Adwords conundrum -- most effective ads have low qulaity score -- any suggetions?

Please excuse if this seems like a dumb question, because I'm relatively new, and only moderately net savvy. I could not find anything quite pertinent to this when doing a forum search.

In promoting my property inspection business, I've found the ads that get the best CTR and conversion rates -- basically, bring in the most business -- tend to have a relatively low quality score, varying from about 3 to 6 for various keywords, most of which are quite "long tail".

For example, for a keyword that consists of "home inspection {local suburb}" my ad content mainly consists of a heading along the lines of "Very Thorough Inspections", and a combination of selling points such as: "Certified", "Flexible Scheduling", "Reasonable Rates", "Very Detailed," "Detailed Photo Report", "Same Day Possible," or "Slow Market Special 20% Off".

But repeating keywords, and putting in a "call for action" that improve "quality scores" do nothing to highlight why anyone should call me, as opposed to someone else. With all of 70 characters to work with, I want to have as much useful information to let people know why I can best meet their desires.

I could probably improve the quality scores by splitting keywords into different campaigns and tailoring ads to the campaigns, but would the savings really be worth all the time spent?

My gut tells me it would not be worth the value of my time, at least not at this point. Time is money in business.

And, for what it's worth, my campaigns have been bringing in much more business per advertising dollar than when I was paying "advertising professionals" to do it.

Any input would be much appreciated.

 

You can't compare one keyword's CTR with another and then compare their QS. There is no direct relationship. QS is a calculation of your CTR against other advertisers for that keyword at that position. Since the starting CTR point is different for each keyword and your own CTR is different, the QS will be different, even for two keywords with the same CTR. It's a Standard Deviation calculation. Also, the QS is calculated for each keyword-ad. Read more in my Adwords FAQ.

If you have two ads, an average is taken so if one ad has a QS of 5 the other 7, the average is 6. Maybe you have two or more active ads, some not so good, which is driving your QS down.

> would the savings really be worth all the time spent?

I'd say yes. Anything to improve is worth doing. It may not actually improve. From what you say, you still are missing one piece of the puzzle.

Sounds like you're doing well using Adwords. Imagine however if you could increase clicks by just another 10% and decrease your costs. Going from a QS of 4 to 7 could drop your CPC by 30% or more. That last piece might just do it.