• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, July 29, 2013

Google has made some updates on how the company reports quality scores via AdWords. The changes are intended to make it easier for advertisers to adjust and revise ads, and get a better idea of what works and doesn't.

Within the next few days, the reporting update will tie the one to 10 numeric Quality Score more closely to its three key sub-factors, such as expected click-through rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience, explains Jen Huang, AdWords product manager, in a post.

Huang explains it doesn't change how the Quality Score gets calculated in real-time for each auction, and will not have any direct effect on ad performance.

While it may seem a small change given the tone of Google's announcement, it's actually quite important given how critical the score factors into paid-search rankings. Hank Beaver, group media director at 360i, explains how higher quality scores lead to lower prices and better ad positions.

"It is often thought that if one could truly understand the inner workings of Quality Score, one could outsmart Google’s second price auction, beat the competition and ultimately produce greater results," Beaver writes.

Beaver tells us about two types of quality scores -- auction-time, which is unaffected by the change; and 1-10 Quality Score reported in the AdWords front-end platform, which Google will update as a result of Google's calculation change.

As WordStream Founder Larry Kim explains, quality score still matters -- especially when it comes to reducing the cost per conversion. He tells us that more relevant ads generally get higher click-through rates, so CTR remains a major element in determining the Quality Score.