The quality score is Fubar!

[venrooy]

Ok - I set up a new campaign last night for a website. It's the type of website where I thought I'd use U.S. zip codes for adwords. So to give it a test run through the night, I only input half of the US zip codes. Every one of them got a quality score of Great - and I was paying .04 -.05 for all of them. The campaign ran great. So today I input the rest of the US zip codes - And right off the bat, they get a poor quality score. The prices ranging from .3 up to $10. How would you explain this - other than the system is Fubared? The other half of the zip codes are still running at .04 - .05 with a Great score. Does not make any sense to me.

[pdivi]

The campaign ran great.

Ran great for whom? For you or for Google? Your objectives (max conversion @ high ROI) are not necessarily in-sync with Google's objectives (high CTR @ high CPC). The Quality Score judges according to G's objectives.

IMO, if you have a stellar CTR but a low CPC, you are even more at risk than if you had a low CTR because you are pulling clicks away from high bidders. Stark contrast to the good old days, when CTR alone determined what was quality.

Not really sure why the QS would judge "batches" of KWs differently, though. That is odd.

[mimmo]

QS = Quality Score for Google Finances
QS!= Quality Score for Advertisers
QS!= Quality Score for Users

[venrooy]

My point is that they are basically the same adwords and same site, that last night they deemed to be great.

[ronmcd]

Unfortunately it's probably not Fubar, its working pretty much as intended. What the intention IS, who knows.

Oh for the good old days when google told us how adwords worked, and it was true.