The Dawn of PPC Marketers. Long Live the Quality King!
By: Bartosz Ferenc
Tags: Google Ads Management, Performance Marketing, Advertising, Google Ads, PPC Marketing

You Will be a Legend (just like Will Smith)

Of course, Google says it’s just a supplement campaign, designed to cover the areas you couldn’t reach with standard campaigns. Personally, I don’t believe that at all, but it doesn’t bother me either. Even today working with and on the Ads Platforms is quite a ridiculous and absurd task. New features are here so — quite literally — everybody and anyone could advertise their business with automated advertising systems. No PPC middleman, more cabbage for Google. The same effect, no matter if you’re a professional marketer, grocery store owner or if you DIY the shit out of some wool as a side income. Your ads will be nearly as effective and as compelling for the all-judging AI as the next guys work. As for people — we will see.

We analyzed hundreds and thousands of data points and what we discovered is that Performance Max campaigns are often the cheapest way to accomplish your goals. I’m not saying that they generate max income, I’m saying they are profitable and generate lots of transactions. One could complain that Performance Max are working based on the strength of the brand itself, but our experience says the contrary. We took a look at one of our big retail players, who didn’t ever bother with building its brand. As it turned out, Performance Max significantly outperformed the potential and strength of the brand.

So, how can you to make the Performance Max Campaign truly perform? You have to optimize your ad resources, it’s as simple as that. But before we do, let’s get back to basics.

Quality Score is the Name of the Game

The key to success and most important ad parameter is its Quality Score. As far as I can see, it’s present (and sometimes hidden) in every type of campaign:

for Performance Max campaigns it’s a simple score — its either below average, average or above average

for Product Ads Quality Score is hidden

for Text Ads quality score is public and for the last decade it was like a Holy Grail of Google Ads

The Quality Score is graded just like Performance Max: below average, average and above average — if you do your job right. It’s a combination of 3 factors:

Expected CTR (Click-Through-Ratio), meaning how likely user is to click on your ad after ad exposition Ad Relevance, meaning how good of a fit is your ad to the search intent of the user Website Quality, meaning how relevant and useful is your ad for the user

To find out what your AdRank is, sum up your points for each of the 3 components of Quality Score and multiply it by the price for a click you are willing to pay. Your AdRank is what determines the position of your ad in the search results. There was a time in our history when Google shared some useful data with its users and pros working with their systems. That’s how we know few details about Quality Score and its implications for your marketing budget.

Online shop with 10/10 Quality Score:

will pay 10X less for the same click on the same position as the store with 1/10 Quality Score

for the same click on the same position will pay 2X less for the same click on the same position as the store with 5/10 Quality Score

for the same click on the same position Quality Score has greater impact on the price of the click than your max bid for the click

even small Quality Score optimization makes huge difference for the performance of your campaign

In the meantime, new Ad Extensions popped-up, influencing AdRank as much as Quality Score.

Important note: higher Quality Score doesn’t mean automatic lower click price. If you’d like to advance your AdRank position and increase your click-rate lowering CPC at the same time, you should pay attention to editing your max bid for the click, tROAS or other, automatically adjusting bids. The most important thing is to make changes in whole, looking at the bigger picture and the full scope of the problem to solve.

Bear in mind that Google Ads, as well as most popular Ad Platforms, use a minimum bidding system instead of a fixed price system. That means you pay only $0.01 more than your bidding opposition, not the whole declared price.

Read more about Actual Cost Per Click from Google, here: ​​https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6297

Google AdRank Explainer

Google hosts an auction, where people and companies can bid on the ad exposition. To take part in the bidding process one has to comply with the AdRank threshold. If more than one bidder complies with the AdRank threshold, their ads will be displayed in the available spots according to their AdRank (AdRank = Quality Score + maxCPC). The final price for the click will be set at +$0.01 above the next highest bid.

Let’s take a look at some examples:

You are the only bidder, and the minimum is set at 50. Your Quality Score is 10/10 and your max CPC is set at $10, then your AdRank is calculated with the formula:

AdRank = Quality Score (QS) x maxCPC AdRank = 10(QS) x $10(maxCPC) AdRank = 100

Example: We have got two bidders (minimum threshold = 50):

Bidder A: 10 (QS) | $10 (maxCPC) | AdRank = 100.

