Does a fluctuation in spend affect my account

Quality score, CPC, etc

[Murdoch]

We currently have a marketing team that claims that if we reduce our Adwords spend, or frequently change our budget, it will affect our quality score and lead to less conversions. Is this true?

[netmeg]

That's kind of a broad question, and hard to answer. There's a lot of 'depends' - how old the account is, how much history and how good your history is, etc. In and of itself, it probably shouldn't, but if your budget is altered so significantly that it affects the overall performance of your account, I could see where it might.

I guess the best way to test it out is to move the budget in small increments (if you can) first and see how you do.

[J_RaD]

low quality score means you'll just pay more for clicks.

conversions are based on the quality and position of your ad.

Its all related in a round about sort of way. if your budget is X and you are paying MORE per-click because of reduced quality score you'll get less traffic not less conversion.

I have never seen my quality score drop based on what I do with my $$$ So i'll have to say I don't believe its true.

[edited by: J_RaD at 7:06 pm (utc) on Jan. 29, 2009]

[MadeWillis]

If you reduce your spend, does this mean you are dropping bids?

If so, yes this means you are playing in lower positions, probably going to get less clicks and a lower CTR, which are all used to calculate your QS (along with ad copy and copy on your leanding page).

I don't see a drop in spend affecting your conversion rate as much as I would expect a decrease in traffic and possibly an increase in CPC due to a lower QS.

[Murdoch]

I'm expecting the reduced traffic, by way of eliminating some keywords and keeping the main ones, but bids are going to remain the same. I may bring down the daily budget and enact an on/off schedule that compliments our operational hours better, but I don't a non-24 hour plan brings down the quality score does it?

Or is it more of a case where Google says "Spend less money, pay more CPC" kind of thing?

Thanks BTW for your answers.

[redstar08]

Depends on whether you're talking about lowering your CPC bid or lowering your overall daily budget. I've found that lowering your CPC will lower the number of impressions if your quality score is low. But lowering the daily budget doesn't influence quality score.