|
| |
Search Ads Quality Getting Started Guide
Quality and what you payIf you watched Hal Varian explain the basics of the AdWords auction on our welcome page, you probably noticed that Ads Quality can have an impact on how much you actually pay for a click on your ad. A great way to maintain your position on the search results page while lowering your costs is to improve your keyword Quality Score. Here we explain how Google uses your maximum cost-per-click bid and Quality Score combination to determine how much you actually pay for a click on Google.com.
You'll never pay more for a click on your ad than the matched keyword's maximum cost-per-click (CPC)
bid. In fact, our quality-based pricing system ensures
that you'll often pay less than that amount.
You always pay the lowest amount possible for the highest position you can get given your Quality Score and CPC bid. To find this amount, we divide the Ad Rank of the ad showing beneath you by your Quality Score, then round up to the nearest cent (we show this part of the formula as "+ $0.01" to keep things simple). For search pages, Ad Rank is calculated by multiplying the matched keyword's CPC bid by its Quality Score.
Actual CPC = (Ad Rank to beat ÷ Quality Score) + $0.01 Let's look at an example: Two advertisers, Mary and Tom, are eligible to show ads for the same search query. Tom has set a maximum CPC bid of $3 on his keyword, which has a Quality Score of 11. Multiplying these two gives you 33 - the keyword's Ad Rank. Mary's keyword has a maximum CPC bid of $2, which is lower than Tom's. However, her keyword has a higher Quality Score of 20, giving her the higher Ad Rank of 40. Mary wins the better ad position because her keyword has the higher Ad Rank. To determine how much she pays for a click in this position, divide Tom's Ad Rank of 33 by Mary's Quality Score of 20. Then, add $0.01. This gives you $1.66 - lower than her maximum CPC bid of $2.
|