Bidder A is going to pay $5.01 for a click from the 2nd position

Bidder B: 8 (QS) | $20 (maxCPC) | AdRank = 160

Bidder B is going to pay $10.01 for a click from the 1st position

Minimum rate for a keyword click is dictated by the threshold and it changes from keyword to keyword. Our thinking and method is to pay the absolute minimum to outbid the AdRank of our competition, not the CPC! One look at the example above and you’ll know why. Quality Score has much more of an influence on AdRank than acceptable CPC manipulation.

Introduction of dynamic bidding strategies (e.g. tROAS — target Return on Ad Spend) made keyword clicks dependent on many more variables and factors than before. Factors not always relevant to the advertiser, in my opinion. Ads exposition started to evolve and the wind of change started to blow over the Google Ads ecosystem.

At the same time, the relevance of the Quality Score for your tROAS (e.g. tCPA — target Cost Per Acquisition) stayed at the same level. Even when you want to maximize the number of clicks, the algorithm will behave roughly the same, calculating and executing as many clicks from the budget as possible. Nevertheless, it’s still managed through Google CPC.

Type of adjustments are also adding a bit of complication to the whole puzzle. If the correlation of the search keyword to the advertisement and to the landing page is responsible for the quality score, all we have control over is basically a precise match process. Other forms of matching often do not correspond to the content of the advertisement, let alone the content of the page.

As a result, the phrase quality score in the broad match drops down, as it is the average of all auctions where the match took place. If we display 100 different phrases in a broad match during the day, the quality score will be the average of these hundred different phrases.

You can read more about how it works here: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10346549

There are of course some ways in which you could optimize, eg. inserting keywords. You can read more about that here: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/74992?hl=en

Having a solution like that in place means that when you have many keywords in the Ad Group, the Ad dynamically adjusts the content to the word that triggered the display of the ad.

I think it’s a bad practice (at least when it comes to the main phrases) and it’s much better to use the methodology of Single Keyword Ad Groups (SKAG). As the foundation of the SKAG methodology we prepare custom Ads and Landing Pages for every keyword separately. However the method is the most effective and produces the best results, at the same time it’s very time-consuming. The primary reason is quite simple — the Quality Score. When using this strategy, we have full control and influence over what we display for any given phrase and how user flow should look like. We can modify both the Ads and the Landing Page Headers to correspond directly to the searched phrase. In most cases this is usually enough to get the maximum result from these metrics, bumping up our Quality Score.

When we’re at it, it’s worth it to stop and take a deeper look at the DSA campaigns. It’s widely considered to be the most basic campaign type in Google Ads and it’s mechanic is also very simple (yet extremely effective). User searches keyword, DSA campaign is matching our landing page to the search query. Simple as that. The Ad headlines are dynamically created by Google. In theory, it’s simple, it’s quick and all phrases and keywords are covered. So, where is the catch? Well, as always, the devil is in the details.

DSA campaigns are dependent on the Quality Score and with the automatic Google process, we have no control over it. As a consequence we are at the mercy of the algorithm. Of course, as a countermeasure we can throw huge budgets and optimization processes — like correctly selecting goals, eg. tCPA — at it and it will work over time. Google will start displaying ads for the right phrases with appropriate effectiveness, limiting those that are either too expensive (low AdRank) or excluding those that do not provide conversion. Nevertheless, it’s just a CPC in disguise and nice clothes, nothing more.

Summary:

all Google Ads bidding strategies ultimately come down to determining the CPC bid. You can determine CPC yourself or using Google algorithm

the only way to influence the rates we pay for the Ad is to change your goals (maxCPC, tCPA, tROAS) or change the Quality Score

a high Quality Score will give us a higher AdRank, which will result in lower rates per click for the same kind of exposure. That will translate into lower cost and more conversions within the same tCPA / tROAS limits

you have full control over the quality results only with the help of the exact match system in the SKAG model. If you don’t comply to SKAG, your broad and phrase matching will result in displaying not the most efficient ad, lowering your KPIs

general DSA campaign do not allow for the Quality Score control

So, does it mean that the SKAG model is the only righteous way and the only correct solution for text campaigns? Of course not. First of all, if you’d like to build every campaign like this you would drown in the time-consuming — and therefore costly — process with no finish line and no way to say “I’m done and happy with it”. Secondly, imagine ecommerce with hundreds of thousands and millions of products. Number of keywords alone is very large — not to mention variations — and such a model would not be feasible for any large scale business.

