AdWords - What happens when QS=10?

[abbottsys]

Now that the new QS is live I set out to see what happens if you achieve "perfection" of QS = 10/10.

First I had to get a QS of 10. No problem. I picked a 2 word keyphrase, lets call it word1 word2, and then I registered the domain name word1word2.com

So far so good. Next I built a simple 1pp website on the domain, with word1 word2 in the title tag, and a few paragraphs of content text taking all about word1 and word2. No navigation, no ads, no links.

Then I ran an ad on keyword word1 word2 with my new website as the landing page.

So, did Google reward me for being a good guy? They sure did!!!

The QS for my keyword was 10/10. And my "estimated min bid to appear on the first page" was $0.01

First page for a penny. One of the easiest tests I've ever done

[SanDiegoSEO]

Now, don't build any links to that page and watch your QS drop over time.

[abbottsys]

Originally Posted by SanDiegoSEO

Now, don't build any links to that page and watch your QS drop over time.

OK, I'll keep an eye on that and report back. Meanwhile, in addition to the AdWords SEM success, Google just ranked the site #1 in the organics for keyword word1 word2.

[BasicECommerce]

Since when can you view a QS of x/10? My AdWords QS columns still read as 'Good', 'OK', or 'Bad'.

[abbottsys]

Originally Posted by BasicECommerce

Since when can you view a QS of x/10? My AdWords QS columns still read as 'Good', 'OK', or 'Bad'.

The new Quality Score algorithm (which Google is in the process of rolling out to all advertisers) gives QS on a scale of 1 - 10.

[BasicECommerce]

My company is probably not one of the lucky few who gets this upgrade any time soon.

[abbottsys]

Originally Posted by BasicECommerce

My company is probably not one of the lucky few who gets this upgrade any time soon.

It's possible you have it without realizing. Just roll over the Keyword Analysis button next to each keyword and pick Quality Score from the popup window.

[shaneekirk]

Yes. It seems like Google is being quite stingy with the 8-10 ratings! Only my "very old" campaigns have the "great" QS. I'm not sure if I've seen a 9 or 10 though.

[EricChaffey]

Here is a short post on my blog about some mysterious 10/10 quality scores I recently came across on an account I manage.

localripoffs.com/1010-quality-score-mystery

I have a couple campaigns with keywords that have 10/10 scores that make perfect sense, but this is forcing me to rethink what Google considers "relevance".

[KSew]

Abbottsys I am just wondering why are you testing this? Higher the quality score means better position, more clicks and lower cost per click.

Is there anything else you want to know? (Just joking – maybe Google writing you a letter and congratulating on getting a perfect 10, maybe making history of being the first AdWords advertiser to score 10/10, or maybe Larry calling you for lunch!)

Please don’t get me wrong! I know you are a great AdWords tester – but sometimes testing a few things that doesn’t result in any positive outcome is not very productive.

[abbottsys]

Originally Posted by KSew

...Please don’t get me wrong! I know you are a great AdWords tester – but sometimes testing a few things that doesn’t result in any positive outcome is not very productive.

Agreed. But it did result in positive outcomes. My ad rank improved, my CPC dropped, and as a surprise side effect I appeared as #1 in the organics within 48 hours. What more could a poor old tester want

[KSew]

What I meant was that "means to the end" was easy - so you got the result!

For example -

I picked a 2 word keyphrase, lets call it word1 word2, and then I registered the domain name word1word2.com

Here the result was quite obvious, but if you try the same thing in a very competitive niche, probably what you tested and the result would have been very hard to get!

Cheers!

[searchengineman]

QUALITY Score 10. Share your Insights.

I have noticed that words that have achieved a 10 QUALITY Score, seem to have at least 11% CTR - Long term traffic, Another factor I noticed for my examples were the Text ADS contained the word in the text 4 times - On all 3 lines (I found 2 Keywords in the same ADGROUP)

Headline
Description 1
Description 2
Including the URL (Domain), (contains the same word)

This may be a co-incidence but both my Quality Score 10 Ads share this.

I'm hoping some of you can confirm this. Or may notice anything out of the ordinary for Q10 in your own campaigns.

