Quality score is officially determined by the relevancy of your keywords to your ads, your landing page, and your click-through rate of the ads. When speaking with Google representatives on the phone and at conferences, they always say that the click-through rate is only a small part of the quality score formula. Not only that, but there has been much industry speculation on the element of keyword relevancy in quality score. Many say that using a keyword in the headline of your ad text will only help your quality score before it has a chance to perform in the market. I have used landing pages that are uncrawl-able by search engine spiders and had great quality scores on all the keywords I am using. So where is the truth in all of this experience? What really determines what your quality score will be?

To better understand the illusive quality score, one would have to get into the mind of who created it. Google, as a business, is first and foremost interested in making money. The good thing about that is the way they make money actually provides a quality service to their consumers (a novel approach many businesses could learn from). So it’s as easy as this- provide a superior product and enjoy success. In the search engine business, bringing the most relevant results to the searcher is the Holy Grail. But how could Google possibly remain omniscient in an ever growing market? They don’t hire thousands of college students to manually look through every landing page. They use leading indicators like click-through rate and keywords being mentioned in the ad text. Think about it; would you want to keep products in your store that never sell? That would be a waste of space. The same goes for Google and their first couple pages of search results. Theoretically the more someone clicks on an ad, the more relevant that ad is to the average searcher’s life. Google gets to provide the most relevant search result (sponsored and natural) which continues to broaden their market share and perpetuate success.

Sound good till now? Here is the flaw in the current quality score model. Click-through rate is not the Holy Grail to the advertiser. After all, we are the ones paying the bills. We could care less if our click-through rate is terrible; we only care about the conversion rate. Since we have to pay for every click, we don’t want just anyone to enter our website. In a perfect world we would have ten clicks with ten conversions.

Let’s take the high-end web design firm, for example.

One of our clients designs and develops high-end websites starting at about $50K. They drive a lot of their business through paid search listings. The majority of their competitors in the sponsored listings are firms who sell cookie cutter templates for websites. Their prices are hovering around $500 for a website. We use negative keywords like affordable and template to try and weed out people looking for a cheap website. Unfortunately, most people don’t enter anything more specific than “website design.” Most people are not market-minded enough to conveniently pre-qualify themselves with search queries like “high end web development” or “professional custom web design.” Unfortunately, both the mind of a CEO of a national company and a small struggling business works the same when searching the internet. Each one of them will enter “web design.”

What we are left with is the flaw in the quality score model; it falls short when advertisers try to qualify the visitor in the ad text. If I qualify someone in the ad text “Professional High End Websites” instead of using a CTR booster like “$500 fully custom website,” I will have a much lower CTR (which is what I want at $7-$13 per click) because the fact is true there are much fewer executives searching the internet than mom and pops with shoe string budgets. When those executives finally see our ads, they are much more compelled to click than the spam-like $500 website offer. We are offering the right people a service. The problem is that we are using Google’s shelf space for the people who are searching for cheesy websites as well. If the CEO knew that they were looking for a “high end professionally designed website” then the quality score model would be virtually flawless. In the mean time, we get a less than perfect quality score for doing what we are supposed to.

So what does this mean for your business?

Weigh out the pros and cons. You will be paying more for each click, but you will be paying for fewer clicks. Do a month to month analysis. We did, and found that paying more per click (using a class qualifier in the ad text) was much more worth it in terms of bottom line.

So how big a role does CTR really play? Well in the case of the premier website design firm, CTR was king. We grouped their keywords ultra tightly in ad groups with highly relevant ad text and still received an “ok” if not sometimes “poor” quality score. In addition, we used highly relevant, highly crawl-able landing pages that all mentioned relevant keywords. All of the elements of quality score were in line but CTR and the quality score was severely affected.

We ran an experiment to see if taking out the qualifier in the ad text could up the CTR and lower the CPC enough to offset for the undoubted drop in conversion rate. Over the next month the quality of leads dramatically dropped and our client pleaded for us to change things back to the way they were with the qualifier in the ad text. In this case, quality score is not doing a service to the advertiser; only Google.

Dear Yahoo,

I really want to work with you but when you make it hard for me to efficiently and effectively provide top quality service to my clients, it makes me reluctant. Here are the things that where on my wish list this year that would have really helped, but now just make me want to bite my sister and not be a good PPCer this next year:

1. AdWords editor equivalent: Yahoo still seems to hold out on me here, when in reality I would visit Yahoo much more often if they made it easy for me to access as Google. Yahoo is much like the extended family who lives so far away from me and wonders why I never visit.
2. Ad scheduling: Why is Yahoo taking away from me? Have I been a bad PPC boy? It is ridiculous that Yahoo had the technology to show ads during select times and now has lost that ability. I would have a serious problem with a car company who “does not currently offer a car with automatic transmission” when it is by no means a new technology.
3. Volume: Though it varies per industry, I can say that in most cases yahoo can only provide about one fifth to one tenth the amount of traffic that Google can. Is this not like the distant aunt who gives a $10 gift card to Target expecting you to drive for eight hours to see her on Christmas?
4. My Client Center: Being in an agency, I see quite a few clients. Since the nature of an agency is that clients come and go, we need an easy (not messy) way to bring new clients in and wish them goodbye if they ever want to leave (All while maintaining an omniscient and omnipotent vantage point).
5. Backup credit card system: When a credit card goes down, yahoo doesn’t even let you have a contingency plan. It’s like my aunt refusing to stock the refrigerator with a honey baked ham in case uncle burns the Christmas turkey. Because of her stubbornness we have a lot of unhappy family members. This might be the reason we don’t like to go to her house in the first place.