SKAG + DSA = happy business

However, where there is a problem, there is also a solution. There are many “good practices” for reconciling time and efficiency — and to do that on scale. One of the most popular ones is the combination of the SKAG model for the most important phrases with DSA campaign supplementation. Keywords that have good DSA results are transferred to the SKAG campaign and should be excluded in the DSA. In this way we can adjust our budget accordingly and be more efficient with our spending. If the keyword is profitable, you are able to make it perform even better with SKAG. At the same time, a budget is released for subsequent phrases in the DSA. You get more for less and that’s what performance marketing is all about after all.

Landing Page Matters

Another thing to consider is the quality of the landing page itself. Google checks whether your page corresponds directly to the search phrase and whether it is “operational” — meaning it’s technical prowess. The search query — landing page compatibility is relatively easy to comply with. In most cases, if the keywords are on the page, the landing page Quality Score is usually high. You can always modify the script so the keywords passed in the ad’s address would be collected by the website and inserted, eg. into headline or page title. At least for us it is the best way to achieve the maximum performance of our marketing budgets

Another issue is the compliance with the Google website guidelines, which you can find here: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6167130. Few tips:

adapt the site to mobile devices

when we talk about mobile, user friendly navigation is even more important

use mobile optimization tests to see how your landing page is performing on different devices

speed up page loading time to guarantee the best user experience

As you can see, fulfilling this task requires both UX/Frontend and DevOps/IT resources. This already complicates the issue and makes it a very difficult problem to solve, as neither the client nor the agency have direct, proper resources at their disposal. In Sembot we took notice of that problem and how big of an impact loading times have on SEO, so we launched our own Technical Support Department, supporting our customers and white-label partners in this area. With quite a big success, I might add.

Consider CTR

The last and one of the most important ingredients of the Google Quality Score recipe. This one is the most difficult to manipulate, but at the same time it’s usually rather easy to obtain. You have a higher Quality Score value for the area where your ads are clicked more often than your competitors. Again, it’s just as simple as that. The easiest way to increase this value is by clickbait actions, such as: Promotion! Check Now! or -50% Discount! Side effect — almost every ad text from a professional marketer is almost identical and consists of the same phrases.

Summary: to maximize the performance of your text ads, take a closer look at 3 main parameters:

landing page keyword — search query correlation

landing page technical details, like loading times or UX for mobile

consider CTR

So, what about other forms of advertising?

It turns out that almost everything else works almost identically.

Duplicate your ads & Duplicate your revenue

Shopping Ads are working in a similar way to the DSA Ads. In its foundation it’s a product landing card combined with the match in the product feed. The match is based on the values and its fit, like title, description, image content, category or brand.

Side note: We encountered a number of specific Google algorithm behaviours that were hard to explain. Sometimes Google AI will extract improper elements (not advertised products) from the image materials, like a kitchen worktop extracted from a photo of a built- in kitchen-sink or extraction of the entrance doors from the photo of the advertised night lamp. We’re still working on the optimization of these particular keywords, but for us it’s a showcase of how the algorithm works.

At the same time, we’ve found a completely different field for optimization, which is naming products in the same way as converting search phrases. This task can be done in two ways: you can either add duplicates to your Feed using Excel (isn’t that always fun?) or you can use the whole array of possibilities offered by tools like Sembot.

We were able to reduce the price per click by several times compared to the “from the store” products by simply creating duplicates. What’s fascinating to me is that high efficiency of duplicates strategy suggests greater impact of the Quality Score on the CPC that it is in the text ads (they are rated on the 1 to 10 scale).

Optimization of the Shopping Ad Quality Score is also related to other text Quality Score attributes. To find out what’s what we designed and conducted an experiment. We wanted to increase CTR only by swapping product photos. Results: increase in CTR and at the same time drastic reduction in CPC (suggesting larger impact of the Quality Score for PLA).

