New! Choose Site and Placement of your Google Ads in their Content Network

By Micah Johnson | October 4, 2007

Google has updated their adWords interface to allow advertisers to pick which sites they want to advertise on and where they want their ad placed on the selected sites within Google Content Network.

We’ve changed the AdWords Site Tool to help you find these new options. When a site has relevant publisher-defined placements, they will be listed beneath the site’s URL in the Site Tool search results. (See fandango.com in the example below.) To see all the placements for a given site, click the new ‘View all placements’ link, also found beneath the site’s URL.

How is the Google Quality Score Calculated?

By Micah Johnson | October 2, 2007

Google is constantly updating the formula used to calculate your Google Quality Score. The lists below outline some of the core components.

Used to Calculate your Minimum Bid:

• The keyword’s clickthrough rate (CTR) on Google; CTR on the Google Network is not considered
• The relevance of the keyword to its ad group
• The quality of your landing page

Used to Calculate Ad Position:

• The matched keyword’s CTR on Google; CTR on the Google Network is not considered
• The relevance of the keyword and ad to the search query

Used to Calculate Eligibility to Appear on Sites within the Content Network:

• The ad’s past performance on this and similar sites
• The quality of your landing page

Used to Determine Ad Appearance on a Site-Targeted Site:

• The quality of your landing page

Google Shares how to Lower your Cost-Per-Clicks and Achieve Better Ad Positions

By Micah Johnson |

This article is related to AdWords Ranking only.

A high Google Quality Score will give you better ad rankings, placement on relevant sites in the content network, and lower minimum cost-per-clicks.

Last month, Google published a number of items that will reduce your Landing Page’s Google Quality Score if used.

Avoid These Practices on your Landing Pages

Web sites and landing pages that use the following will be penalized with low landing page scores:

• Data collection sites that offer free gifts, subscription services etc., in order to collect private information
• Arbitrage sites that are designed for the sole purpose of showing ads
• Malware sites that knowingly or unknowingly install software on a visitor’s computer

I wouldn’t suggest trying to fool Google either. If a user complains about your landing page for using the techniques listed above, Google may ban you from further advertising.

Other Landing Pages that
will Attract a Low Quality Score

• eBook sites that show frequent ads
• ‘Get rich quick’ sites
• Comparison shopping sites
• Travel aggregators
• Affiliates that don’t comply with Google’s affiliate guidelines

What’s the definition of Google Quality Score?

The Google Quality Score is a dynamic variable assigned to each of your keywords. By calculating a “variety of factors”, it measures how relevant your keyword is to your ad group and to a user’s search query.

In general, the when you have a higher quality score, you will pay less for each click on adwords, and achieve a better adWords ad position.

Google put this in place to ensure that only the most relevant ads appear for each search performed.

Learn how the Google Quality Score is Calculated

View the full Google Blog Post