For your paid ad campaign to do well, it is imperative that you score high on a metric Google AdWords calls Quality Score. This all-important metric decides where your PPC ad should appear, as well as how much should an advertiser pay for each click.

To understand how to improve your AdWords Quality Score, first, you need to know the determinants it depends on. These are ad relevance, the experience of a user on the landing page, and expected CTR. This post will provide you tips on how to improve on all these determining factors.

Ad Relevance

Problem: If your keywords are not closely related to the ad copy, you will find yourself staring at the dreaded ‘below average’ status. It means either your keyword is not specific enough or maybe you are trying to kill too many birds with one stone. This can also happen if someone copies ads from one ad group to the other, and doesn’t tailor the content for that group.

Solution: To rectify this, make sure that the top keywords in your ad copy also feature in your headline, body, and if possible, the display URL. You can also try moving the keywords to a different, more relevant ad group or deleting them altogether if all else fails.

Landing Page

Problem: Google believes that most visitors leave a mobile site if the page takes more than 3 seconds to load. This means that you should regularly check the mobile friendliness and the mobile speed of your website. Once the page does load, the content on the page must prove relevant and useful to the searcher. Often, when the landing page contains a form, the user is not clear what will happen if they fill that form, and that is a big issue in the way of any successful paid campaign.

Solution: To ensure a high-quality score, the keywords of the ad that brought the user to this landing page must feature in the content of this page as well. Further, communicate clearly to the user what will happen if they fill up the form. For example, they will get a free trial or the link to download a report.

Expected CTR

Problem: First things first, don’t get confused between the CTR and the expected CTR; they are different. Expected CTR is determined on the basis of a keyword’s performance when compared to other advertisers’ accounts. A low CTR score means when a user sees the ad, they are less likely to click on it. And that obviously, is a cause for concern. A common cause of this issue is keywords being triggered by irrelevant searches.

Solution: If you are seeing an expected CTR that is below average, check that your ads are in the correct keyword groups. Freshen up your list of negative keywords and condense match types to make sure no ad is triggered by an irrelevant search.

These tips will help you increase your Google AdWords Quality Score and become more competitive. Your ad placement should become better, leading to higher click-through rates. What’s more, lower minimum bids for keywords will translate into lower costs for the campaign. Start optimizing today!