Google began determining a Quality Score per search for Adwords Ads in September of 2008. Prior to this time, a Quality Score was determined once and used across multiple searches. Determining Quality Score per search gave Google the opportunity to use geo-targeting. Learn what this means and how you can use it to your advantage.

Geo-targeting is when Google boosts an Ads Quality Score, thus giving it higher ad positions, traffic and CTR based on the geographic location of the advertisers. Google determines the geographic region of the consumer by checking his IP Address. Google must check the geographic region of the advertiser by the IP Address of the landing page. If both the consumer and advertiser are in the same geographic region, the advertisers ad will get a Quality Score boost.

Could geo-targeting hurt a nationwide or global campaign?

Potentially, yes. A nationwide or global campaign may face competition in metropolitan areas. If other advertisers in these metropolitan areas are deemed "local" merchants, they could get Quality Score boosts. This lowers the ad position of the nationwide or global advertiser. A lower position results in less clicks and less CTR. This damages the Quality Score further, resulting in lower positions and higher costs per click.

Is it good for the consumer?

One large appeal of the internet is to be able to view goods and service offered by merchants outside of a local area. If the internet offers no more diversification than driving around town, the internet is likely to some of it's appeal.

How can you use this to your advantage?

Adwords experts often recommend using a high cost per click for two or three weeks to get a high CTR. When a CTR becomes established, you can often lower the CPC bid with losing ad position because of the high CTR.

You could use a similar tactic with geo-targeting. You could limit your Adwords ad to run only in the geographic region where your hosting service is located. You would then get a Quality Score boost from the geo-targeting, result in higher ad positions. High ad positions translate to better CTR. Then after two or three weeks at a good CTR, you can allow you ad to running nationwide or globally while still reaping the benefits of a high CTR.

Also, you could have two identical or similar websites, one hosted on the East Coast of the United States and the other hosted on the West Coast. You could target your ads for specific regions, and send visitors to the correct website for their region. Perhaps more granularity is needed than just East Coast versus West Coast, but you get the idea.

You've read the Adwords Strategy Guide and Advanced Guide. You have implemented all the techniques to get to a Good Quality Score. But, Adwords has still assigned you a Poor Quality Score. What do you do? The following list of items are the things you want to check to raise that poor Quality Score.

(1) What is Adwords saying is wrong?

Adwords provides some diagnostic information when they assign a poor Quality Score. Take a look inside Adwords and see why Adwords gave you the poor score. When you know what Google thinks is wrong, you can attack the problem. Adwords reports on three categories of problems.

(a) Keyword relevance
Generally this means you have a poor CTR. More on how to fix it in a moment.

(b) Landing Page
This means your Landing Page is not tailored to your keyword. Create a unique landing page for your keyword and optimize the page for it.

(c) Landing Page Load Time
Your Landing Page was too slow. Start removing images, javascripts, stylesheets and any other elements not directly related to your message.

(2) How is the CTR of the ad?

Once you begin to get traffic (impressions) of your ads, the CTR becomes a major factor in the quality score. Google is letting the human consumers determine if your ad is relevant to their searches. If the ad is relevant, human consumers click your ad and the CTR goes up. If the human consumers don't click your ad, the CTR goes down. Google alters the quality score based on the CTR. It's a survival of the fittest ad when you begin to get impressions.

The rule is you must have a half percent CTR to maintain a Quality Score. But, I recommend shooting for a 2% or 3% CTR. If you don't have a CTR of at least 0.5% you should do one of the following...

(a) Improve the sales copy of the ad.
This is crucial if you want to keep the keyword. Your ad needs to be compelling enough to make consumer want to click it. If you don't have a 0.5% CTR your ad isn't doing it's job.

(b) Increase the max CPC bid.
You can increase the max CPC to get a higher ad position. A higher CPC bid means higher ad position, more traffic, and (hopefully) more CTR. After you have achieved a CTR of 2 or 3% for two weeks, you can start lowering you CPC bid because the CTR is likely boosting your Quality Score, and you can maintain the higher ad position without spending as much.

