been running happily for months with very little input on my part then suddenly, 2 weeks into the new system a large number, of my terms dropped 3 or 4 QS points. What is driving me crazy is that I did nothing for about 10 days to see what would happen and the change in QS had no significant effect (except my ave. CPC went down!!!???) I then decided to try and improve the QS of the many "okay" keywords by adjusting the ad texts, the display urls, the destination urls, etc. and so far the effect on QS has been a big fat ZERO. (I thought I had it cracked yesterday when, although the QS did not change, there was a significant move in average position for my campaign as a whole - up 5 places -, but today, so far it has actually fallen back below previous levels.) I still believe there are simply too many variables with the dynamic QS for accurate control of accounts if you are a small-time, "mid-field", player like me. It is now almost impossible to know what is the actual factor effecting changes in performance.
after you create a new account, do you use the same data from the old one (urls and landing pages), of course re-creating the ad groups? if so, do you delete the old account? i have a mini-site, 20 pages, good domain name, and want to move it to another account. i have this site from the period i used to put hundreds of keywords in the same ad group. in time i rearanged and re-created new ad groups but with every new adwords changes and updates i always get poor qs. how do you proceed to move the site to another account? thanks
It depends on the account. Generally, I create a new keyword list, after reviewing the search query reports for the old account, and identifying what works, then extending the list to all combinations of the keywords (plurals, add the adjectives across the board etc). I'll write new adverts, if the old ones aren't working, or leave the original ones (to begin with) if they are performing reasonably. Basically, you need to create a new keyword list, and group the keywords appropriately (though it sounds as though you've done this). Set up a new account, then turn it on and pause the old one (don't delete it until you're sure the new one is working properly).
The higher conversion rate you get the higher quality score you get the lower the cost per click. However, if your traffic doesn't spend much time on your site then you are wasting your money. So you have to find a happy medium where the traffic you do get is well targeted by use of well targeted keywords and negative keywords to eliminate irrelevant traffic. What matters is how long people stay on your site which gives you the best change to achieve your goals.
@ CustardMite. thanks for the tips, but can/do you keep the domain name? i mean if you have www.site.com the url for the site you promote, in the new account do you still use www.site.com? if you delete/pause the campaign can you use the same url in another account. few months ago when they introduce the "mobile subscription policy" they declined all my ads and keywords, and even if i made the changes they required, i still can't promote them. i tried to resubmit my ads and after few times they sent me an email, something like "please note if you still keep to resubmit your ads your account might be closed. please don't try to make another account to promote this site, we will terminate your both accounts...". that's why i asked you if you delete the old account or at least the campaign you want to move.