Having trouble getting a Great QS, always OK or Poor

Discussion in 'Google AdWords' started by thorie, Aug 10, 2008.

  1. #1
    Hi

    I'm having trouble getting a Great quality score, and I always get either OK or Poor.

    My keywords exist in my ad and in my URL, and the keywords also exist on my product landing page. Usually when I have a "poor" score, it tells me that the Landing page is OK and Landing page loading time is OK, but the keyword relevancy is Poor.

    I don't know how to make it more relevant than having the exact words in my Ad text and having the exact words in my landing page.

    Even keywords that google gives back to me through their keyword suggestion tool (based on my landing page URL) will result in "poor" scores after adding them.

    I know CTR is also a part of quality score, but I don't want to try to do a $10.00 CPC minimum bid just to improve the CTR. I will go broke.

    Also, my ad groups are very small and the keywords are tightly related. I even tried doing one keyword per ad group.

    I really don't know what else to try. What does it take to get a Great QS and a very low minimum bid?

    Thanks!
    -Tim
     
    thorie, Aug 10, 2008 IP
  2. vesparich

    vesparich Peon

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    #2
    What's your CTR like? Have you split tested ads?
     
    vesparich, Aug 10, 2008 IP
  3. thorie

    thorie Peon

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    #3
    My CTR is 0.00%

    I can't run a $10.00 CPC campaign. I can't get any clicks at all, or even impressions, if my ad is inactive all the time.

    I tried creating multiple ads, but it doesn't seem to help. I tried rephrasing and using different words in my ad text, but still containing the keyword I want to bid on. Still no luck.

    I also thought that maybe I was picking too broad of a keyword. So I picked very specific keyword, one with very little traffic, to see if that would be easier to get a Great QS. This was not the case.
     
    thorie, Aug 10, 2008 IP
  4. vesparich

    vesparich Peon

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    #4
    Sorry. I meant to say before you were slapped, how low was your CTR and your CPC? I'd move it to a new domain but if your ads can't get clicks, then there may not be any point of doing that. Are you bidding on long tail keywords?
     
    vesparich, Aug 10, 2008 IP
  5. thorie

    thorie Peon

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    #5
    Before I was slapped, my CTR was 0.07% or less. My CPC for the QS=OK was about $0.30. I once had a QS=Great which was about $0.10. Now everything is QS=Poor and $10.00 or more. I might try a new sub-domain, if google counts it as separate as they do in organic search. I don't know what else to try. Google has rendered my advertising impossible. I am bidding on long tail keywords. I think at this point all I can do is wait and hope that they re-evaluate my ad and landing page to give me back a good QS.
     
    thorie, Aug 10, 2008 IP
  6. thorie

    thorie Peon

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    #6
    I decided to test an idea that the domain name carries a lot of weight in google adwords quality score and minimum bid price. I put up a landing page on site A which has no history, and a landing page on site B which has page rank 5 on google. The page rank 5 site has thousands of pages ranked in top 10 for major keywords in organic search.

    The ads I placed for site A had a quality score majority "Poor" and one or two "OK" but even "OK" was $0.50 or more.

    The ads I placed for site B had a quality score majority "Great" and the bid prices were around $0.04 which seems extremely cheap.

    Has anyone else experienced a similar thing? Where creating ads for pages on a high page ranked site is cheaper than ads on pages for unknown sites? There is a high chance that site A got "google slapped". Not very sure.
     
    thorie, Aug 10, 2008 IP
  7. Regrouping-webmaster

    Regrouping-webmaster Active Member

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    #7
    I think that your test is affected by a LOT of variables. Google is motivated to reward long term advertisers, and the website may be a factor. The history of performance to the first site shows a successful track record, where the other (site) does not. New advertisers may not be nearly as likely to continue advertising and so this may affect it. Also I believe one factor is relevancy. In the organic world the domain name (in terms of keywords) is a huge factor.

    What was the keyword & domain names if you don't mind me asking?
     
    Regrouping-webmaster, Aug 10, 2008 IP
  8. thorie

    thorie Peon

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    #8
    Keyword: gas prices
    Offer: $250 Free Gas Card (Incentivized; NeverBlueAds Affiliate)
    Domain: findcoolsavings.com
    Minimum Bid Price: $0.50 (OK) and $10.00 (Poor)

    Keyword: weed puller
    Offer: Weed Hound Puller (Amazon Affiliate)
    PR 5 Domain: home-gardening-tips.com
    Minimum Bid Price: $0.04 (Great) and $0.10 (OK) and no Poor QS
     
    thorie, Aug 10, 2008 IP
  9. Regrouping-webmaster

    Regrouping-webmaster Active Member

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    #9
    You are changing WAY too much for your experiment to be meaningful. As marketers we should always be experimenting, but change only one thing at a time. You are in a different niche, with different competitors and radically different ad copies. There are dozens of factors that come to mind that could radically change the results. I realize you may not have been trying to test Google's reaction to the domain change, but we cannot make any conclusions based on that.
     
    Regrouping-webmaster, Aug 10, 2008 IP
  10. thorie

    thorie Peon

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    #10
    Wasn't really an experiment. Just trying to figure out how to get a great QS aside from CTR, Ad Text, and Landing Page. Because I feel like I've done everything I can with those. The only other thing I can think of that can affect the QS is the domain name and account history. I can try to come up with some experiments, but it would be easier if someone here knows what other factor I can change to get my QS up to "Great" for my gas card offer so I only have to pay a few cents per click.
     
    thorie, Aug 10, 2008 IP