AdWords Adviser

Archive for November 27th, 2009

Thanks for visiting AdWords Adviser! Now you've found us, stay in touch by subscribing to our RSS feed.

If you’re looking for a simple reason why your Quality Score is rock bottom you could start by reviewing what is on your AdWords landing page.

Any one of these 7 common mistakes that we see advertisers make every day are guaranteed to impact your Quality Score, get your ad disapproved or, in extreme circumstances, ensure your site is banned from AdWords altogether.

1) Pop ups & Pop unders

Have you noticed those annoying windows that pop up over the web page you’re just about to read advertising an ebook or prompting you to subscribe to a newsletter?

And the other trick is when the advert or subscription form pops under the open window. Normally hidden from view, they reveal themselves only when the open window is minimised or closed.

If you must use these techniques on your web site, then avoid using them on your AdWords landing pages.

2) Browser Functions Changed Or Disabled

Another common mistake are including those small pieces of code in your landing page that stop the browser buttons from working normally.

For example, the ‘back’ button should return your visitor to the page they just came from, even if that page is not on your web site. It should not send your visitor to a page you’ve decided as appropriate or be disabled.

3) Requests For Personal Information

Many web sites have a form on them designed for collecting subscriptions to a newsletter etc. When starting your AdWords campaign we’d recommend you remove any forms from your landing pages.

You can always test their impact on the performance of your keywords by adding them again later, once your campaign is established.

Whenever you do use a form, collect the absolute minimum amount of data that you need (typically name and email) to service your offering and always include a link near your form to a detailed privacy policy.

4) Advertising

If you’re like many AdWords users, you’ll add advertising to all your web pages to try and boost revenue. Google will accept landing pages with advertising on them, provided it is not to excessive.

I know what you’re thinkng, how much advertising is excessive? The fact of the matter is that there are no hard and fast rules.

The correct thing to do is therefore to remove all advertising from your landing pages until your campaign is established. You can then gradually add advertising back onto your landing page a bit at a time and monitor exactly what impact it has on performance.

5) Affiliates That Don’t Comply With Google’s Guidelines

An affiliate is someone that promotes other peoples products for a percentage of each sale.

You’ve got to wonder if AdWords hates affiliates. They certainly make it very difficult to promote affiliate product and make a profit. But affiliates are still welcome, provided they comply with Google’s very strict affiliate marketing rules.

6) Original Content

The content on your AdWords landing page must be original.

For instance, if you’re selling mobile phones, don’t fill your landing page with content copied directly from the manufacturers web site. Write your own content instead.

You might, for example, write a review of the phone highlighting its good points, but also a few of the bad ones too.

7) Your Advertising Something Similar Or Identical To Other Advertisers

If you’re thinking, for example, I’ll sell my favourite type of mobile phone by writing a review on my web site and using it as my AdWords landing page, then you could be disappointed.

AdWords will not display pages of ads that are advertising something similar or identical to what other advertisers are advertising.

If lots of other web sites are advertising that product on the same keyword as you and your content is not significantly different, you may find that your ad doesn’t get shown very often.