Searchengineman

Originally Posted by abbottsys

Agreed. But it did result in positive outcomes. My ad rank improved, my CPC dropped, and as a surprise side effect I appeared as #1 in the organics within 48 hours. What more could a poor old tester want

[abbottsys]

Originally Posted by searchengineman

QUALITY Score 10. Share your Insights.....Another factor I noticed for my examples were the Text ADS contained the word in the text 4 times - On all 3 lines (I found 2 Keywords in the same ADGROUP)

Headline
Description 1
Description 2
Including the URL (Domain), (contains the same word)

This may be a co-incidence but both my Quality Score 10 Ads share this.

I'm hoping some of you can confirm this. Or may notice anything out of the ordinary for Q10 in your own campaigns.

Searchengineman

I got the QS=10 with 3 mentions of the keyword: headline, description and domain name. All were important, but the domain name one was critical, which of course restricts use of this method to get a QS=10 at will.

[EricChaffey]

I believe everyone is over-thinking how to get 10/10's rather than think about what Google wants to provide: a conversion in 1-2 clicks. With proper testing and monitoring this is fairly easy.

I am currently running a campaign for a client where the majority of the keywords I am using have 10/10's. Any logical keyword I add is also graced with a 10/10 score. It is a fairly small campaign with not a lot of competition; this is more than likely why it is easier to obtain 10's.

One thing I have noticed is the keywords I am running to help name branding that match the sites title, url, ads, etc. have a lower quality score than keywords that cannot be found on the site at all. I have one adgroup that consists of key phrases that do not exsist on the site at all yet are still 10's. In fact, the first word in one of the 3 word phrases I am running is not on the site anywhere and are not being used in any of the ads; ie: awesome blue widgets - awesome is nowhere in the site or ads.

So how can these produce 10's if supposedly there is no relevance? Simple, relevance is no longer being determined by words alone, but how effectively you use those words to create a conversion. It is easy to "cheat" the system by trying to force relevance through site and ad manipulation (This will raise debate). I understand the importance of trying to create a seamless flow from the search box to thank you page, yet I believe the focus should be customer experience rather than ensuring keywords are in the proper place.

View the Quality Scores here: internetadvertisingexperts.com/pages/portfolio.php

Remember, actions speak louder than words!

[abbottsys]

Great. But remember, by the time you get to 3-word phrases pretty much anything is possible. What's the search frequency on your 3-word phrases? Low?

[EricChaffey]

Originally Posted by abbottsys

Great. But remember, by the time you get to 3-word phrases pretty much anything is possible. What's the search frequency on your 3-word phrases? Low?

Low, of course, yet does Google score differently based on volume? If the CTR and conversions are incrementally the same for 100 impressions as 1 million, would Google unfairly fudge the quality score down? This would not make sense.

Now on the other hand, you may assume the number of competitors is low and a high CTR is easily obtainable with almost no competition, I wish this were the case. Yesterday, the exact matched phrase got 20 impressions and as of right now there are 11 competitors bidding for that exact phrase (using the ad preview tool).

With Google penalizing low volume words, shouldn't it be harder to obtain better scores? Many people are not benefiting from the long tail any more as Google wants to maximize profits on impressions. So if I have a low amount of impressions and a high CTR am I being rewarded because my CPM, I assume, is relatively high?

Since it still seems to be a mystery about how to get a 10/10, I just thought I would add my experience and show off a little This may be a truly unique situation due to the niche, but isn't everyone searching for that niche they can maximize profits on

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

[EricChaffey]

Conversions are not taken into account at all - adwordsagency.blogspot.com/2008/12/quality-score-fact-of-day.html

[abbottsys]

Originally Posted by EricChaffey

Conversions are not taken into account at all - adwordsagency.blogspot.com/2008/12/quality-score-fact-of-day.html

Wow! An AdWords Blog with no AdSense Ads
BTW: if you Google adwords agency your blog is #1 in the organics. That's because it satisfies the conditions I mentioned in my first post in this thread.
(Yes, I know the conditions were for QS=10, but I noted they produce great organic ranking as a side benefit.)

[EricChaffey]

Originally Posted by abbottsys

Wow! An AdWords Blog with no AdSense Ads
BTW: if you Google adwords agency your blog is #1 in the organics. That's because it satisfies the conditions I mentioned in my first post in this thread.
(Yes, I know the conditions were for QS=10, but I noted they produce great organic ranking as a side benefit.)

I wish that was my blog, but its an official Google blog. I just though I would link it in seeing as one of my assumptions above was that conversions help quality. My assumption was based on Google setting its own standards for goals rather than trusting an advertiser.

Abbottsys - Are you still running your test? If so, how have the results been so far?