Quality Score: What is it & How Does it Affect PPC?

If you’re trying to master PPC, you need a solid understanding of Quality Score. That’s because your Quality Scores have enormous influence over the cost and effectiveness of your paid search campaigns. Just as your credit score can affect whether or not you qualify for a loan and how high your interest rate is, Google Quality Score affects how your PPC ads perform and how much you pay for each click.

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What is Quality Score? Quality Score is Google's rating of the quality and relevance of both your keywords and PPC ads. It is used to determine your cost per click (CPC) and multiplied by your maximum bid to determine your ad rank in the ad auction process. Your Quality Score depends on multiple factors, including:

  • Your click-through rate (CTR).

  • The relevance of each keyword to its ad group.

  • Landing page quality and relevance.

  • The relevance of your ad text.

  • Your historical AdWords account performance.

No one outside of Google knows exactly how much each factor “weighs” in the Quality Score algorithm, but we do know that click-through rate is the most important component. When more people who see your ad click it, that’s a strong indication to Google that your ads are relevant and helpful to users. Accordingly, Google rewards you with:

  • Higher ad rankings

  • Lower costs

Benefits of Improving Google Quality Score

By analyzing thousands of PPC accounts, we know that Quality Score has a direct correlation on your PPC success. By optimizing your Quality Scores, you’ll be setting yourself up for higher return on investment (ROI). That’s because higher Quality Scores correlate with lower cost per conversion! Cost per conversion is different from cost per click. It’s not how much you pay for each click, but how much you pay when someone takes the action you want them to take, whether that’s signing up for a free trial or making a product purchase. Since not every click results in a conversion, cost per conversion is generally higher than cost per click.

Luckily, strong Quality Scores lower both your cost per click and your cost per conversion.

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Generally speaking, the higher your Quality Score, the lower your cost per conversion. Remember, a high Quality Score is Google's way of saying that your PPC ad meets your potential customers’ needs. The better you are at meeting the prospect’s needs, the less Google will charge you for the ad click.

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How Do You Increase Your Quality Score?

Since Quality Score determines where and how often your ads appear, it’s important to boost your ratings by working consistently on your account. This can be achieved by focusing your efforts on several key areas:

  • Keyword Research – Discover new, highly relevant keywords to add to your campaigns, including long-tail opportunities that can contribute to the bulk of your overall traffic.  

  • Keyword Organization – Split your keywords into tight, organized groups that can be more effectively tied to individual ad campaigns.

  • Refining Ad Text – Test out PPC ad copy that is more targeted to your individual ad groups. More effective ads get higher CTR, one of the best ways to improve Quality Score. 

  • Optimizing Landing Pages – Follow landing page best practices to create pages that connect directly with your ad groups and provide a cohesive experience for visitors, from keyword to conversion.

  • Adding Negative Keywords – Continuously research, identify, and exclude irrelevant search terms that are wasting your budget.

As you can see, Quality Score is primarily a measure of relevance, and improving keyword Quality Score is a matter of structuring your PPC campaigns into small, well-organized, tightly knit groups of keywords. Better keyword research and organization will also naturally improve the quality and specificity of your ads and website content, allowing you to target the exact audience most likely to be searching for your offerings.

Low AdWords Quality Scores are primarily the result of disconnect between keywords, ad groups, ad text, and landing page content. A high Quality Score comes naturally when an AdWords account contains organized keywords in appropriate keyword groups, ad text that corresponds with certain ad groups, and landing pages that connect with the ad text's offer. While there is no easy, foolproof answer to improving your Quality Score formula, paying careful attention to relevance will greatly improve your scores.

More Quality Score Resources

Want to learn more about how Quality Score works and how to increase your ratings? Check out the following resources:

  • Hacking AdWords: How to Get a (Near) Perfect Quality Score: Learn the characteristics of AdWords accounts with super-high Quality Scores (and how you can achieve them yourself).

  • Complete Guide to Super-High Click-Through Rates: Quality Score is largely determined by click-through rates, which is why it's so important to write powerful ads that grab people's attention. In this free guide, you'll learn what makes a good CTR and how to raise your own CTR's to create "unicorn" ads with awesome Quality Scores and low costs per click.

Source: wordstream.com

Join Us Tuesday, April 30 at 2:00 p.m. EDT for a Special Mother's Day Conference Call

Hello Friends,

Mother's Day is upon us, and there is still a lot of work to be done as we prepare for one of our busiest days of the year! Hopefully, your prep work is going well and you're busy training new employees, hiring extra drivers and making sure your inventory is well stocked for the big day which is just a weeks away - yikes!

Never fear - you have a friend in the business and we're here to help! That is why I will be hosting a free Mother's Day conference call on Tuesday, April 30 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern.

I will begin the call by giving some of my thoughts as well as some time-tested tips on making the most of your Mother's Day holiday - and then I will open things up for a roundtable discussion where you can pick the brains of fellow florists and find out what is working - and what's not - at other shops around the country. We hope this call will be a valuable service for you and we think you'll learn a lot from some of the leaders of the industry.

There is no cost associated with this call, but the information you can take away will be invaluable - be sure to have some good questions prepared, and be ready for an active discussion. All are welcome, and the more participants we have, the better!

For more details on this call, and access information, please click here and let us know you're interested. Then we will supply you with an access code and number so you can join.

I'm excited to talk to everyone on Tuesday! Have a great weekend!

-Art

When it Makes Sense to Accept a $39.95 Order

Too often we notice florists getting frustrated when they receive an incoming order for a total of $39.95. This could mean $25-$30 PLUS delivery (hopefully your delivery is no more than $14.95).

