Hal Varian – Quality Score and The Google Ad Auction

by admin on 12:40 pm

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!

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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }

John Soares 04.01.10 at 6:23 am

Glenn, thanks for this video and all the other great info you share about PPC marketing.

I’m gearing up to start my first PPC campaigns soon, and I want to be careful to do it correctly. It’s obvious one can bleed a lot of money quickly with few results if not following the proper procedures.

Ken Pendergrass 04.09.10 at 10:49 am

I was listening to Ken McCarthy interview Rob when he brought this up. Right after the interview and I went and viewed the video, Twice! Wow! And of course, I am in the Hyper Responsive Course! Wow again! What I have learned in past five weeks alone is eye opening!
Thank You Glen!
KP

Thia Hamilton 04.28.10 at 6:58 am

Great contribution, Glenn. Thanks for sharing. There is as much art as science in learning the intricacies of Google Adwords and PPC. I am fortunate to be part of a great Internet marketing learning community that is following all of this closely. One of those folks shared this and I’ll keep it moving too.

Best…

Shei 04.29.10 at 12:37 am

any serious adwords player needs to watch this! i have watched it twice myself and i think i need to rewatch regularly to remind myself…thanks for sharing this Dr!!

Susan 05.01.10 at 11:08 am

I saw this video quite a while ago & it is very. Thank you for sharing it again.

Chris 06.11.10 at 10:23 am

Great video. Makes it very clear. Thank you.

A high CTR, a long time spent on the site, and a low bounce rate make perfect sense…. I\’m curious, does anyone know any benchmarks for these? for example, what is typical for most that don\’t do the research vs. what is considered good and lastly what is considered elite

admin 06.11.10 at 11:02 am

Chris – it’s measured in the context of the competitiveness and performance of a particular keyword, overall, in Google’s system. So it’s unfortunately not possible to quote a specific benchmark for any of the above. (This notwithstanding, I find people are infrequently penalized when their CTR is above 2%, their time on site is 1 min+, and their bounce rate is under 75%.)

Aman 10.16.11 at 12:29 am

Anyone know why the video is now private dammed, did anyone get a chance to download the video before it went private?

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