Tidying up Adwords account, risk losing quality score?
whatson
3:17 am on Sep 30, 2011 (gmt 0)
I am trying to update an adwords account, by changing some of the destination URLS and putting keywords in different campaigns. Do I risk losing my built up quality score I have obtained over the years? Is there a safe way to go about this?
buckworks
4:16 am on Sep 30, 2011 (gmt 0)
If you move a keyword or make even the smallest edit to an ad, Google considers it a new thing and it has to start over building its history. So yes, you do risk some turbulence in your quality score, at least for a while. It's worth it if the new ads perform better.
When I have to make changes, I often create new campaigns and write new ads from scratch rather than editing the existing ads, which effectively deletes them. That lets you pause the old ads to keep them in reserve and you don't have to delete them until you're confident that the new ads have proven themselves.
whatson
10:10 pm on Sep 30, 2011 (gmt 0)
Oh ok good idea. So perhaps start a completely new campaign, and pause the old one? How long will it take to get my old QS back?
smallcompany
5:47 pm on Oct 1, 2011 (gmt 0)
Do I risk losing my built up quality score I have obtained over the years?
Keyword history is account based. This means you will not lose any of it if you use existing keywords in new ad groups or campaigns.
Changing ads will affect QS on a keyword level. If it stays the same or goes up, fine, as you can focus onto how new ads and structure affect your CTR, conversion, ROI, etc. If it goes down you should be able to get it back by using old (original) ads.
You can create a new campaign and start from there. You can even leave old one running to see if any of the newly created ads would take over. If not, you can pause old campaigns/ad groups/keywords to see if the new ones can perform the same or better.
Stay away from changing ads too frequently. Always create new ads and keep old ones either active or paused (this way you can always go a step back if needed). Delete those that you're sure you want need anymore.
You can only start watching/comparing once you get ads/keywords approved. Sometimes it takes days.
