Ad Rank and Quality Score
With so many advertisers wanting to run ads but limited ad space, how does Google decide which ads to show?
Google keyword ads have their own auction system that decides whose ads to show and whose rank first. This is called Ad Rank.
The higher the Ad Rank, the higher the ad position. Every time AdWords detects a new search query, it calculates Ad Rank.
So how do I get my ad into the top position?
The ad with the highest Ad Rank achieves the highest ad position.
So how do I know my Ad Rank?
Ad Rank element 1: maximum cost-per-click (CPC) bid
The most you are willing to pay each time your ad is clicked.
For example, if you set a maximum CPC bid of $25, the actual cost of each click will never exceed $25.
At this point, some people may ask: “So if I always raise my maximum CPC bid to the highest amount, will my ad always be in first place?”
The answer is no. Google places great importance on user experience. Whether your ad matches your website, and whether its content genuinely meets users’ needs, both affect Ad Rank.
Ad Rank element 2: Quality Score
This aims to strike a balance between the interests of three parties: users, advertisers and Google.
Good ad performance comes from good ad engagement, which means a good Quality Score.
Ad Rank element 3: ad extensions
Useful extra information about your business, or that your target audience may want to know, added below the ad copy:
- Sitelink extensions
- Structured snippet extensions
- Location extensions
- Call extensions
- App extensions
- Message extensions
- Callout extensions
So what is Quality Score?
The three components of Quality Score
- Ad relevance
- Expected click-through rate
- Landing page experience
The score calculated from these three components is the Quality Score.
*To encourage advertisers to create high-quality ads, the higher an ad’s Quality Score, the higher its ad position, and the lower its cost per click may be.
Bringing the three elements of Ad Rank together
Google’s aim is to balance the interests of three parties (advertisers, users and Google). This is why Google remains the leading search engine today: people trust Google because the information that comes up in Google Search is what users want.
