How do you factor in keyword relevance and quality score when adjusting bids?

When adjusting bids in Bing Ads or any other PPC platform, keyword relevance and Quality Score play a critical role in determining the effectiveness and efficiency of your campaigns. These factors directly influence your ad rank, cost-per-click (CPC), and overall campaign performance. Here's how you can factor in these elements when adjusting your bids:

1. Understanding Keyword Relevance and Quality Score
Keyword Relevance: This refers to how closely your keywords align with the user's search intent, your ad copy, and your landing page content. The more relevant the keyword is, the more likely it is to lead to a click and conversion.

Quality Score: This is a metric provided by Bing Ads (and Google Ads) that reflects the overall quality of your ads and landing pages based on several factors:

Expected Click-Through Rate (CTR): How likely users are to click your ad when they see it.

Ad Relevance: How closely the ad copy matches the keyword.

Landing Page Experience: How relevant, useful, and user-friendly your landing page is.

The higher the Quality Score, the more efficient your bidding becomes, as you pay less for better positions. Improving keyword relevance directly impacts Quality Score, leading to better ad placements at lower costs.

2. Adjusting Bids Based on Keyword Relevance
The more relevant a keyword is to your business, the more valuable it becomes. You can adjust bids to reflect this relevance:

For High Relevance Keywords:
Increase Bids for High-Performance Keywords: If a keyword is highly relevant and converting well (high CTR and conversion rates), you should consider increasing the bid to capture more traffic while ensuring it's cost-effective. High-relevance keywords typically have better Quality Scores, which means you can bid more aggressively without significantly raising your CPC.

Allocate More Budget: Since these keywords are highly relevant, it makes sense to allocate more of your budget towards them. By bidding higher, you'll increase your chances of capturing more impressions and clicks that are more likely to convert.

Example: If a keyword like "buy premium leather handbags" is generating a high CTR and has a high Quality Score, increase the bid to secure more traffic and expand your reach to users who are ready to convert.

For Low Relevance Keywords:
Lower Bids for Low-Performance Keywords: If a keyword has low relevance, it might not attract quality clicks, and its performance might be poor. In such cases, reduce bids or even pause those keywords if they consistently perform poorly. Low-relevance keywords tend to have lower Quality Scores, leading to higher CPCs, which might not justify the return on investment (ROI).

Refine or Replace the Keywords: If certain keywords are consistently underperforming due to low relevance, consider refining your keyword list or replacing them with more targeted keywords that better align with user intent.

Example: A broad term like "bags" may not convert well if it's too vague, leading to a low Quality Score and wasted ad spend. Lower the bid or refine the keyword to something more specific like "premium leather handbags for women."

3. Impact of Quality Score on Bidding
Quality Score plays a critical role in how much you'll pay for a click. A high Quality Score can allow you to pay less for a higher position, while a low Quality Score may result in higher CPCs for the same position. Here's how to adjust bids in response to Quality Score:

For High Quality Score Keywords:
Bid More Aggressively: If your keywords have high Quality Scores, this means your ad copy and landing pages are closely aligned with the user's search intent. You can afford to increase bids for these keywords because they're likely to produce more relevant traffic with a better chance of conversion. The higher your Quality Score, the more likely you are to achieve a favorable ad rank at a lower cost.

Maintain or Increase Budgets: High Quality Scores help to maintain a low CPC. As a result, you can allocate more budget to these high-performing keywords without significantly increasing your costs.

Example: If you have a keyword like "best running shoes for marathon" that has a high Quality Score, you can increase your bid to capture more impressions and clicks from users who are more likely to convert.

For Low Quality Score Keywords:
Lower Bids for Low-Quality Score Keywords: If your keywords have low Quality Scores, you'll be paying more per click to achieve the same position. To control costs, lower bids for keywords with low Quality Scores or consider optimizing your ads and landing pages to improve their relevance.

Improve Ad Relevance and Landing Pages: Low Quality Scores are often a result of poor ad relevance and/or a poor landing page experience. To fix this, you may need to adjust the keyword in your ad copy, update your landing pages, or create more targeted ads. Once you improve the Quality Score, you can increase bids and see better performance at a lower cost.

Example: If a keyword like "cheap shoes online" has a low Quality Score, first evaluate the ad copy and landing page. Update them to be more relevant to the keyword. If that doesn't improve the Quality Score, reduce the bid for the keyword until it improves.

4. Bid Adjustments Based on Expected CTR
Expected CTR is one of the components that contribute to Quality Score. If you have a keyword that is relevant to your audience and shows a high Expected CTR, you can afford to increase bids. If the expected CTR is low, you may want to focus on improving the ad copy or landing page, and in the meantime, reduce bids to avoid overpaying for low-performing clicks.

For High Expected CTR Keywords:
Increase Bids: If your ad has a high expected CTR due to relevance, it's likely that users will engage with your ad, leading to better performance. Increasing bids will help you capture more impressions and clicks that are more likely to convert at a better ROI.

Example: A well-targeted ad for "buy red running shoes for marathons" with a high expected CTR will likely attract highly relevant traffic. Increasing the bid will help secure more impressions and clicks for this high-performing keyword.

For Low Expected CTR Keywords:
Lower Bids: If your keyword has a low expected CTR, it means that users are not clicking your ad as often. In such cases, lowering bids may be appropriate. Alternatively, focus on optimizing the ad copy to make it more appealing and relevant to the audience.

Example: If a keyword like "buy shoes online cheap" has a low expected CTR and poor engagement, you might lower the bid until you can improve the ad copy or refine targeting.

5. Using Negative Keywords to Improve Quality Score
In addition to adjusting bids based on keyword relevance and Quality Score, you can use negative keywords to prevent your ads from showing for irrelevant queries. This improves both your CTR and Quality Score over time, which can lower your CPCs and allow you to bid more efficiently.

For Example:
If you're bidding on "leather shoes", but you don't sell any low-cost options, you can add negative keywords like "cheap" to avoid irrelevant clicks. By preventing irrelevant traffic, you improve your Quality Score and can bid more effectively for high-quality traffic.

6. Monitor Performance and Adjust Over Time
Continuously monitor your keyword performance and Quality Score metrics to identify areas for improvement. Keywords with high relevance and high Quality Scores may see better performance with higher bids, while low-performing keywords may need optimization or bid reductions.

Action Steps:

Regularly check Quality Score and keyword relevance.

Adjust bids upwards for high-relevance, high-Quality Score keywords to capture more high-converting traffic.

Improve the relevance of low-Quality Score keywords by adjusting ad copy, targeting, and landing pages.

Use automated tools and scripts to manage these adjustments on an ongoing basis.

In Summary:
Keyword relevance and Quality Score are vital when adjusting bids. High relevance and a good Quality Score can justify higher bids due to better ad rank and lower CPC.

Increase bids for keywords with high relevance and high Quality Score, as they are more likely to drive conversions.

Lower bids for low-performing keywords with poor relevance or low Quality Score to avoid wasting budget.

Regularly optimize ad copy, landing pages, and targeting to improve Quality Score, which in turn helps improve bidding efficiency.

Use negative keywords to prevent irrelevant traffic and improve overall campaign performance.