HubShout | Online Marketing Solutions

I recently read that you can achieve better ad placement and lower CPC by attaining a higher Google Quality Score.

Does anyone have any input on this?

Yeah, that's true. Quality score is important and it comes with having a well structured AdWords account that uses very specific landing pages, ad copy, ad groups, and campaigns.

This is why landing pages and account structure are so important for AdWords campaigns. Here's an example of an account structure conducive to high quality scores:

Campaign: "Widgets" Ad Groups: "Home Widgets" "Commercial Widgets" and "Clearance Widgets" Ads: Within each ad group, there will be ad copy selling the specific type of widget so if someone searched for "commercial widget" they would see an ad such as "Commercial Widgets. Increase Productivity 30%. Claim Your Free Sample! www.WidgetStore.com/CommercialSample" Keywords: Each ad group would have ONLY keywords specific to home widgets, commercial widgets, etc. Landing Pages: Each ad group has its own landing page related to the ad group and the keywords used.

There are too many businesses that will lump all the keywords to one ad in one ad group and just let it go. They will get lower quality scores and managed account will get higher scores by making the experience better.

One thing to stress is that the client must have a good set of landing pages to get the most from their advertising, especially if they want conversions. From the AdWords side, we can get the highly specific traffic to the site. The people who searched "buy sale widget right now" who are directed to a landing page about the clearance widgets are more likely to convert than the ones who are sent to a widget store homepage.

Thats great information, thanks Paul!

No problem, I hope it it helps. A pet peeve of mine is unrelated landing pages. When my work on the back end leads the user to a homepage instead of a landing page, it ruins the 'conversation' with the customer.

A customer walks into an electronics store and wants to buy a new laptop. The sales person tells the customer about a deal they are running on Lenovo laptops and a few cool features of the product. The customer is interested and says "Great! I might buy this, can you show me the laptop and tell me more about it?" The salesman replies "Maybe. There one somewhere in the store here. Go find it yourself. There might be some description on the box if you want to know more."

That's what happens every single time a lead from PPC is sent to a homepage instead of a custom landing page.

To go even further on what Paul says, the landing page load time even plays a role in quality score, so by making sure that the landing page experience is delightful, in all aspects including speed, you get rewarded by Google.

Great information, do you guys think as a reseller that I should get Google qualified, or is the information contained in these forums enough to secure new PPC clients?

I think it is worthwhile because it will help you to get a better understanding of PPC. The Google Engage program is a great place to start. Google will give you training videos and materials. They even give vouchers so you can take the test for free. Here's the link: http://www.google.com/intl/en/ads/engage/

I also know that the sales people from some of the big players in my locality require their sales people to become certified. It may be a way to level the playing field or potentially even gain an advantage depending on what your local competitors are doing.

Thank you Paul, I am going to check it out.