For those of you venturing into Google AdWords territory, you may have noticed that your keywords have a “quality score” attached to them. The quality score is the numerical value that is given to each of the keywords used in your campaign, and is calculated based on several criteria such as keyword relevance, landing page quality, and quality ads.

In addition, this number is affected every time your keyword matches a search that is performed. Because the quality score is an important factor in your AdWords campaigns, there are several areas that you should be aware of that are affected by it.

Your Cost Per Click
A higher quality score can mean a lower cost-per-click (CPC), while a lower quality score could mean you’ll pay more for your CPC.

Your First Page Bid
A first page bid approximates the CPC needed to have your ad appear on the first page of search results. Like CPC, your first page bid is also affected by your Quality Score.  If your quality score is low, then Google will place your ad lower than others with a higher quality score.

Keyword Eligibility
Your Quality score will determine if your ad will even enter the ad auction when someone enters a search query for one of your keywords. General rule of thumb is if a keyword scores lower than 2, it won’t be entered into an ad auction.

How high your ad will be ranked
Trying to keep your ad around the 1st and 2nd spots will mean higher click through rates.  But if your quality score is low, so will be your ad ranking. Again, a general rule of thumb is a keyword needs a quality score of 8 to help your ad place high.

So the question is; how can you improve your quality score? Well, here are three things you should start implementing in your Google AdWords Ads to help get your score to that all important 10.

Keyword Relevance
Make sure that your keywords are all closely related to each other. If your ad is promoting your Flower Shop do not bid on “staples” as a keyword.   This will only lower your quality score and affect where your ad lands on the search results page.

Landing Page Quality
Make sure that your landing page is also relevant to the ad that you are running. Creating customized landing pages for each topic of your AdWords ads will not only help improve your quality score, but you will also likely see more sales from the people who click on your ads since the landing pages are targeted to the promotion. For more information on how to create a landing page, check out our blog post on 3 Tips to Creating a Successful Landing Page.

Quality Ads
The quality of your ad also plays a part in your quality score and determines whether or not someone is going to click on your ad. Using your keywords in your ad will help improve the ranking and catch the eye of the customer. If they see the keywords they entered into Google in your ad, they are more likely to click on it.

Follow these three tips and watch your Quality Score increase.

What are some tips you can share that you have use to help improve your Quality Score?  Let us know in the comments below.