(c) Delete the keyword.
The Quality Score of your entire campaign can be damaged by poor performing keywords. Delete them if you can't keep the CTR above 0.5%.

(3) Revise your Landing Page.

Can you optimize the landing page more? I assume you have the keyword in the page title, meta tags and heading tags. Have you used it throughout your sales copy as well? Adwords likes to see the keyword in the content. Assuming you have read the Advanced Guide, you can still use PHP to dynamically insert the keyword just like you did for the page title and meta tags.

You know that tailoring your Adwords ad and landing page to your keyord is the way to achieve a good Quality Score. This is the major consideration when starting a new campaign. You also know that the CTR of your keyword is important to maintain a good Quality Score.

But, what else can you do to boost your Quality Score. Assuming you've done the above, what else can you do to get a leg up on the competition? Here you'll find several tactics designed to boost your Quality Score even further.

(1) Have a link to your sitemap on your landing page
Google has said "Develop an easily navigable site." This means you need your landing pages to link to a sitemap of your website.

Normally, you don't want to give a consumer an alternative to taking your desired action (sign-up for your mailing list, buy a product, etc.) by having some unrelated link on your landing page. But Google wants you to provide a way for the consumer to link to the rest of your website. In other words, Google wants you to have more than just a single landing page visible to the consumer.

You still don't want much navigation on your website. But you can put a single link to a sitemap on your landing page. This link should be below the fold (down to where you'd need to scroll down to see it), preferably past your sales copy as the last thing on the page. Don't be afraid to make the font smaller as most footer links tend to be of a small font.

(2) Have a link to a "Privacy Policy" page and "Contact Us" page.
Google states "Most internet users are concerned with understanding and controlling how websites use their personal information." Google wants you to be transparent, and inform your customers what you tend to do with their personal information.

Create a page named "privacy-policy.htm" on your website, this will help Google identify it. Copy an existing policy from some other website and modify it for your website. Link to this page from your landing page. Again, put the link below the fold and at the end of your sales copy. You can use a smaller font for the link.

Google also wants you to have contact page to make it easy for a customer to reach you. Name the page "contact-us.htm" to help Google recognize it. Include a mailing address, phone number and email address. Link to the page from your landing page.

If you want to take this tactic to the extreme, you might also try "Terms of Use", "Terms and Conditions", "About Us", "Shipping Policy" or "Return Policy" pages if applicable.

(3) Page Load time
Google now considers page load time as a factor in the Quality Score. Remove unneeded elements to keep your page lean, and therefore fast. Don't have too many images.

(4) Geographic targeting
Google now reevaluates the Quality Score on every search. Part of the Quality Score is the geographic location, and Google will boost local merchants. Google knows the consumers IP Address and is able to tell the location from it.

Appending city or state names to your keywords, and then tailoring ads and landing pages for your new keywords may increase you Quality Score.

Plus, you could limit your campaign to your local area. This would diminish traffic, but it could boost your Quality Score.

You know that writing good sales copy is important for success. You need to compel consumers to click on your ads. You need to persuade consumers to opt-in to your mailing list. You need to persuade to buy your products and services. You accomplish all of these things with your sales copy. How do you write good sales copy?

Good sales copy doesn't require a professional copywriter. You can write good copy yourself. Start by looking at examples from your competition. What do their ads and landing pages look like? You also need to test, which means tracking results and comparing variations in your ads and landing pages.

Copywriting comes down to one thing. You want the consumer to take an action. You want the consumer to register, make a purchase, etc. Good sales copy follows four basic steps to compel a consumer to take an action. These steps can be described in the acronym AIDA. It stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. You'll see what these steps are in terms of a landing page.

(1) Capture the consumers Attention.
This is the job of your headline, and perhaps the following sentence. You've to got to make the consumer want to read the rest of the copy when the consumer comes to your page. If you fail to do this in the online world, the customer will be gone in 5 or 10 seconds. Your headline needs to make the consumer stop and take the time to read the rest of your landing page.

For example, imagine your market is actors and you have a product to help them win roles from auditions. Your headline may be something like this.

