Adwords Broad Match Quality Score
-
** This question is about QS of Broad Match and how it pertains to THE AUCTION ONLY. Not looking for opinions on campaign/ad group structure/strategies.
For an Adwords account where all the ad groups are using modified broad match keywords I see that some keywords are assigned quality score. Obviously a broad match keyword can be triggered by a very wide variety of actual keyword searches. So I assume/guess that Adwords assigns a quality score for every single keyword entered that matches with that broad match and then makes the quality score for the broad match an average of the actual search term used quality score weighted by the volume of searches for that search term?
Or am I wrong and the quality score for a broad match is the exact match quality score for that term (I doubt that since broad match the words can be in any order.)
So for example, let's same I have this broad match score: +auto +insurance
This is going to match with: auto insurance companies, auto insurance prices, luxury auto insurance, auto insurance brokers, and on and on and on.
Let's say my landing page happens to have a lot of content about ratings for auto insurance brokers. If the CTR for that terms is high, when it's matching my modified broad match, does that mean Adwords assigns a higher quality score, internally, to the search term "auto insurance broker" so if that term is entered, for the purpose of the auction, Adwords doesn't use the quality score of the broad match but the quality score it has calculated for that specific search term -- I just can't see what it is because I don't have that term as an exact match term on my account.
Or, does it use the broad match quality score no matter what search term is used that matched the broad match? I would be highly surprised if that was true. If this were true, then you would want to break out the important terms into their own exact match keywords. In many cases, the more efficient strategy for an account is to have fairly narrow modified broad match terms coupled with a very large negative keyword list.
The question is mainly, is there any advantage from the perspective of competing in the auction to have the term be an exact match versus matching a modified broad match keyword? If QS is stored for the actual search term, then I would assume the answer is NO. I know it would provide more granular reporting and the ability to more fine tune landing pages etc etc etc but I'm just talking purely from the perspective of the auction.
-
Fair enough. Sounds like you know your stuff.
Honestly i'm not sure how quality score is calculated from the broad match. I get it's the potential for the match to be a quality one. As you say the more potential matches may create a lower average. So the less strict you are, the lower the average as the is more of a potential for lesser relevant phrases to match.
All i know is a £1.24 click may look close to a £1.48 click but it's 16.2% on top of your cost. So if you don't have a 16.2% increase in ROI you need really think about what is being wasted. A rule that has served me well is: If most of your clicks are from quality scores of 5-7 you are pouring money down the drain, especially if these leads are rarely converting.
All the best.
-
I agree broad match will waste some money especially at the beginning of the campaign but as you examine search terms and build the negative keyword list, you eventually hit 'equilibrium' in that the advantage of catching long-tail keywords you have not thought of through modified broad match equals and eventually outweighs trying to add every long-tail keyword you find in the search terms as an exact (or phrase) match. In my experience, it depends on how competetive the industry is . Of course the account would not start out 100% broad match. You would include the obvious, high-volume exact and phrase match. But in most circumstances, if you place value on your time (which many fail to do), it's more cost effective for me to build a huge negative keyword list over time, then build a huge list of exact match and phrase match keywords for every possible search term you uncover has been used or think will be used.
QS is related to the search term used, not the keyword. Obviously an exact match keyword the search term will be identical. So I'm assuming the QS for a broad match is just an average for all the search terms that matched weighted my impression volume for each term. (I know I'm probably repeating what has already been claimed here or elsewhere.)
I've been around the block too many times to see people advocating very granular account structures which are very time consuming where the increased ROI didn't cover the cost of the extra labor to get so anal about the account structure. This of course is not true in many circumstances for very high cost accounts, but there's always the bias to justify your job.
-
This thread suggests that the quality score you see in the interface is only activated by searches which exactly match your broad match keyword, but that anything which activates your broad match keyword can impact Google's back end calculation of QS.
I initially agreed with Andrew, above, and the thread doesn't make me change my mind. Using a lot of broad match terms will result in lower control over what the ads are showing for, which is likely to reduce relevance and impact QS. This is just compounded by the fact that apparently the interface won't show accurate QS data in this scenario so you don't know how much you're being impacted. I'd lean towards closer matches wherever possible.
I know you said above you're not interested in account structure advice but that seems the most important outcome of this discussion. Do feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!
-
Quality score is to do with how closely you have matched the search term with your keyword, your ad text, and your landing page. It is much easier to get high quality scores with exact match as you are tailoring your ads far more sharply.
A broad match should only be used in a tiered ad campaign.
If you use broad matches as a general option you will waste money. You will easily double your costs or worse. A high quality score ad has a fraction of the click cost. Don't run anything below 9.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Adding AdWords Remarketing Pixel to "Partner" Domains?