So what are we left with? Yahoo is plain and simple, hard to work with. In addition, yahoo provides a whole lot less traffic to our clients. The five things that I wanted for Christmas are still not here. Maybe next year, Yahoo.

Last week it was reported that Google was testing scrolling Adsense ads on a few selected sites.

Today we found one in action on http://www.freightbrokering.info/ and decided to take a screen cast.

It was a little boring, so we added some audio. Sorry that the quality is a poor, but you can get the idea.

Enjoy!

Paid search is a lot like dating. Think of each individual keyword as a type of girl. And just like dating in real life, you have to play the field and find the strongest matches possible (keeping in mind that this analogy is for dating, not necessarily a monogamous relationship). There are a few points of advice that I would give in both worlds: be yourself, be honest, and you might just find your match. Otherwise, you end up being that guy in the bar that never takes his beer goggles off (never optimizing your PPC campaign). You can pretend all you want, but eventually you will realize that the one night stand (someone who visits your site once and leaves without performing the goal action) never pays off.
With that in mind, there are a few things that all of these keywords/girls have in common:

1. They all think that they are the most attractive girl in the room. They almost always have at least a handful of guys hitting on them at the same time. You won’t usually get a chance to give them your pickup line (Text Ad) all alone, so it better be impressive. Only a few years ago, an advertiser in Google or Yahoo! had little or no competition for most keywords.
2. Years ago, there were a bunch of girls at the bar and only a few guys. As web-sales grow at an exponential rate, however, so does advertiser competition. Now, the proportion of girls to guys in the room has changed. One might call it a sausage fest. It is more important than ever to bring your “A Game” to the bar.
3. They all have better things to do than hear your lines. These girls are very busy, and are looking to find a match as quickly as possible. They have lives just like the rest of us, and probably don’t want to hang out at all night every night. When someone goes online to search for a product or service, they are typically doing it on their lunch hour, or even right before they go to bed. They are only going to give your text ad a glance at best.

The steps taken to find the right girl are like finding the right keyword; it takes time. But here is some advice Uncle Alex:

You have to play the field to find your type: Be open minded; what you think is your type might not actually be your type, and vise versa. Until you find the one that you have a lot in common with, you never know what your perfect fit might be. In the world of PPC, you must start with a diverse list of keywords and do some testing before you can properly shave back the campaign. Then let the market data dictate your next move.

Your text ad is your pick up line: You should never use the same pickup line on girls, so why have the same text ad for all your keywords? You have to do some testing to find the magic words. Keep in mind that each keyword is essentially its own market (or type of girl). Also remember the magic rules, be honest and be yourself. If I was at a sports bar with a soccer game on TV, I might mention that I used to play soccer in middle school. That was a long time ago, though, so I definitely would not mention that to every girl I meet at every bar. At the same time, if I was at a sports bar but I hated sports, I should probably find another bar to go to. So, I would suggest not bidding on those inappropriate keywords in the first place.

Try a few different pick up lines:

Can you guess which one is going to work more times than not?

“Awwww, I bet you say that to all the girls” The number one rule in ad text creation is so make her feel like you’re talking to her and only her. So, make your copy as relevant as possible.

Your pickup line will be evaluated by meeting the parents: Google and Yahoo! are like the girl’s parents – they will judge the quality of your character before you ever get a chance to give her your best pickup line. That’s right, they are going to judge your intent based on whether you mention something relevant to their daughter. Google and Yahoo! give you a quality score based on what text ad you group to each keyword. They are going to make it very expensive to get keywords that you don’t really have business in bidding on. On the other hand, they are going to give you a competitive price and position advantage if you have a really relevant text ad for each group of keywords, just like a girl’s parents can give you an advantage if they like you.

Guess What? Dates aren’t free! If a girl listens to your pickup line and decides to go on a date with you, you’re picking up the check. In the world of PPC, each click costs money! The funny thing is that some of my clients pay as much per click as they would for a real-life first date. You obviously don’t want to take everyone you have ever met on a date; you would go broke in a second. Even more specifically, you don’t want to take every girl at the sports bar out on a date, either.

Make sure your pickup isn’t attracting the wrong crowd: Ever heard the phrase, “I just attract all the crazies?” Well, the same goes for the world of PPC. Don’t claim you’re a doctor unless you are one. If you sell expensive vases, don’t put the word “cheap” in your ad text. You are breaking the rules of being honest and being yourself; and you will pay dearly for it by attracting the wrong girls/visitors.