"Do you know how to prepare in the ten minutes before giving your audition?"

(2) Create Interest in your Product or Service.
After you've got their attention, you need to make them interest in what you have to say. The common practice in sales copy is to describe a problem that the consumer may have that your product or service will provide a solution to. Then demonstrate how your product or service provides a solution.

Again, for auditioning actors, your copy might be like this.

"Most auditions are cold read auditions. A typical audition consists of you getting a side when you arrive an audition. You will have ten or fifteen minutes to read over the side and prepare to read in front of the casting director or agent. The casting agent will decide to call you back or not based on your cold read. Do you know what to do in those ten minutes to prepare for your audition?

• How should you develope a character in ten minutes?
• Should you try and memorize as much of the side as you can?
• What should you do if you are reading with the casting director or agent?
• What do you do if you are paired with another actor or actress?
• Does the scene require you to cry on command?
• Will you have to improvise parts of the audition?
• What will you do without props and proper setting? Is your character supposed to enter through a door?

Get the Productname now to discover the answers. The Productname teaches you how to deliver a great cold read. Delivering a great cold read is the most important step toward wining an acting role."

(3) Build desire for your Product or Service. You created problem for the consumer, now you need to describe how you product is the solution.

You may have heard to list benefits instead of features. You never want to talk about features. Instead, you need to talk about what the feature will mean to the customer. Will it save them time? Will it make their task or life easier? Will it save them money? These types of things are benefits. This is what you need to concentrate on, telling consumer how they will personally gain from your product.

In addition, testimonials are often used at this stage. Many consumers place stock in testimonials from other parties, and they help build desire.

(4) Compel the consumer to take Action. This is last part of the sales letter or landing page. Here to give the consumer the chance to take the action you've been leading them to.

Often you'll see a call to action used, like "click here now" or "get your copy now". This is appeals to the subconscious mind of the consumer, and telling them specifically what to do.

You may use tactics like creating a sense of urgency with an ordering deadline.

It is the accepted best practice to give the consumer only the option to take your action. Don't give them a navigation menu, or any other click. Create your sales letter so that they either take your action or leave.

Starting off with a $1.00 cost per click sounds high doesn't it? It is, and that's the point.

You want to start your Adwords campaign with a high cost per click. For anyone on a marketing budget, that certainly sounds counter intuitive. But the simple truth is you are looking to save money in the long run.

Setting an initial high cost per click is one of the best kept secrets of the Adwords industry. Your quality score for any keyword is largely determined by the number of consumers who click your ad. Google allows the marketplace to determine the best ads in a Darwinian survival of fittest game. The more clicks your ad gets per impression, the more Google increase the quality score.

Let’s assume you've already optimized your Adwords ads and landing pages according to the Adwords Strategy Guide. When you do so, your ad starts with a high quality score. This is important so that you will get better ad positions and more traffic for a much lower cost.

But if you bid a low cost per click your ad is going to show at lower ad positions. That means your get impressions, but since you are not in the top 3 ad positions you are going to get fewer clicks. Impressions without clicks lowers the CTR. Lower CTR causes Google to think the ad is not relevant and lower the quality score. You need a CTR of at least a half percent.

Instead, you start with a high initial cost per click. You bid for the top three ad positions, or perhaps the top ad position. Keep in mind you'll still get the top spot cheaper with the Adwords Strategy Guide than without out. Now you are getting many clicks per impression and your CTR is on the rise. Your quality score goes up.

About two weeks after the launch of your campaign you can begin to slowly lower the click per click. Your high CTR will allow you maintain your top three position while the cost per click is dropping. As long as the CTR remains high, you can keep dropping the cost per click and still maintain your ad position.

You will have a few weeks of a high cost per click. However, in the long run you will be able to have cheaper costs per click because of the CTR you captured in those first few weeks.

Plus, you also know that Adwords is a Vickery Auction. That means you'll only pay what is need to beat the competition. So even if you bid a $1.00 CPC a long-tail keyword, odds are you'll never pay anywhere near $1.00 per click. Of course you'll have to keep an eye on it, because the competition can change at any time.