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arnold on Aug 27, 2024
In Google Ads, a well-structured account is essential for achieving a high-quality score. Quality score is a metric used by Google to assess the relevance and effectiveness of your ads, keywords, and landing pages. It plays a critical role in determining both your ad’s position and the cost-per-click (CPC). The higher your quality score, the better your ad performance and the lower your advertising costs.
The reason quality score is so important to Google is that Google has a vested interest in maintaining a high quality of search results, both organic and paid, to protect its dominant market share. In 2023, Google generated $237.85 billion from advertising, representing over 77% of its total revenue, and it facilitated over 91% of global search queries. With this level of dominance, Google must ensure that users consistently receive relevant and valuable results; otherwise, the platform risks losing market share to competitors.
For instance, if advertisers could easily serve ads for unrelated keywords—such as a hardware store trying to place ads for “painters in Fort Collins” to sell paint cans instead of promoting actual painting services—this would lead to a poor user experience. Users searching for specific services would encounter irrelevant ads, which would diminish trust in Google’s ability to deliver accurate results. Over time, if users find the search results unhelpful, they may switch to alternative search engines, threatening Google’s market dominance. Thus, quality score is the primary tool Google uses to maintain the relevance and accuracy of search results, ensuring that users find what they’re looking for and advertisers reach their intended audience effectively.
How Google Uses Quality Score in the Auction
Google uses quality score as a key factor in its ad auction process. When a user enters a search query, Google runs an auction to determine which ads will be displayed and in what order. The quality score influences both your ad rank (where your ad appears on the page) and the cost you pay per click.
Imagine three different companies—Company A, Company B, and Company C—are all bidding on the keyword “painters near me.” Here’s how their bids and quality scores might look:
Company A: Bids $4.00 with a quality score of 9
Company B: Bids $6.00 with a quality score of 6
Company C: Bids $5.00 with a quality score of 7
Google uses both the bid amount and the quality score to determine the Ad Rank, which is calculated by multiplying the bid by the quality score. The Ad Rank determines where the ad will appear on the search results page.
Let’s calculate the Ad Rank for each company:
Company A: $4.00 bid × 9 quality score = 36 Ad Rank
Company B: $6.00 bid × 6 quality score = 36 Ad Rank
Company C: $5.00 bid × 7 quality score = 35 Ad Rank
In this scenario, Company A and Company B have the same Ad Rank of 36, even though Company A has a lower bid. Because of its higher quality score, Company A’s ad could potentially rank higher or be placed in a better position for the same cost as Company B’s higher bid. Meanwhile, Company C, despite bidding more than Company A, has a lower Ad Rank of 35 due to its lower quality score, meaning its ad might be ranked lower than both Company A and Company B.
This example demonstrates how a lower bid with a higher quality score can help a company achieve better ad placement and potentially lower costs compared to competitors with higher bids but lower quality scores.
The benefit of a high-quality score is clear: lower costs and better ad placements, which lead to more clicks and potentially more conversions. However, the disadvantage of a low-quality score is equally significant: you may end up paying more for fewer results, making your campaigns less efficient and more expensive. Therefore, investing in a well-structured account and focusing on improving your quality score is not just a best practice but a necessity for successful Google Ads campaigns.
Why Account Structure Matters
At its core, account structure in Google Ads involves organizing your campaigns and ad groups in a way that aligns with your business goals and ensures high relevance between search queries, ads, and landing pages. A well-organized account structure makes it easier for Google to deliver the most relevant ads to users, which directly impacts your quality score.
A Google Ads account is divided into three main components:
Account: The overarching entity that contains all your campaigns and ad groups. It includes your billing information and user access settings.
Campaigns: These dictate where and how your ads will appear, including budget allocation and geographic targeting. Each campaign should focus on a specific goal or product category.
Ad Groups: These are subsets of campaigns that contain related keywords, ads, and landing pages. Each ad group should focus on a single theme or keyword to maximize relevance.
The Role of Campaigns
Campaigns are the second tier of your account structure and control critical settings like budget, location targeting, and bidding strategy. A campaign should be organized around specific themes or goals. For example, if you’re running ads for a painting business, you might create separate campaigns for different services like “Residential Painting” and “Commercial Painting.” Within each campaign, you’ll target specific geographic areas where your services are offered.
Geo-targeting is a crucial setting at the campaign level. It ensures your ads are shown to users in the areas most relevant to your business. For instance, if you’re advertising in Fort Collins, you can set your campaign to only display ads to users within a certain radius of that area. This level of precision helps ensure your ads are only shown to potential customers, increasing the chances of clicks and conversions.
The Importance of Ad Groups
Ad groups are where the real magic happens in terms of quality score. Each ad group should focus on a single keyword or closely related set of keywords. This allows you to create highly relevant ads and landing pages that are directly tied to the search queries users are entering. The more relevant your ad and landing page are to the keyword, the higher your quality score will be.
For example, if you have an ad group focused on “Epoxy Floor Coatings,” all the keywords in that group should be related to epoxy flooring. The ads should mention epoxy flooring in their headlines and descriptions, and the landing page should provide detailed information about epoxy floor coatings. This consistency signals to Google that your ad is highly relevant, which boosts your quality score.
The Dangers of a Poorly Structured Ad Group
A poorly structured ad group, where multiple unrelated keywords are thrown together, can significantly harm your ad’s performance. For example, imagine you’re running an ad group that includes keywords like “epoxy floor coatings,” “concrete staining,” and “garage floor repair.” While all these keywords are related to home improvement, they cater to different user intents. As a result, your ads might end up being too generic, trying to cover all these topics in just a few lines.
This shotgun approach makes it challenging to create an ad that’s highly relevant to any one of those keywords. Your ad might vaguely mention “floor services” but won’t specifically address the unique needs of someone searching for “epoxy floor coatings.” This lack of specificity confuses both the user and Google’s algorithms, leading to a lower quality score. Furthermore, if a user clicks on the ad and lands on a homepage that doesn’t directly match their search intent—such as looking for epoxy floor coatings but landing on a page about general floor repairs—they are likely to bounce, further driving down your ad’s effectiveness and increasing costs.
The Power of a Well-Structured Ad Group
On the other hand, a well-structured ad group is the opposite of the shotgun approach. It’s precise, focused, and designed to target specific user intent. When you create ad groups that revolve around a single keyword or a closely related set of keywords, you can craft highly relevant ads and landing pages that speak directly to what the user is searching for. This kind of precision not only improves your quality score but also enhances the overall user experience, leading to better engagement and higher conversion rates.
For businesses looking to achieve the highest possible quality scores, using Single Keyword Ad Groups (SKAGs) is a proven strategy. SKAGs involve creating an ad group for a single keyword, ensuring that the ad copy and landing page are laser-focused on that keyword. This level of specificity can significantly improve your quality score, leading to better ad placement and lower costs.
Conclusion
Achieving a high-quality score in Google Ads is all about relevance. A well-structured account, with clearly defined campaigns and tightly themed ad groups, ensures that your ads are shown to the right people at the right time. This not only improves your quality score but also maximizes your return on investment by reducing wasted ad spend and improving your ad performance. By taking the time to properly structure your Google Ads account, you set the foundation for a successful advertising campaign that delivers results.
