As
a heavy search engine user and long time search marketer, the quality
score introduced by Google has been a large frustration. It frustrates
legitimate advertising and the "way things have always been done". Now
knowing that Google is my "frienemy"
(per the Urban Dictionary), I want to "trust but verify" as they say.
I trust Google inherently because you can't argue with their success.
But they definitely have the ability to drive you INSANE on the way.
Recently, I have come across the Google quality score
as a stumbling block in relation to several different campaigns that I
am involved with. This spurred me to do some reading on the topic and
I found some great insight that finally makes some sense. Gord
Hotchkiss, CEO of Enquiro, posted on SearchEngineLand regarding eye
tracking tests and the Golden Triangle or what Gord terms as "The Area of Greatest Promise" which is the top left corner of any search display page.
Essentially,
Gord contends that Google's entire search/text ad business model is in
jeopardy if over time, this area of real estate is not always filled
with THE ABSOLUTE BEST answer. Its simple and he is right. That makes
sense and explains why Google would be extremely aggressive about
advertisers in that slot. If the ad copy and the landing page don't
have strong relevancy, over time Google is in trouble and then so is
every search engine marketer out there, myself included.
Its frustrating to live in a quality score world. However, its
existence tells me that search engine marketing is maturing and that
this issue will begin to separate the phony search engine marketing
types who don't invest strategic thought into their work. Often, the
score appears very arbitrary but those that embrace the concept rather
than fight it will win in the end.
