When it comes to SEO and PPC and how they are affected by the Google Quality Score there are a number of factors at play but in short the better your Google Quality Score the better your ‘search engine optimisation’ effects will be and the cheaper your cost per click for your PPC Adwords campaign will be.
Many people are led to believe that the two marketing disciplines in SEO and PPC are at odds with one another, but the principles of how they are scored by Google (and the Google Quality Score) are similar in terms of quality and relevance and a good online marketing strategy should consider both SEO and PPC, especially in the early days of a new website, whilst the search results are lagging behind the work being put into the SEO side of the marketing equation.
Different Sides of the Same Coin
Search engine optimisation and pay per click marketing (SEO and PPC) are both tools to drive targeted visitors to your website and yet whilst many people are led to believe that one or the other should be employed, the work that goes into SEO can benefit your PPC campaign greatly.
Keyword Relevance
The principle of keyword relevance is applicable to both SEO and PPC and as any good practitioner of either discipline will tell you, the more relevance your site has, the better it performs in the search results, (i.e. SEO) and the cheaper your PPC campaign will be, resulting in a more efficient campaign.
Cost Per Click Explained (from Google)
“We combine the components of Quality Score, expected click-through rate, ad relevance and landing page experience), the max. CPC bid and the expected impact of extensions and other ad formats to determine Ad Rank. When estimating the expected impact of extensions and ad formats, we consider such factors as the relevance, expected click-through rates and the prominence of the extensions or formats on the search results page. Each advertiser’s Ad Rank is then used to determine where the ad appears, and what types of extensions and other ad formats will show with the ad (or whether the ad or ad format will appear at all).
For ads on the Search Network, the minimum Ad Rank required for ads above search results is generally greater than the minimum Ad Rank required for ads beside search results. As a result, the actual CPC when you appear above search results could be higher than the actual CPC if you appear beside search results, even if no other advertisers are immediately below you. Although you may pay more per click, top ads usually have higher click-through rates and may allow you to show certain ad extensions and other features that are only available only in top ad positions. As always, you’re never charged more than your max. CPC. bid.”
Essentially then, the better the quality of your website and your PPC advert, the more prominently your ad will show, and generally, the cheaper your ad will be, all things being equal.
As Google says “Quality score is an estimate of the quality of your ads, keywords and landing pages. Higher quality ads can lead to lower prices and better ad positions.”
In the Real World
Edible works a lot with home interiors companies and to date has written in excess of one million words of content on this subject alone.
During a merger of two client companies in the kitchen industry it was decided that the two brands would retain their online identities and respective websites and as such Edible was in a position to evaluate the two different websites, with the same PPC adverts.
Business A was the older and more established business with a website that was more generic in its focus, although it had a better domain authority ranking. Business B was a niche brand, a smaller business, trading less than 24 months and yet had a website that was ranking well for searches related to its niche products. This niche was becoming ever more popular hence Business A wanted to capture some market share for its older brand name. Whilst assimilating the niche brand into the fold.
From Day 1 of the PPC campaign and with the exact same adverts and parameters, Business A was paying nearly twice as much as business B for the exact same clicks! As mentioned the PPC adverts were 100% identical so the only variable was on the web sites themselves, i.e. content. Website B had a far superior quality score in the eyes of Google and as such was credited for this with far cheaper cost per clicks.
At the time, it wasn’t too important to either business as the way they saw it, they were getting two bites of the same pie and as such, whether one performed more efficiently or not it was immaterial as it was all being paid for by the same budget but the lesson learned here is that good content (i.e. relevant and qualitative) not just improves your SEO rankings but can significantly improve your PPC campaigns.
Improving Google Quality Score
As per the quote from Google, “Quality score is an estimate of the quality of your ads, keywords and landing pages…”, and the real world example illustrated, all ads being equal, by far the biggest impact on your PPC campaign (just as it is your SEO one) is your onsite experience, i.e content, content, content!
If you want to improve you Google Quality Score, Edible is a Liverpool based Content Marketing and SEO agency working with a broad base of clients from sectors such as business to business and business to consumer retail and services, hospitality, manufacturing, research and also financial and professional services with a range of SEO and PPC campaigns.
For SEO Liverpool, or further afield simply get in touch for a non obligation evaluation of your website and its potential.
