Skip to main content

Google AdWords™ Quality Score

How to Improve AdWords Quality Score with a Better Landing Page

Landing near the top of a search engine results page (SERP) is like climbing a mountain. It gets more difficult to attain the summit-or the first page of SERPs-the higher you climb. Many businesses have found that in addition to optimizing their website for organic traffic, buying pay-per-click advertising through Google AdWords gives them the search engine boost they’ve been looking for.

How to score with Google AdWords

There are four keys to scoring a high-conversion, low-cost AdWords campaign:1

  • Use keywords in your ads that are relevant to the search
  • Write well-written ads-think of what would make them click on your ad
  • Set the right bid amount to maximize spending
  • Make sure your landing page is also relevant to the search

Google takes all this relevance and well-written copy into account when it assigns a Quality Score to the keywords within your campaign. If you haven’t added this score to your keyword metrics, you should. In fact, according to WordStream®, a search engine optimization (SEO) company that focuses on paid search, the Quality Score may be the most important factor in your campaign because it is believed to affect cost per click (CPC). In other words, a higher Quality Score may increase conversions and lower your cost. Here’s what WordStream found:

  • Keywords with a Quality Score of 6 to 10 (on a scale of 1 to 10) were found to have a 16 percent to 50 percent decrease in CPC.
  • Keywords with a Quality Score of less than 4 saw a CPC increase of 25 percent to 400 percent.

A lot of emphasis is put on landing pages, according to WordStream, as a Quality Score of 3 or less is likely a reflection that your landing page isn’t relevant.

How to write a landing page that scores

So, what are the keys to writing a landing page that result in a higher Quality Score? Besides writing for the intent of a searcher (seeking information vs. investigating products or services vs. buying), the most important factor in writing is appealing to a searcher’s or buyer’s emotions. Emotions are extremely important in the buying experience. Why? We look to a famous study to understand more. The study, which examined people who could not feel emotion due to brain damage, found they also could not make the simplest decisions.2 Therefore, lack of emotion equals lack of decision making.

You might be saying, ‘But I manufacture a widget, and that’s not very emotional.’ But, it is! Think about your customer. What is his or her state of mind when buying your product? What feelings are associated with buying your product and why? Does your widget make your customers’ lives easier? Does it make them safer? Use these emotions deliberately in your copy, especially in headlines and calls to action.

Here’s a 7-step process to get you started:2

  1. Highlight your customer’s problem
  2. Tell a story about the problem
  3. Offer your solution
  4. Highlight the benefits of your solution
  5. Instill trust in doing business with your company
  6. Provide a unique value proposition, one that sets your company apart from the rest
  7. Tell them what to do next-fill out a form, call you, email you, sign up for your enewsletter

Landing page length

By the time you get through those steps, it’s likely you may have quite a bit of copy. And, many of us were once told that landing pages should be short-give the reader what he or she needs and get them to take action.

But, a short landing page may not be best for everyone. If you answer yes to one or more of these three questions, a longer landing page may be right for you:3

  1. Does your buyer need a lot of information before making a decision?
  2. Does your buyer need to trust you?
  3. Does your buyer need reassurance that he or she is making the right decision?

If you’re selling men’s running shoes, you may not need a long landing page, but if you’re selling a piece of industrial equipment that costs thousands or maybe millions of dollars or you offer a service like family law, you may need to ease the buyer’s emotions.

Just remember when writing longer copy to make it readable with headers, bullets and bolded words.

With these landing page tips to improve AdWords Quality Score, we hope to put you on the path toward a perfect 10!

Are you looking for help starting or improving a Google AdWords campaign?

Let’s Talk


1 6 Ways to Lower Your CPC with Landing Page Optimization

2 Emotional Persuasion Guide

3 The Best Times to Use Long Form Landing Pages

Get in Touch

"*" indicates required fields

Name*
Subscribe