Something I've always struggled with is getting a good quality score, even though my website hosts highly relevant content, mentions the search keywords numerous times etc. No matter what I do I can't get a quality score above 5 or 6.
It's annoying having to pay $3.5+ for clicks :(
The 'Below first page bid' messages are also highly misleading - I have them showing for keywords where I consistently rank around 1st place.
Indeed, as mentioned in my 4th point, the first bid suggestion is very misleading and should not be taken too seriously. It's always higher than it should be actually.
Regarding quality:
Please view the YouTube click I posted in the video, it explains quite well how the quality score is determined.
In genera, optimize mainly for CTRs by using the proper keywords etc. In the end, your QF is almost entirely depdendend on the CTRs.
And sometimes, even though you have high CTRs, your QF is shown low. Do not be irritated, the CTR is the more accurate metric.
Well, it really depends on the targeting. For instance, if you have brand keywords, you should at least have 30% CTR. Overall, I would say that a CTR around 2-3% for search and 0.2-0.5% for GDN should do well.
But again, this can vary extremely from case to case.
It's annoying having to pay $3.5+ for clicks :(
The 'Below first page bid' messages are also highly misleading - I have them showing for keywords where I consistently rank around 1st place.