Quality Scores determine the lowest actual CPC (cost per click) that you can pay at any given time for a keyword. It also helps determine how high your ads get ranked on Google. Don’t you think it’s important to understand this concept if your goals are focused on lowering CPC?A Quality Score by Google’s definition is “Quality Score is a dynamic variable assigned to each of your keywords. It’s calculated using a variety of factors and measures how relevant your keyword is to your ad text and to a user’s search query.”In a nutshell, your keywords Quality score helps determine how high your ad gets ranked and also the lowest dollar amount you pay for a click-thru onto your site. These two things are a few of the most important factors surrounding advertiser success on the search engines. It’s probably responsible for the most downfalls because this concept encompasses so many other areas of the campaign.According to Google Adwords help file, here’s how Quality scores are derived:For calculating a keyword’s minimum bid:

• The keyword’s historical click through rate (CTR) on Google; CTR on the Google Network is not considered.
• The relevance of the keyword to the ads in its ad group.
• The quality of your landing page.
• Your account history, which is measured by the CTR of all the ads and keywords in your account.
• Other relevance factors

For calculating a keyword-targeted ad’s position on a search result page:

• The historical CTR of the ad and of the matched keyword on Google; CTR on the Google Network is not considered.
• The relevance of the keyword and ad to the search query.
• Your account history, which is measured by the CTR of all the ads and keywords in your account.
• Other relevance factors

Notice in calculating the QS for minimum bid, the keyword relevancy to landing pages are the third factor. This factor along with keyword relevancy to ad text and account CTR (click through ratio) are the only factors that are shown that we really have any control over. The historical CTR of the keyword on Google can only be controlled by its participation in the campaign all together. So now you are left with:

1. The keyword’s relevancy to the ad text.
2. The keyword’s relevancy to the landing page on your website.
3. The overall CTR of keywords and ads in your whole account.

These are the only three things that we can really do something about today that will help you lower costs tomorrow. Here is what we recommend to start:

1. Group or segment similar keywords in to AdGroups. By sticking them into separate AdGroups with similar ad text, it increases the relevancy between the search query and the ads. Make sure not to stick in an over-abundance of keywords into each unless the majority of them generate substantial CTRs. Having too many underperforming keywords plaque the AdGroup and to some extent, the whole account. I haven’t personally found too much documentation on this phenomenon. However from my own eyes; I’ve seen campaigns suffer because they tossed in a whole lot of non-performing keywords. This inevitably tossed the CTR on the whole account and plagued ad ranking from that day forward. Once the algorithm flagged it, the damage was irreparable and the account had to be recreated from scratch. Stick to only relevant and performing keywords. Keep this criterion close and you can’t go wrong.
2. Play “king of the hill” with ad variations. Advertisers often overlook the quality of their ad text copy because they don’t properly weigh its potential to attract or not attract customers. When you write ad copy, you want to make sure that we are attracting buyers, qualifying buyers, and relating the search query. Segmenting keywords into specialized AdGroups helps to relate the ads to keywords. So you always want to try and include some of the common words from the keyphrases in the actual ad text copy. Secondly, you have to get those CTRs up. By writing compelling ads that attract buyers and qualify them for your products or services, you can get more relevant traffic clicking through to your site and increase your CTR at the same time. Have 2 ad variations running at the same time. If you set the ads to be equally visible, in the ad settings, you can quickly gage after you’ve had some traffic; which one is the better performing ad. This tells you that it’s attracting your customers more often and the underperforming ad should be deleted and a new one should be created. Play “king of the hill” with your ads for as long as it takes you to decide you don’t know how to write more effective ads. And even then try doing it from time to time. Maintaining high CTRs equals maintaining higher quality scores. And that equals better positioning for lower costs.
3. Lastly, point your ads to the most relevant landing page on your website. This will both increase your quality score and make your customers more likely to buy from you. You will know your landing page is the most relevant to your AdGroup when it contains the most readable content about the keywords in that group. Save your site viewers time in having to search for information. Make it readily available to them and they will reward you for it. 

This is the first “real” blog posting to the RSP website. We really wanted to come in with a bang. We know giving you this much information can be very overwhelming, especially if you’re not sure what to do with it. The purpose of this blog is to create awareness and promote search engine adverting in general. The advice is free but we must disclaim, we only offer it as a professional opinion and not fact. The references taken from Google in this posting are directly from the Google Adwords Help file available online. You get see them here: http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=10215 RealSearch Pros certainly looks forward to your feedback and welcome any questions you might have about Google Adwords, Analytics, Yahoo! Search Marketing, or MSN Adcenter.