What Is Quality Score & How Can It Help Realtors Reduce CPC?

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In one of our previous articles, we covered some Google Ads metrics you should keep an eye on for successful ad campaigns. 

If you take a few minutes to read through that article, you’ll realize Quality Score wasn’t mentioned. 

That’s because this analytic deserves an entire article of its own due to the vital role it plays in determining your ads performance and cost. 

So, if you’re looking to improve your ad rankings for relevant property searches in upcoming campaigns, then you’re in the right place. 

Keep reading to learn more about Quality Score, including;

Your pay-per-click (PPC) advertising quality, performance, and relevancy are evaluated using Google Ads' Quality Score.

The search engine calculates your Quality Score, which runs from 1 to 10, by analyzing factors like your ad’s clickthrough rates and landing page experiences, among other things. 

If you have a higher score, this means Google’s algorithm thinks your landing page and ad are useful as well as relevant to user searches. 

As a result, you can expect your Ad Rank to increase and charges for Cost-Per-Clicks (CPC) to reduce.

Here’s a simple breakdown of a Quality Score’s overall impact on your campaign; 

Higher Quality Score = Lower CPC

Lower CPC = reduced Cost Per Conversion (the amount of money spent on an advert to achieve the desired action)

Reduced Cost Per Conversion = less marketing expenditure and higher return on investment (ROI) 

The primary reason Quality scores matter to advertisers is because it directly impacts how much they pay for Cost-Per-Clicks. 

The higher an advertiser's Quality Score, the less likely they are to pay much for CPC. However, if your Quality Score is low, you'll need to bid a much higher CPC in order to achieve a higher ad rank. 

The search engine giant uses this metric to choose which ads to display as well as determine how much to charge an advertiser for each click or impression.

Simply put, this is Google’s incentive to ensure marketers produce high quality, relevant ads. 

There are three main factors influencing your Quality Scores, including;

• Expected Clickthrough Rate (CTR) or likelihood that your ads will be clicked on when they’re shown for a specific keyword. According to Google, CTR is responsible for as much as 60% of your Quality Score. To check how you’re doing here, take a look at how often your ads are clicked compared to competing ads.
• Landing page experience or how effective and relevant your pages are to someone who clicks on your ad. Higher-rated landing pages tend to feature texts relating to buyer’s search queries and are usually better organized. If you've made significant changes to optimize your landing page, it could lead to higher Quality Scores over time. In other words, try asking yourself, “Is my landing page relevant to a visitor’s intent and does it help them accomplish their objectives quickly and transparently?”. 
• Ad relevance or how closely your ad matches a buyer’s search. Google determines this by looking for relevant keywords in your ad copy. Since you have control over your copy, this is typically seen as the simplest "first step" to boosting your Quality Score. To see how you’re doing in this aspect, check if your ads align with your audiences’ interests and intent.

If you’re planning on improving any aspect of your ads, it’s a safe bet to start with your keywords – especially since they directly affect your Quality Score, as mentioned previously. 

As the heart of every PPC campaign, keywords basically improve intent and increase your chances of reaching prospects. This means they also enhance your SEO, metrics, and conversion rates. 

Naturally, these are all things that reflect well on your Quality scores. 

As such, a high Quality Score comes naturally when your account contains organized keywords in appropriate keyword groups and ad texts that correspond with your ad group. 

Pro tip: Do not use black hat tricks like keyword stuffing. Google isn’t a fan of this and it will affect your Quality Score. Read more about it in our article here. 

Now that you know what keywords you want to rank for, how about the ones you don’t want your ads to be associated with? 

Think about it – since you’re charged on a pay-per-click basis, the last thing you want is for a user to click on your ad while looking for another property, right? Then, not only are you going to end up paying Google for that click, you won’t even get a lead out of it. 

So, how do you make sure you filter through these unwanted clicks? 

That’s where negative keywords come into play. 

The use of negative keywords ensures your ads only appear in response to relevant searches. As a result, your account will be exposed to more interested impressions, higher click-through rates, and qualified leads. 

Along with these metrics, you should also see your Quality score rise

Your ads and landing pages go hand-in-hand. In other words, you can’t expect one of them to perform well without improving the other. 

If you’re planning on running your campaign without a landing page, we’re going to stop you right there. 

While skipping on this page can save you a few hundred dollars at the start of your campaign, you might end up losing so much more by the end of it. 

That’s because landing pages keep and direct a buyer’s attention better than your website. 

As such, skipping landing pages is no different from skipping on your comms. So, be sure to avoid making this mistake. 

Here are our top tips for creating better landing pages; 

• Make sure your content is original. While it may seem tempting to copy a competitor’s work, keep in mind that Google will penalize you for this. 
• A/B test the different elements of your landing pages to see what works best.
• Optimize your page for better user experience. 
• Check to see if you’re making any of these common mistakes and fix them. 

And that’s all we have for you on PPC Quality Scores! For even more real estate marketing tips, be sure to follow us on our LinkedIn or Facebook pages. 

Looking for property Google Ads specialists? Look no further than SellMoreCondos (SMC)! With 3 years of experience and over 100 new launch projects campaigns, we have all the digital solutions you’ll need to effectively earn your comms. In fact, we’ve helped more than 80 realtors earn a combined 2.5 million in comms with quality real estate Google Ads, landing pages, as well as microsites. On The other hand, if you would like to try your hand at setting up your very own new launch campaign from scratch, simply sign up for our Google Ads masterclass and we’ll teach you everything you will need to know. Get in touch with us today for more information!