Five years ago, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising more or less did what it said on the tin: you paid for each click. The principle was the more money you chucked at it, the more clicks you got and the more money you bid for a keyword, the higher placement you achieved. This is no longer the case. Although you still ‘pay per click,’ there is a lot you can do, and should do to optimise your PPC campaign. Google’s primary objective for all search activity, believe it or not, is relevancy for the user, both in the organic and paid search results listings. They need to give the user what they are looking for so they will carry on using Google as their preferred search engine. Google insists upon relevancy being the ethos of its search engine, both paid and organic.
So how does Google determine relevancy in its paid listings? Just how can an automated program understand relevancy? It is well known that the organic listings have an algorithm (a mathematical equation) determining what position a website will get within the organic search engine results pages. It’s less known that Google paid listings also has such an algorithm. This algorithm is mostly made up of the Google AdWords Quality Score of a keyword. Google rewards you for relevancy and optimising your ads and campaigns to be as relevant as possible for the user. It’s not about chucking your money at it any more. Continuous optimisation of your PPC campaign is an absolute must.
Keep it relevant
Technically, the quality score has been around for a while, based primarily on judging relevancy by click-through rate (CTR). The CTR is calculated by dividing the number of clicks on your ad by how many times the ad appeared in the paid listings. This gives Google an indication of whether you are bidding for a relevant keyword or not. Keyword relevancy to the ad itself – for example, repeating the keyword you are bidding for in the ad copy of the paid listings – has also been known to influence how Google judges quality.
Recently, Google has also been putting weight on the quality of the web page that the ad lands on (landing page). This has made PPC advertising more like search engine optimisation than ever.
Now it is not only about how much you bid for a keyword or keyword relevancy to the ad but also the relevancy to the landing page. It will cost you more money ‘per click’ if your ad lands on a page that is not relevant to the keyword you are bidding for, or doesn’t support the creative text of the advert. For example, you shouldn’t have all your ads directing to the homepage as this will affect the relevancy of the campaign and, ultimately, the quality score.
It’s not a case of just creating ads that appeal to the user, there has to be a co-ordinated approach between the keywords, creative text and landing pages to decrease your cost per click (CPC) and ultimately maximise ROI.
How to optimise for the quality score
The key is making sure campaigns are well-structured and ordered so keywords are in ad groups (groups of associated ads and keywords) of the highest relevancy. Having similar keywords collated within separate ad groups is the best starting point. There is no set rule for the number of keywords per ad group and this should be based around relevancy. Keywords that generate large amount of impressions should have their own ad group.
After you complete the grouping, it is important to create the ad creative based on those keywords as well as include the keyword in the ad itself. This will greatly affect the CTR of a keyword and help improve the quality score of the relevant keyword.
Optimising your landing page is the last part of the quality score equation. This, in essence, uses the same techniques as you would for search engine optimisation. Including the main keyword in the title tag, heading and the main content can significantly improve your landing page quality score.
This, tied in with the keyword and ad copy strategy, will maximise the Google Quality score requirements, giving the reward of a lower CPC to maintain the same position or even a higher position within the paid search results.
By optimising your Google AdWords campaign and creating synergy between your PPC and SEO you will achieve an optimum quality score and ultimately pay less money per click. You will also receive a higher ad ranking and improve the profitability and return from your PPC advertising.
