Re-organizing an account

will I lose my Quality Score

[whatson]

I am dealing with an Adwords account that is so messy it needs to be completely re-done.
My only concern is when I start new campaigns with the old urls and same keywords as before, will the Quality Score return automatically, or will I have to start all over again? If the latter then how long would it take to return?

Is this a risky move?

[mememax]

QS depends on many factors.

The most important: Account historical data, adgroup optimization, CTR, keywords-Ads relationship.

When you restructure a campaign you'll better use adwords editor. With it you can cut'n'paste keywords from a campaign to a new one saving all its historical data (at least is what google states).

If you want to create a new account, because the old one has got bad historical data you may consider cut and paste from an account to a new one (cut -> change account -> paste), this process will save historical data too.

Don't copy just cut keywords.

[LucidSW]

QS doesn't get transferred. Everything is new again. But no reason they shouldn't get up to the same even after a re-organization. Note that it may take a while. Your CPC may be higher at first.

No need for a new account. Just pause everything and re-structure around the new organization. I'm doing that myself right now for a client. Instead of dozens of campaigns that they pause and un-paused for nine years (they were thinking of campaigns as groups), there will be now just five campaigns and nothing will have to be paused due to account limits.

I've found that cut/copy and paste, no matter the tool used, doesn't cut it. There's usually so many things wrong if you have to re-organize that best to start fresh. Blindly copying and pasting will not solve other problems. Do research the data and learn from what was done. That's the first step.

[smallcompany]

QS doesn't get transferred. Everything is new again.

Are you sure about that really everything is new?

I remember from long ago that the keyword history has been kept on the account level. New ad does mean new calculation though. Here is the link about keyword history:

[support.google.com...]

It shows both cases when the QS changes and also when it does not.

[buckworks]

In a major account cleanup I did within the last month, very much like what the OP describes, it didn't look as if quality scores got transferred when I copied/pasted existing ad groups or campaigns into new places.

However, it only took a few days for the keywords I was watching to regain their previous high quality scores.

[mememax]

I'm quite sure that Google will recalculate QS based on the old historical data of the keyword.

Account historical data DO has part in QS calculation, so if you're account has good historical data go with it.
[support.google.com ]

[LucidSW]

>> Are you sure about that really everything is new?

You said it yourself: "New ad means new calculation".

A keyword and ad are linked together and to a certain group. Using that keyword and/or ad in another group (or even in same group if you had previously deleted said keyword or ad), is an entirely new entity. Therefore it starts its history anew. There is no transfer of previous history of a keyword or ad within an account.

Google does say that account historical data has a part in QS calculation (see mememax link above). But I've never believed it much as I would not take that into consideration if I were to build the system. If it does have an impact, it is a very small one, small enough to be disregarded.

It all doesn't really matter in the end. I assume the OP would re-organize in a way not just to re-organize but also make it better: he wouldn't I assume copy over irrelevant keywords, take advantage of different match types if the original campaign didn't, use the best ads and test new ones based on the best ideas.

[netmeg]

I do this for clients all the time. Yes, the QS starts over, but if you know what you're doing, you should at least get back to where you were, and hopefully improve. And for me it's usually a few days to a couple weeks at the most (depending on what I'm starting with)

[mememax]

Well it really depends on how bad is structure the old campaign.

Usually I leave good converting keywords in its place and reorganize in new campaigns what is going bad.

@LucidSW: surely the account historical data doesn't affect a lot when everything's fine, however it do matters, at least based on my own experience, as a negative factor. I've tried to reorganize a bad performing account and whenever I added new specific keywords I saw no one with a QS higher than 5 or 4. I think that sometimes it's useful to consider using a new account, however there is also historical data on the domain.

[LucidSW]

Well, your experience is different than mine. I've taken old accounts with poor QS and get them to respectable levels within days, sometimes up to QS 10. If account/URL history was such a big factor, how do you explain this?

[Planet13]

Slightly off topic, but...

From what everyone is saying here about new campaigns regaining quality scores, is it safe then to say that the overwhelmingly significant factor in determining quality score is click-through rate?

Or does landing page content really have a significant impact on quality score?

Thanks in advance.

[mememax]

I'm trying to take into account everything, however I think that the less influential factor is historical data. This will prevent advertisers to improve their campaigns, everyone can make errors, I don't think Google will punish someone for making bad work just one or two times. IMHO landing page, keywords relationship inside the same adgroup, keyword matching (exact,phrase,broad) are the most important to establish a good QS (to 7), however if you want a stable 10 you do need a good ad text and obtain a good ctr. The most clicks you receive the most google gains, it's quite normal that they will boost those results.

@lucidSW: I've got only few low quality accounts to optimize, and since my clients doesn't care I always prefer to create a new one. I know it's a minimal factor, however if whatson doesn't care he may consider create a new account (and use a promotional code ;-) )

[buckworks]

Yes, CTR is the biggest factor by far.

Landing page quality is part of the mix but it's a small factor unless you make some really stupid mistakes.

ADDED: Bad history can be overcome by improved performance.

[mememax]

This!

ADDED: Bad history can be overcome by improved performance.

That is what I was trying to explain :-D

[RhinoFish]

i concur, CTR dominates. history recovers so quickly you don't need to worry at all about it, there are 100 other things more important in deciding how/whether to rebuild or new build.

[RockSolidWes]

I agree -- when you reorganize an account I have noticed that the QS does go down. But it doesn't long for the original scores to return -- and if you do it right, surpass the original scores...