Google has recently released some news of upcoming changes that you should prepare for. The topics of discussion are the improvements of how they calculate the infamous Quality Score and the rank position of your Ads. So let’s jump into it…

As of now Clickthrough rate (CTR) is the most influential factor in weighing an ads quality score. When an Ad has a good Clickthrough rate then Google will reward you with a good Quality Score. But, the problem as of now is that unfortunately the position of your Ad is a major key factor in your CTR, if you’re at the bottom of the page you will have the same amount of impressions as an Ad in position 1, but won’t receive as many clicks. And that’s where the vicious cycle begins, a lower CTR, a lower Quality Score, and a higher cost per click. But Google has announced that within the coming days they will be updating the Quality Score algorithm to take ad position into consideration. This will not only improve the accuracy of Quality Scores, but also ensure that ads compete evenly for position based on their quality and bid.

Moving onto High Quality Ads, Google is also working on the way they determine what ads will be shown in the yellow region above the organic search results. Given the power of those positions Google wants to ensure that the Ads that are being shown are of “High Quality”. They say Ads will have to meet a certain quality threshold to be considered for these positions. Also it is stated that Ads with a high quality can even jump over other ads to be shown in this region. Google says that this will ensure that quality plays an even more important role in which ad is being shown on top.

Now these changes have not yet occurred but you should be prepared for them in the next week or so. Keep an eye on the Adwords Blog as they will be updating when the changes are in effect. So since the quality of your Ad will be even more important than before here are a couple tips to consider.

• Spend some time researching the keywords you are bidding on and see what your competition is doing. If you can make your Ad stand out from the rest you will see a dramatic increase in your CTR and Quality Score. Don’t be afraid to test different types of Ads and see what works best for you. Use “[]” “()” “/” “:” “-“ “©” “™” to further increase the uniqueness of your Ad.

• Another way to stand out from your competition is to test Ad length. You are restricted to 25 characters in your topic and 35 in both description lines. Common practice is to use all characters and give as much information as you can. This is not necessarily a bad thing but if you test a short Ad it will contribute to you standing out from all the other Ads and can increase your CTR.

EDIT: Changes are in effect as of 11/3/2008.

Ad Quality, Adwords, Quality Score