+CTR & -CPC Photos Only Experiment

Changing default product photos from “common product photos” to custom ones led to sudden jumps in traffic and CPC drop at the same time. In the case of LEGO, we made some pictures of bricks before and after the build. In the case of a children’s kitchen set, we laid down on the ground all the elements of the product. It was a small change with a huge impact on the bottom line. In the result, the AdRank increased and the price per click decreased. This is not natural for text ads, but it’s easily explainable for PLA. It’s due to the nature of the ad placement itself, as the products are often displayed horizontally, next to each other and we do not have big discrepancies in CTR between positions.

This is the first moment when the bulb in your head should light up. If unique photos affect CTR, in consequence affecting ROAS and the number of conversions — should it be the responsibility of the marketer or the store owner to deliver? In Sembot we took it upon ourselves, as we believe holistic USP is the best USP from the store owner perspective.

Now, things are getting really interesting. If video is an item of advertising, should performance agencies take upon them this task, as it’s crucial in order to have a high Quality Score?

So, let’s dig deeper. Do videos and photos have a quality score? Of course they have! So another question appears — who should be accountable for the right video — campaign fit? What to do if a video does not comply with Google? What to do if a video is not performing? Record others? Is it always the right answer?

When we fought with this beast we took a programmatic approach, delivering proper, Google-friendly videos on a mass scale. We operated under the assumption that video assets space is not very competitive right now, proper video will deliver results for our clients. We were right. The topic of Google video ecosystem is a topic for a separate article, but please bear in mind that proper targeting of YouTube Ads is one of the cheapest sources of conversion available for marketers today.

How do you optimize such resources? Unfortunately, Google won’t tell you exactly if and what’s wrong or right with your video. You can find out more information about that subject here: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/11385582?hl=en#zippy=%2Cbest-practices-for-all-business-types%2Cbest-practices-for-online-sales-non-shopping

The Future & The Dawn of PPC Marketers

Let me quote tips from Google to you, my dear PPC Marketer, and let me tell you what’s up in 2022:

From Google Optimization Tips for Performance Max (direct quote)

Refresh your creatives. Creative is your most powerful tool to drive performance, and allows you to customize the campaign to promote new products or new offers. For the best results, focus on providing unique content.

For weekend sales, start the campaign 2–3 weeks in advance, then refresh your creative frequently to move from more generic store creative to sales-focused creative. This strategy will allow you to do time-based promotions without compromising performance.

Customers look to visual sources online for inspiration about what to buy. Use visual inventory to target new customers.

As you can see, this is a creative task, not an analytical one. This completely changes the scope of work and competences required from the PPC Marketers.

Over the years, optimization of advertigins in Google Ads ecosystem has been based on writing over and over again idiotic, non-human sentences within a limit of a 30-character titles and a bit longer description. Marketers of today have much greater accountabilities and have to do a wider array of tasks with the same resources at hand. With text we can easily cope with, but add graphics or video to the mix and resources might be lacking.

Recently I’ve heard a great quote, illustrating the situation we found ourselves in:

We have come full circle and we’re back in Kotler marketing.

Performance marketing of tomorrow will focus on creation — text, graphics, video. Marketers will optimize creative assets, like video, to comply with the best practices. You will add to that segmentation, assigning budgets, avoiding product cannibalization and preparing product information and you will make yourself a true PPC Marketer for the future.

The Quality King has Returned! Long Live the King!

The funniest thing is that most people who want to start working in performance marketing imagine this profession as a combination of creative and analytical challenge. They associated marketing with claims, slogans, creation and sometimes working with celebrities on big video sets before the Super Bowl. As a CEO of a leading agency I can also testify how surprised they are, when we show them for the first time Excel, Advertising and Analytical Panels. Now, as we completed the circle, the definition of Performance Marketer is also changing. The creative is back, the analytical is still as important. That means your toolbox should grow bigger if you want to stay on the top of the game.

Google Ads are clearly more and more Facebook-like. Is it for good or for the bad, it’s hard to tell and for sure, I don’t know the answer to that question yet. But for sure, it will be different!