Let’s talk about Ad Rank and quality score…
You may wonder why you always see a competitor’s ad above your ad on the Google search results. The reason why someone else’s ad is above your’s is because they have a higher Ad Rank score, as it is the Ad Rank score that determines who’s AdWords ads show up on the first page and what in order they show up in.
Ad Rank is made up of your bid amount and your quality score (and now also your use of ad extensions).
No one outside of Google knows the exact Ad Rank formula, and it is certainly a very long formula. But it is commonly thought of to be something like:
Ad Rank = Bid Amount X (Quality Score + Ad Extensions)
With the bid amount weighting 50% and the quality score + ad extensions weighting 50%.
And of the 50% that the quality score and ad extensions make up, it’s assumed that quality score accounts for 80% of that 50% and ad extensions account for around 20% of that 50%.
Sorry for all the math. The above math can be summed up as the following thought process:
- Ad Rank determines who’s ads show up and in what order.
- Ad Rank is made up of the bid amount and the quality score (and also the ad extensions)
- Bid amount is equally important to quality score and ad extensions combined
- On the quality score + ad extensions side of things, quality score is 80% of that half and ad extensions makes up the other 20%.
So to improve your Ad Rank scores and show up higher than your competitors, you can raise your bids and/or improve your quality score and use of ad extensions.
Increasing your bids is always on the table.
But before you try that, try making use of as many ad extensions as possible. Just by using all of the ad extensions you can could potentially increase your Ad Rank scores by 10% and you can show up higher and more often without having to raise your bids.
This simple, easy, and free improvement to your AdWords campaigns could result in a 10% increase in Ad Rank scores.
Study this AdWords article on the ad extensions, and start using as many as you can!
