This work by Matt LeVeque is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Nov
3
The True Quality of a Paid Search Ad Creative
November 3, 2008 |
LAST MONTH CRAIG Danuloff wrote an interesting post about how search engines answer questions. The post is part of a series that provides ‘a framework for understanding and managing paid search advertising’. The premise of this post is that ‘each time someone executes a search, they’re asking a question’ and that paid search campaigns are designed to be the ‘professional answer provider’. This post is one in a series of posts that provide insights and discussion points regarding Google AdWords Quality Score.
The semi-elusive and ever changing Quality Score is very complex which makes answering questions via paid search ads somewhat difficult. There are rewards for having a highly organized and relevant flow between campaigns>ad groups>keywords>landing pages, etc. The general idea is that the better organized you are, or the better you answer the user’s query with this string of components, the less it will cost you per click. Having a disorganized, irrelevant campaign structure will increase your cpc’s and decrease the chances of answering the user’s query. There are other formulae and secret recipes involved but that is the basic idea of Quality Score.
From a true Quality perspective, however, the complexities themselves become irrelevant because Quality Score does not factor in the human reaction to ‘I know it when I see it’. You can have all your keywords and ad creatives and landing pages all lined up, t’s crossed, i’s dotted and URLs tagged, following Google Quality Score guidelines and industry best practices but it comes down to answering one simple question - did the user find what they were looking for? If the user clicks on your ad and does not find what they are looking for, to the user, the ad did not answer their question and therefore lacks true quality. Put another way, you should ask yourself did the ad creative message provide the user with what the s/he expected it to provide? Did it go the right landing page? Was the content right? Was the item in stock? Was it the right coler, size, shape? If the answer is ‘yes’ - if the user converted - then the ad is a quality ad, if ‘no’ then it is not. Plain and simple.
Statistically one could argue that this lack of true quality is captured in low conversion rates. If a user clicks on the ad creative and does not perform the desired action, the failed conversion should be 
viewed as voice of the customer (VOC) data. This customer (dis)satisfaction feedback cannot be ignored and since the industry conversion rate average is 2-5% it would seem as though there are a lot of unhappy customers clicking on paid search ads.
So keep in mind that even though you think you may have a GI JOE Kung-Fu grip on Google Quality Score, it is not enough if your customers don’t see the quality in what it is you offer. Google can give you a numeric score or tell you to bid higher so that you ads appear on the 1st page (even though your average position is 2.3…), but only your customers can give you a true quality score and the feedback you need to listen to when you fail to meet their needs.
Related Resources
Online Marketing Quality: I Know It When I See It
I Know It When I See It: A Modern Fable About Quality
Adventures of PPC Hero Google AdWords Quality Score Archive
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