Either google is simply to smart or very incompetent. Which one?

I dont get it!

[thecleaner]

I stayed up all night for two days reading here at WebmasterWorld and trying to understand how to beat the new google slap (quality score).

Over the past few weeks I decided to really attack this.

I bought a new dotcom

I dished out tons of $ and energy adding 100+ fresh articles to my new site.

Each article has its own separate page.

I added a site map to my landing page

the landing page had the same content as my ad.

I added a privacy statement and a TOS statement.

I also added a way to contact me and plenty of resources to authority sites.

Then at the end of the two weeks of hard work I submitted my new site under a new campaigne and adgroup.

I sat back took a deep breath.

Quality score started out as "ok" (I was hoping for great)

CTR was 1.5

I was immediately placed in the top 3 at only 20 cents a click. I was also in the partner sites (I checked).

I was pleased

Then about an hour later...

Quality score - poor

CTR 0.40

minimum bid 50 cents

What the heck is going on?

One of my TOP competitors has a one page site. NO Sitemap and no articles. Just a bunch of keyword stuffing and has been there for a long time!

Another competitor is simply a clone of another site!

And I Know none of my comp has this many fresh articles.

I also know for a fact Im running a good converting ad.

What could I possibly be missing here?

Thanks in advance

[luke175]

Simply put, Google wants to show the ads that are the most profitable for them. Quality score is just one way of making sure Google is getting the maximum for every ad shown.

Additionally, the score is determined by a bot with no recourse (they claim the number of manual reviews is practically single digits).

I've seen the same as you. My site, with a PR5, relevant content, etc. etc. got knocked down to poor and OK while I get outranked by sites that are one=page salesletter or MFAs.

Simply put, those sites must make more money for Google. It's all I can figure.

[sailorjwd]

When you figure that one out then help me explain this one.

I have a 4-word keyword that says Great QS with .03 min bid. I'm bidding .15 and the landing page happens to be #1 in the natural serps. The ad won't show (many other folks ads do show). The spy glass next to status says the QS is too low and ad isn't showing. The status says 'Active'.

The reason I want to advertise this keyword is to cover both the serps and the ads since it is the focus of my business. (I have the 2nd results slot too).

ps. the landing page is my home page and has no advertisements on it.

[Rehan]

thecleaner wrote:

Quality score - poor

CTR 0.40

minimum bid 50 cents

What the heck is going on?

The keyword quality score plummets when CTR is low. The landing page is a factor in the minimum bid, but the CTR is a bigger factor. So if your ad was in the top 3 and getting only 1.5% CTR, that's probably why it got slapped with the low quality score. And it sounds like your competitors' ads are getting higher CTRs despite their landing pages.

This is the same reason why you don't see any ads when you search for "myspace". 99+% of people who search for it don't want any ads and just want to go to the myspace.com website. Consequently, anyone that wants to put an ad for that keyword gets a low CTR, leading to a low QS and a high min bid and soon realizes that it's not worth running the campaign. (This means that Google gets less revenue for these kinds of keywords, not more.) I think Google's motivation for doing this is for the user experience, not greed or incompetence.

BTW, another thing you might want to note is that the landing page is not a factor in the ad ranking algorithm. Read the "*Note:" at [adwords.google.com...]

sailorjwd wrote:

I have a 4-word keyword that says Great QS with .03 min bid. I'm bidding .15 and the landing page happens to be #1 in the natural serps. The ad won't show (many other folks ads do show). The spy glass next to status says the QS is too low and ad isn't showing. The status says 'Active'.

What does the Ads Diagnostic Tool say about it?

[thecleaner]

Thank you Rehan. I am taking notes.

[Dave_Davis]

This is the same reason why you don't see any ads when you search for "myspace". 99+% of people who search for it don't want any ads and just want to go to the myspace.com website. Consequently, anyone that wants to put an ad for that keyword gets a low CTR, leading to a low QS and a high min bid and soon realizes that it's not worth running the campaign.

I am sorry, but this is not true in the case of MySpace. Early last month, MySpace filed a trademark complaint with Google. Consequently the word "Myspace" cannot appear in any ads. Similar to what happened with ebay.

While your comment has merit and I agree, in this case you are incorrect.

CTR does seem to have the largest effect on quality score. However, as Google state, it is normalized so bidding extortionate prices per click to get your CTR up does not work so well.

You are going to need to analyze your competitions ad copy and do one better.

[sailorjwd]

"What does the Ads Diagnostic Tool say about it? "

You mean the little spy glass? it says the QS is low and therefore the ad won't show.

But this makes no sense since the keyword is basically what i do for a living and the entire site (350) pages is about that topic, and the homepage is obviously focused on that topic and appears #1 in the search results.

I've contacted google several times over the last 4 months and they say it is maybe a bug they'll 'soon' fix. But it's been around too long to be a bug and is too big a thing.

[Rehan]

Dave_Davis wrote:

I am sorry, but this is not true in the case of MySpace. Early last month, MySpace filed a trademark complaint with Google. Consequently the word "Myspace" cannot appear in any ads. Similar to what happened with ebay.

While your comment has merit and I agree, in this case you are incorrect.

What I wrote was about the keywords, not ad text. Try it out for yourself and you'll see that a min bid on the keyword "myspace" is somewhere around $0.50. If you're really daring, you can go ahead and run a campaign and see how low the CTRs are. :-)

sailorjwd wrote:

You mean the little spy glass? it says the QS is low and therefore the ad won't show.

Click on the "Ads Diagnostic Tool" link at the bottom of the pop-up appears when you hover over the magnifying glass. Then on the page that is shown, hit Continue for Option 1 to see what is hopefully a more detailed diagnostic.

[netmeg]

Go read eWhisper's blog about QS issues, rinse, and then repeat. Hint - google search on 'eWhisper'. It has been an enormous help to me.