Recently some of the Whiteclick team visited Google's Sydney office for the 'Engage for Agencies' event. A number of topics were covered however, one stood out as something clients always ask about and don't always fully understand, namely the Google AdWords Quality Score.

AdWords Quality Score is a major factor in the AdRank equation i.e. where your ad appears in the SERPS and therefore it is really important to understand exactly how it works:

AdRank (AdWords Page Position) = Bid x Quality Score

Here're 7 Quality Score facts to help you understand how it works:

1). The most important factor in calculating Quality Score is a keyword's Click Through Rate (CTR). This is closely followed in 2^nd place by keyword relevancy - if the Keyword you are bidding on matches your ad text and the searcher's query.

2). Every keyword is awarded an individual Quality Score - this can be viewed by selecting the QS option in the 'columns' menu in the UI of Google AdWords. Quality Score also has an effect (to a lesser degree) on the overall AdWords account - it is not however possible to check this.

3). Quality Score does not have an impact at ad group level.

4). Quality Score on Google.com is completely independent from your Display Network Quality Score. This means that your low CTR Display campaigns will not reduce the performance of your Google.com campaigns.

5). The Quality Score number that you see in the Google AdWords UI is not an average of Google.com and Google Search Partner Quality Score. Like the Display Network it is separate. If you have a high CTR & Quality Score for one particular Search Partner, the other poor performing Partners will not bring down the overall Search Partner Quality Score - each Search Partner is independent.

6). Bidding more to get a higher click-through-rate when you start a campaign will NOT help you get a higher Quality Score from day one. You are given the across the board average Quality Score when your campaign begins. CTRs are then normalised for each page position - this creates a level playing field for everyone and reduces the opportunities for advertisers with bigger budgets to cheat the system.

7). Adding keywords to each match type - Broad, "Phrase" & [Exact] match - will not create a higher Quality Score for the Keywords due to the higher CTR of some of the match types. All you are doing is creating more work for yourself.

Having a good understanding of Quality Score is critical to ensure your AdWords campaign is successful by reducing the amount you pay Google for clicks. Once you get beyond the basics it can be quite complex but working with a Google Certified Partner to build and manage AdWords campaigns for you will take the difficulty out of the equation.