Hal Varian is the chief economist at Google, and certainly one of the main forces behind the economics of the Adwords Auction AND Quality Score. Google’s had this video available for over a year now, but NOT ONE PERSON I’ve spoken with about their Quality Score concerns had watched it. (Thanks to Rob Sieracki, Chief Operating Officer at RocketClicks.com for pointing this out to me)
In any case, it’s definitely THE starting point for understanding the components of Quality Score, especially the key role Click Through Rates play, and the VERY specific economic impact Quality Score has on bid price. It’s something which EVERY AdWords advertiser should watch. (Especially since it’s under 10 minutes!)
In my humble opinion, Quality Score is all about “Getting them there and keeping them there with relevant content”… which means (mathematically) a high Click Through Rate, a Long Time Spent on the Site, and a Low Bounce Rate. What that means in Plain English, however, is that you simply have to know what your best prospects want, on an adgroup by adgroup level, if not down to the keyword. What’s the best way to do that? Join the hyper-responsive marketing club of course!
According to Jered “The Content Network Exorcist” Klima (who has managed hundreds of thousands of dollars per month), there are nuances of negative site usage and risk management on the Content Network which elude virtually all AdWords users…
Things which Google themselves point out in the depth of their documentation…
Which have dramatic implications for how you manage the content network… it’s a real paradigm shift. Without question, it’s the most valuable thing I’ve learned about Adwords this year, and it’ll only take you 15 minutes to go through.
PS – The thematic shift Jered presents is entirely consistent with the focus of my hyper-responsive club. Essentially, you need to start thinking THEMATICALLY, which requires you to more tightly define what your entire site is about than ever before. In fact, one way of understanding Quality Score is a recognition that if you don’t take the time to clearly outline your exact place in the world of keyword conversations, Google will define it for you!
I’ve thought long and hard about the best way to define your space, then conquer it with focus and determination in Google (both Search and Content) and beyond. This is NOT a technique or a fad, but a set of principles you implement with a step by step over-my-shoulder system.
I’m implementing one last price raise on February 26st, jumping from $77 to $97. So if you’ve been on the fence following me, consider this your limited opportunity to LOCK IN YOUR RATES FOREVER. (Note: I never raise rates on active members ) Beat the $20/mo Price Increase (2/26/10)
Most of the Quality Score chatter online seems focused around dealing with low scores which make playing the game all but impossible.
But what about getting higher scores on keywords which are already performing for you?
What about moving from 6s and 7s to 9s and 10s?
And more importantly, how do you maximize your PROFITABLE IMPRESSIONS on [...]
Here’s a conversation I repeat often which makes my brain hurt!
It goes something like this:
MARKETER: ”I think Google’s become entirely too random and unfair with their Quality Score system, so I’m just going to focus on SEO”
GLENN: “OK, well, where does SEO Traffic come from?”
MARKETER: “Uhm, well, I guess it comes mostly from Google”
GLENN: “So, [...]
Hi Again
Today I’d like to talk about a subtle distinction in marketing strategy which often gets obscured by the ruthless focus on increasing click through and conversion. Surprisingly, we might not always want these metrics to be as high as humanly possible.
It all comes back to what we’re trying to accomplish in our [...]
OK, well, the year is rapidly drawing to a close, so let me leave you with several additional quick adwords tips to save you money in 2010 (Thanks VERY much to Jerrold Burke, Jered Klima, Dan Zuzanski, Laureen Hoeft, Rob Sieracki, and all the rest of the Rocket Clicks PPC team for helping me compile [...]
I know it’s been a rough year for a lot of you financially.
One of the easiest places to find money is still, believe it or not, in your AdWords account.
So I thought I’d end the year with a list of 8 unusual things never to do in AdWords, one per day.
Watch the blog, work the [...]
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