Google Adwords has recently released a feature to allow advertisers to review historic quality scores (QS) at the keyword level, thereby giving users the ability to monitor the impact of QS on costs-per-click (CPCs).
The new reporting feature also includes:
Landing page experience
Perfect to use when making website changes; used to monitor if the impact has had a positive or negative impact. For example, if changes to the page have decreased what Google views as a good landing page experience, then it will reduce QS and thereby increase CPCs.
Ad relevance
This will help with ad copy changes and testing. Previously, success was determined by the click-through-rate (CTR) or the cost-per-acquisition (CPA), but with historic ad relevance added to the mix advertisers can ensure the best possible copy is used to a tailored audience.
EXP. CTR
Finally, one of the most important features that will help towards making smarter tweaks to bidding rules. By reviewing Google’s expected click-through-rate after each bidding change (given enough data is collected), this will be a good way to monitor what Google’s predicted CTR is: Does Google think higher bids will result in a better average position and thereby expected click-through-rate? Or did an ad copy change improve this metric? Either way, this is an important component into reducing CPCs.
All Response Media Viewpoint
We have been using scripts designed to collect and store the above information on a daily basis into a Google document for us to review trends at a later date. However, this is a welcome feature as the data provided by Google’s new reporting is more granular and no longer requires such scripts.
In future, the above reports should be used to help measure success for landing pages, ad copy or bidding tests as they provide insight into Google’s auction model and help reduce overall CPCs and thus improve performance. The landing page changes can also be used to feedback to website developers on the impact of each change.