In many cases, there is not enough revenue left to create and deliver a bouquet that is profitable and perceives good value.

The answer? Put the margin into the artistic (finishing) touches. When I owned Beneva Flowers, I always used to ask when a designer created a bouquet, "what makes it look Beneva?" Finishing touches are what made a regular design look “Beneva.”

Below you will see an image created by Bloomerang for our florists featuring two Gerber daisies (which you can name whatever you like) next to Springtime Treasures which has the name secured so you cannot customize it and you ride the coat tails of 1-800-Flowers.

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We created a bouquet with just two inserts a bud vase, a few greens, and wire. Yet, I actually heard a florist say that they want $50 because that is their minimum and that's it. When I asked why, they answered, "I don't know, it just is."

The truth is, you can show an overstuffed $50 bouquet too. We need to focus on two elements - either a uniquely-designed bouquet, or a florist choice, this is where they can clear out the cooler. Now the shop can work with whatever they have the most available, and who wouldn't like that?

If we continue to argue and reject $39.95 orders, you can't fault FTD, Pro Flowers, and 1-800 for sending flowers in a box.

People who want the price point will not argue unless you over-promise because the filling florist ends up under-delivering trying to watch the $$$ on the order.

Assuming you paid $2 each for the Gerbers, (which is the highest wholesale price I’ve ever seen for Gerbers) you have $4 in product. When you add up the cost of the vase, wire, greens and minimal labor, it costs maybe $10 on top of that.

Professional Admin day is next Wednesday (April 24), you need to consider a lower priced option with a favorable margin. This secures the florist-to-florist order with hopes a customer doesn't have to select flowers in a box.

Retail Florists....we need to step it up and secure those transactions. Anyone can say no, how can you say yes? Please comment below, I would love to hear your feedback! -Art

Last Minute Marketing for Administrative Professional’s Day

The big Easter weekend is upon us, but there won’t be much time to rest because Administrative Professionals’ Day takes place just three days later on Wednesday, April 24. If you haven’t had a chance to promote this holiday there is still time. Here are few last minute marketing tips to ensure this week is a success.
 

  1. Send out a reminder email: According to Express Pigeon’s blog, 91% of modern consumers check their email at least once a day and emailing is the most popular activity for smartphone users.

  2. Post reminders to your social media sites: Create a fun image reminding your fans that this week is Administrative Professional’s week then encourage them to “Post, Pin, or Tweet” the image.  Be sure to boost your posts on Facebook so they will be seen by “non-fans” in your area.

  3. Be present: Guerrilla marketing is still alive and well. Do something unexpected like offering corsages to customer service reps at stores close to your shop with a gift card to redeem later. As they wear the corsages throughout the day they will share with their customers where they got it.

  4. Offer a surprise to the recipient: The value of this holiday really comes from the recipient because this person is most likely the one ordering flowers for the company for the rest of the year. Consider adding a little extra gift for the like a gift card they must redeem in your store.

We’ve always said Administrative Professional’s Week is like a mini Valentine’s Day, but with long term benefits, so get out there and have some fun promoting your shop this week!

Did you try one or more of these tactics? Let us know the results by commenting below.

Surviving the Digital Storm


The retail landscape looks a lot different today than it did even a few years ago. Now, many well-established businesses that dominated their markets for years are suddenly competing with new startups and national big box retailers for the same base of customers. What does that mean for the small business owner? It means that everyone is in the game because you left the door open for them.

A colleague of mine has owned and operated a pizzeria for 46 years in the same location. For decades he ran an extremely successful shop and only had a handful of nearby competitors to keep an eye on. It worked for years and word-of-mouth advertising was all he really needed to compete; his pizza and the atmosphere was all the marketing he needed. Or so he thought.

Now in the digital age, competitors are popping up left and right and instead of fighting for his piece of the market share with two or three competitors, my colleague is now one of a dozen pizza places in his area. His competitors saw their opportunity and took advantage.

When I ran my shop at Beneva, I was always concerned about competition and market share and the last thing I wanted to do was let a competitor get a foothold in my territory. I knew that my reputation was strong, but I also knew that reputation alone isn’t enough when you have aggressive competitors.

The Digital Difference

With all the new pizza shops opening in the area, my colleague was feeling the squeeze, but was still enjoying the word-of-mouth traffic to stay competitive. That all changed several months ago when another new shop opened down the street and unleashed a digital storm!

The new shop wasn’t even open yet, they hadn’t served a single pie, but everywhere you turned, there they were. They were on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram; posting pictures and creating metrics that they knew how to measure. My colleague relied on his reputation to market his business, but his competitors relied on statistics – the fight was nowhere close to fair.

Fortunately, my colleague was determined to fight back and save his business, so he called Bloomerang and we went to work.

The first thing we did was check every online listing he had to make sure everything was consistent which goes a long way in increasing your Google ranking. We then helped him build a solid social media foundation that he could use to interact with customers.

From there we helped build his website with reciprocal links to social media accounts and a strong blog that he can utilize to share specials and events with customers and potential customers. Next, we started featuring pay-per-click ads for his shop that retargeted specific demographics of customers and finally, we surveyed current and past customers to learn as much as we can about the business from their point of view and reconciled all the data to form a long-term marketing plan that will allow him to regain the market share that was lost to the new competitors.

Protect yourself from the storm that surrounds you because it’s happening and it’s coming towards you in a digital format. Understanding that is the key to conquering it and protecting yourself from your competition taking over your area and your space.

Protect your backyard, put up that fence today! Call us at Bloomerang (941) 806-1911 – the advice is free! How can Bloomerang help your business bloom? Let us know - we’d love to hear from you! Feel free to respond in the comments or email us at support@bloomerang.solutions.