Your landing page is the first date: So you got her there; all of those pickup lines/text ads impressed her. Now what? If you promised her flowers, you had better have them sitting at eye level when she first walks into the room. Otherwise, you will have wasted the money on the date/click. The relationship between the pickup line and the date should be as simple as this: Make a simple promise (in the pickup line) and keep it (on the first date). You can’t tell her your life story in a pickup line, though, and you don’t have to tell her too much on the first date, either.

Here’s where the listening comes in: If you are a girl reading this article, you might have been thinking that I was perhaps missing the most important part of dating - listening. It also happens to be one of the most important parts of paid search. Ever heard of Google analytics? Once you have spent the money to take a girl out on a date, you had better take the time to listen to her and learn from the date. The same goes with Pay Per Click; track the performance of keywords, ad texts, and everything else you could possibly think of (trade secrets).

Don’t be that guy: You know the old, fat, bald guy at the end of the bar who still talks about his days in college. Once you’ve matured, stop acting like the juvenile. Learn from your mistakes and don’t keep going after the girls that you already know are not a good fit. Once you get a big enough chunk of data in paid search, its time to optimize your account. Stop even wasting your time spitting game on the girls who just aren’t right for you.

Some girls just aren’t right for you: No matter how attractive she is, time and time again, she proves to be a heart breaker. I help a lot of my clients cope with this situation based on some of their beloved keywords. Some business owners couldn’t conceive of not bidding on a keyword that they think is the lifeblood of their business. My advice is always the same - let the data speak for itself. You can chase a girl till the end of time, but if it’s not going to work, she will bleed you dry (and bleed your PPC budget).

So, when it all comes down to it, this is both a lesson in dating and in Paid Search. I find myself wondering if my dating experience is influencing my paid search tactics or visa versa. Either way, I feel that honesty is a great approach to just about every thing we do in life. Unfortunately, businesses often optimize their paid search campaigns about as often as your (five times divorced) uncle Larry optimizes his dating approach. Stay tuned and I’ll try and build out this analogy even more!

I remember years ago, a check box in the content network was a good sign that an Adwords advertiser was a novice. You would simply be throwing away precious budget resources relying on this advertiser, because there was absolutely no accountability on Google’s end as to where your money was going. An advertiser could not see what sites their ad showed up on, and they couldn’t block individual sites from being part of their marketing efforts. This caused a huge deficiency in the ability to optimize. It was an all-or-nothing shot at a huge part of Google’s available services. And for professional advertisers, the decision was nothing. When we would take control of a new account we would almost always opt out of the content network altogether. We saw the content network as a fool’s bet. This has all changed, however, and I can strongly speculate why.

Google’s content network is the largest network of its kind. All the website owners who have opted into Adsense make up the content network. Because of the past lack of transparency, Google has strong competitors in this particular field. There have been a handful of networks that have had the competitive opportunity to sprout up over the years, including Adbrite, Adsonar, advertising.com, and Bidvertiser. These sites provide an affordable alternative to Google’s content network. These networks are essentially offering the control, accountability, and transparency that the content network never offered before. Adwords is now making their content network more accountable than it used to be. This is probably because they were losing their market share to these other ad networks.

Google is taking a cue from Yahoo! to fix the obvious price differences between the content network and the competing networks. They offer a CPC discount on sites that have a lower aggregated conversion rate. Based on their conversion information, a site with a bad conversion reputation will receive a discounted CPC.

It isn’t perfect yet, but Google now provides a round about way to drill down on the content network. You would run a placement report to see the conversion value of each site on the content network and then use the site exclusion tool to block that site from the content network in the future.

Expect to see further improvements on Google’s end for accountability, transparency, and optimization of the content network. I can further speculate that the reason behind this is to put the other guys out of business. As always, regardless of the political or competitive implications, Google’s improvements increase ROI for the advertiser, and enhance the user experience for people who search the Internet.

Google is a firm believer in testing multiple ad texts. But this tactic has been suggested ad nauseam. They suggest that the more you test, the better click-through rate you will ultimately achieve. In addition, they have been working on encouraging people to increase their list of keywords that they bid on. This is done through a link that the user can see at the keyword level. Adwords advertisers are quite familiar with this tool. It gives the advertiser ideas on new keywords to bid on. This is advantageous for both Google and the consumer. Google gets their average cost per click to inflate by encouraging more people to bid on less obvious keywords. The consumer benefits because they are served with relevant ads for much more terms that they might actually search for. Google helps the advertiser anticipate the consumer’s needs.

Going back to Click Through Rate (CTR) and testing different ad texts, Google has been recently trying five different texts to lead the advertiser to this keyword tool. The various ad texts are “More keywords, keyword tool, keyword helper, keyword generator, and keyword ideas.” Google is clearly practicing what they preach.