I have read through the AdWords advertising policies, but there isn't an extremely clear answer to my question: does it break AdWords policy to include a remarketing pixel on a partner website? Example - I own and run 123boats.com, my acquaintance who owns abchotels.com has agreed to put my remarketing pixel on his website, and I plan to show remarketing ads to his website visitors advertising my services at 123boats.com. Is anyone aware of any documentation that explicitly allows or disallows this type of "partner" remarketing tracking?
Paid Search Marketing | | marymerritt0 -
Impressions - AdWords vs Analytics
Given AdWords is a paid service, you'd hope the figures are accurate. For an example (exact match) keyword last month, AdWords says there were 14,253 impressions on Google search (i.e. not search partners or display network). However, going over to Analytics, for the same month it suggests 4,500 impressions for the same keyword. Google AdWords says the following about impressions: "An impression is counted each time your ad is served on Google's ad networks, such as on Google.com or other publisher websites and apps." "...How often your ad is shown. An impression is counted each time your ad is shown on a search result page or other site on the Google Network." Google Analytics explains impressions as: "The number of times any URL from your site appeared in search results viewed by a user, not including paid AdWords search impressions." Can anyone help clarify what is an accurate way of attaining monthly search figures, i.e. what is my overall potential Google customer base? I've also tried the Keyword Planner - which averages monthly searches - and it gives me 18,100 impressions for the same keyword (almost the two above figures added). Thanks! Rob
Paid Search Marketing | | englebert0 -
Do only paid adwords appear in google shopping
Does anyone know if we have to have a paid addwords campain for our products to appear in google shopping. We have a feed set up for google shopping. We have addwords campaigns running for google. But our products do not seem to appear in google shopping. Any advise on how to get them there?
Paid Search Marketing | | CostumeD0 -
Name of Reliable, Cost Effective Service for Setting Up Adwords??
Could anyone suggest a reasonably priced service for setting up an Adwords campaign? My monthly advertising budget is no more than $2,000 and the objective to target Google Adwords and Yahoo/Bing. There are companies providing this service but they seem to require fees of $750 to $1,000 per month for their services for a six month commitment and a mimimum advertising spend of $5,000 per month. Certain tools like Wordstream are available for around $300 per month, but I am not sure how much value they add, if in fact they facilitate the process. Also, I am not sure if advertising spend is completely wasted unless I create special landing pages just for PPC. My category, commercial real estate in New York City is very competitive with keywords ranging form $5-$15.00 click. I would greatly appreciate some advice regarding PPC. Thanks, Alan
Paid Search Marketing | | Kingalan10 -
Why do some Adwords agencies insist on setting up Adwords in their own account?
I'm an online marketing consultant and I work with a variety of agencies who handle Adwords. I keep running into an issue where agencies want to set up Adwords in a proprietary account for my clients rather than in the client's account and manage it through MCC. I have just run into again and this time the agency claims they are protecting their Adwords "secret sauce" but that the client will still have full access to keywords, negative keywords, Ad copy, etc. It just doesn't pass the sniff test with me. Can anyone tell me if there are some legitimate reasons for an agency to do this other than to simply try to hold data hostage so that clients can't leave them without loss? I am inclined to tell my client they should run away screaming, but thought I would bounce it off you smart people first. Thanks!
Paid Search Marketing | | farlandlee1 -
Google Analytics CPC and PPC not Matching
Hi Why do our CPC in Google Analytic not match our PPC in Adword, surely they should be identical? We have Auto-tagging switched on and data in our history is wrong so it is not a timing issue. Thanks
Paid Search Marketing | | Studio330 -
Redirecting AdWords Display URLs
I feel it's a best practice (from a user experience POV) to create a 301redirect when using a fictitious display URL in your PPC ads. And according to the AdWords help page (http://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=175906&rd=2) Google doesn't have an issue using a redirect. "Redirects used for tracking purposes are fine as long as the final landing page has the same domain as the display URL." I'm curious if there is ad score penalty if one does not ionclude a redirect - i.e. the user types in your display URL and gets a 404. Has anyone seen an evidence of this?
Paid Search Marketing | | legalseo0 -
Running Adwords Campaigns to show Improvement in Organic Traffic
Hi mozers, I have a new client who contacted because his organic traffic dropped all of a sudden from 5000 visits per month to 300 visits per month. I have been reviewing his website profile and there are several reasons that take me to beleave the agency that managed his account until 3 months ago, was doing PPC to show improvement in the orgranic (SEO Service) traffic. 1. The Website was showing traffic for several highly competitive keywords 2. Most of the traffic 95% was driven to the home page with several groups of keywords 3. The website has just a few external links with anchor text not related to keywords sending traffic. Is anyone familiar with this type of practice? Thanks in advanced.
Paid Search Marketing | | SEOPractices0