Google Ads
What are Google Ads?
Google Ads is the name of Google’s pay-per-click (PPC) platform, which allows businesses to gain visibility across Google’s properties. The most common type of Google Ads ad is the search ad, which appears on the search engine results page (SERP) for searches relevant to the advertiser’s products and services—but businesses also use Google Ads to run display ads, shopping ads, YouTube ads, and more.
We explain, in full, how the Google Ads auction works here, but we’ll pare it down for a quick version. If, when someone searches on Google, advertisers are bidding on keywords relevant to the query, Google will enter all keywords into the auction that it deems relevant—one per account.
It will first give each keyword a Quality Score from 1-10, based on its relevance to the query and other factors. Then, it will give each keyword an Ad Rank score by multiplying its Quality Score by the corresponding advertiser’s maximum bid. The ads with the highest Ad Rank scores are the ones that show.
To “win” the Google Ads auctions and see your Google advertisement appear for relevant keywords, you’ll need to optimize your Quality Score and bid amount. The higher your Quality Score, in conjunction with your bid amount, the better your ad positioning. The following factors (among others) affect your Quality Score:
The relevance of your Google ad to the search query.The relevance of the Google keyword to your ad group.
The relevance of your ad to its landing page.
The historical click-through rate (CTR) of the ad and its ad group.
Overall historical account performance.
There are also overall benefits to having a high quality score:
Lower costs– Google rewards advertisers with high Quality Scores by lowering their cost per click (CPC), helping improve ROI.
Higher exposure – When you have high Quality Scores, your ads will display more often, in better positions on the SERP—the top vs. the bottom of the page. This enables you to get more clicks and conversions without having to raise your bids.