As the fifth part in our series for beginners or advertisers that just need some repetition in the basics of AdWords, we’re going to discuss how ad rank and quality score works in the Search network.

How the ads are positioned among the sponsored links and what you can do in order to improve the ad rank, are questions that many of our advertisers ask themselves. A keyword-targeted ad is ranked on a search result page based on the matched keyword’s maximum cost-per-click (CPC) and Quality Score. The quality score is based on the recent performance of the keyword and your ad, how relevant the two are to the search query as well as other relevant factors.

Ad rank = CPC bid × Quality Score

In order to get the best possible ad rank and hence a higher position, it’s important to:
  • Have relevant keywords and ad text, a strong CTR on Google, and a high CPC bid. You can reach this through ensuring keywords, landing page and ad text all relate.
  • Make sure your website meets our Landing Page Guidelines, for Quality purposes.
  • It’s very important for Google to give our users relevant information and give them a positive user experience, and hence we have the Quality Score. That’s why the quality score needs to be high before ad can be ranked in the top position.
  • Sponsored Links and Natural Search Results work independently of each other. If you would like help with SEO you can use these "Webmaster Guidelines" for future guidance.
Through following the rules of thumb above you shouldn’t only increase your Quality Score, but also get a higher ad rank, but at the same time your costs per click can be lowered. In other words, with higher Quality Score, you can get more advertisements for your already set budget.

We hope that these tips will be useful for you when advertising with AdWords. Don’t forget to visit AdWords Beginner’s Guide in the AdWords Help center for further information and guidance, and watch this free tutorial from the AdWords Online Classroom in order to learn even more about ad rank. Last but not least, remember to keep your eyes open for the next post in this blog series for beginners.

Posted by Omar Abou Selman - Google AdWords MENA
Author: Kristin Sarstedt – the Inside AdWords Team