Ever wonder how Google decides when and where to display your law firm’s paid search ads? In the following video, Hal Varian does one of the better jobs of explaining Google’s Ad Auction:
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From this, we learn some important pieces of information. First, it is very important to make sure that your keywords, ad copy, and landing pages are all very relevant to one another. While there are arguments as to how important this aspect is, it is easily within our control to ensure. Second, at the risk of stating the obvious, click through rate is king.
Common sense dictates that the more frequently an ad is clicked, the more money Google stands to make which gives Google the incentive of displaying the ad both more prominently and more often. Third, quality score, which is a function of the two previous components (relevance and click through rate) can have a significant aspect on bid price. While good quality scores can provide a significant discount on the cost per click, poor quality scores can inflate the price of a click.
Obtaining a good quality is imperative to a healthy paid search campaign.
However, often times, relevance and click through rates aren’t enough to enjoy top-level quality scores. Google also takes into account the historical performance and structure of your adwords account. That is why it is important to start your paid search campaigns on the right foot. Otherwise, you will be spending months and dollars, digging yourself out of the vicious low quality score, low click through rate cycle.
To me, the most amazing aspect of the Ad Auction, is that these calculations are made on every search and with each click. The complexity, speed, and continuous evolution of the Google landscape is truly something amazing.
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Jeff Berman, is co-founder of AttorneySync."Properly marketing a law firm online is about producing relevant content that helps a prospective client understand your expertise and how you are able to help them. Finally, it’s about getting that content found by the people you are trying to help."
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