subject: Ignoring Quality Score Can Increase Revenue [print this page] From the moment Google announced it was implementing a quality-control measure it called Quality Score, the pay-per-click (PPC) world has been abuzz. You can find countless articles online about how to improve your Quality Score in order to save money and reduce your overall PPC spend. But what most people haven't considered is that there's much to be said for ignoring Quality Score.
One of the primary factors with Quality Score as a whole is the keywords quality score. Google checks the relevance between the keywords you've selected for your campaigns and the ads you're running. In addition, they measure your clickthrough rate (CTR). Basically, the higher the CTR, the higher your Quality Score, provided relevancy is evident.
But here's the thing. Weeding out irrelevant clicks by tightening your PPC copy can help bring in more qualified site visitors. I'll show you what I mean.
Highly Targeted vs. Untargeted Ads
Let's say, for the sake of example, you sell office furniture. In order to raise your Quality Score, you've created PPC ad copy that gets a lot of clicks. Your most popular ad reads:
Quality Office Furniture
Huge selection of brands & styles.
Recep. areas, offices & conf rooms.
Very general. This add just screams, "Hey anybody and everybody come click me!" And it works, too. With your current account settings, you're averaging about 1,000 clicks a month for which you are paying $500. Your conversion rate on this PPC campaign is .05%. In our theoretical example, that half of one percent equals $5,000. (I'm using a pretend average sale of $1,000.) That means your net profit would be $4,500. (Sales minus PPC ad expense.)
Being the savvy marketer you are, you've noticed that you get a lot of bounces. After conducting an exit survey of your site visitors, you've come to realize that most people who clicked your PPC ad didn't realize you were a high-end office furniture store.
You don't deal with the assembly required stuff. No the furniture you offer is only the best featuring solid wood desks, genuine leather chairs, exceptional quality upholstered sofas and upper-end brands. Most of those who've clicked to your landing page take one look, gasp at the price and leave!
That's costing you money. With the meter running, you're shooting your Quality Score up to an 8, but it's costing you $ .50 per click multiplied by 1,000 every month. Here's an idea. What if you changed your ad to better reflect what you offer? What if you actually worked to eliminate unqualified clicks by using some filtering-type language in your PPC copy?
Weeding Out Unqualified Clicks
Here's the new ad:
High-End Office Furniture
Distinctive styles. Top brands w/
solid wood, genuine leather & more.
Immediately you see your CTR plummet. Holding your breath, you check your Quality Score. Sure enough, it has dropped from 8 to 4. You give it a month before checking figures. Amazingly, here's what you find.
Instead of 1,000 clicks a month, you've gotten 635. Instead of paying $ .50 per click, you've paid $.75 per click for a total of $476.25. However, you've also noticed something else that's rather shocking: your conversion rate has shot up.
Instead of .05%, your overall campaign is converting at 4%. That means you're now making $39,523.75 in net profits. Hmm $4,500 with a Quality Score of 8 and a CPC of $.50 or $39,523.75 with a Quality Score of 4 and a CPC of $.75. Gee I wonder which one you'd rather have .
A Universal Law?
Does this work for every company on every campaign? No. You will need to test this just like you need to test every other element of your SEO and PPC campaigns. However, more times than not, you'll find highly targeted PPC copy that ignores the Quality Score gives you more in overall profits than general ads that appeal to the masses. Test your PPC copy and see how much more you could be making.
