QS influence on Performance

[RockStar82]

So I always assumed QS has influence on account performance but I decided to do some analysis. I looked at our entire MCC (€300k month) for a two week period and concluded the following:

1)As expected, KW with very low QS do not get many clicks
2)With regards to CPC, we expect it to be high when QS is low. In reality, CPC is low to medium in most of the cases.
3)As it was assumed, KW with low QS do not convert well
4)I also had a look at KW which get the biggest number of clicks. All of them have high QS.

Summarizing, it looks like Quality Score has some effect on how well KW are performing in terms of clicks and leads, but there is no direct correlation. The reasons for that might be the complex nature of QS (it is calculated based on many parameters), the differences between the markets, and also the relevancy of LP for the particular KW.

Also, the analysis is based on the aggregate data for this month (April 1 to April 15). That is it gives some insights, but more analysis is needed to get more valid results.

Does anyone have additional insight to my findings?

[Bob535]

You seem to be missing some critical pieces of information.

1)As expected, KW with very low QS do not get many clicks

Keywords with very low QS are often positioned much lower than high level QS due to rank being determined by Bid x QS. This probably accounts for a lot of the "less clicks"

2)With regards to CPC, we expect it to be high when QS is low. In reality, CPC is low to medium in most of the cases.

What about relative CPC/Bid. Usually you won't bid as high for poor quality keywords. CPC/Bid would be a much more accurate number for this measure.

3)As it was assumed, KW with low QS do not convert well

Wow, keywords not related to your site (Low QS) don't attract the type of customers who want your product?

4)I also had a look at KW which get the biggest number of clicks. All of them have high QS.

CTR is the biggest contribution to a high QS, high CTR = high QS, so this makes sense.

[chewy]

I worked with a client that had low QS across thousands of keyword phrases.

We radically improved the site and watched out QS increase.

I also monitored CPC and CTR. As QS increased, CPC and CTR remained the same, in some cases CPC increased as well, and rank remained about the same or decreased.

[Bob535]

Again, QS is based on CTR and OTHER information, like page relevance. A major overhaul will impact QS.

An increased CPC and lowered of rank can just be a competitor reacting to your initial increase by increasing their own bids/QS.

[edited by: Bob535 at 4:21 am (utc) on April 17, 2009]

[RockStar82]

Thanks Bob and chewy, very helpfull. Ill do some additional analysis and get back to you.

[Seb7]

Personally, I think Google likes to get the best earnings per ad impression out of you. When you take that in to account, everything else falls in to place.