Earlier this month Google implemented changes to the mysterious “Quality Score”. To briefly summarize the changes, Google states that they have incorporated three main improvements:

1)     Quality Score is now more accurate because it is calculated at the
time of each search query.

Real time evaluation is an excellent way to keep PPC ads that are highly relevant in top positions. For us advertisers this means that quality is more important than ever. This improvement will help those whose who are following the quality rules, but hurt those who already have a low quality score. 

2)     Keywords are no longer marked ‘inactive for search’ — all keywords
are active because they are evaluated for every relevant query.

Google is giving a chance to those low performing keywords. You may have a keyword that is has not been clicked on in a month because it is irrelevant, Now instead of blocking that keyword, Google will still allow your ad to run, and wait until someone’s search is relevant to your product or service.

3)     ‘First page bid estimates’ replace ‘minimum bids’ in your account –
providing a more actionable and useful metric to advertisers.

It is pretty obvious that ads that show on the first page receive more traffic, and this is a convenient function for us advertisers who want to know how much it costs to be on the first page.

One other change that I have found particularly nice is the addition of the numerical rating system for quality score. Instead of ranking a keyword as “ok” Google now gives a 6/10 rating which is easy understand. They also include a “Details and recommendations” that gives us hints to what we are doing wrong.

As Google continues to make changes in Adwords, it is good to remember that the basic measurements of quality score remain the same. No matter how quickly quality score is calculated, or how fancy the Analysis graphic becomes, don’t forget your quality score is still based on the following:

·         Keyword CTR

·         Ad text relevance

·         Historical keyword performance

·         Landing pages

·         Website Relevancy

Quality Score