Adwords Quality Score Domain Killer

It seems like there are several levels of Quality Score minimum bids and how they apply to a domain name. At first when you get slapped with high minimum bids you can go back and work out better ad copy and improve the landing page/landing website. If that does not help to get your quality scores improved and to reduce your minimum bids the domain name moves up one level on Google’s internal ranking and after a certain time the punishment seems to become permanent. During spring/summer I was running a successful campaign on Google Adwords. Once the quality score and minimum bid settings moved mainstream I had to stop the campaign because I could not get a better quality score. It turned out Ok because at the same time the merchant provider made changes to their landing pages as well and so the traffic that I was sending from my landing page to the merchant failed to convert. No big deal.

I joined more affiliate networks this fall and one network had a similar campaign related to what I was running earlier that year and I figured it might be time to re-activate my campaigns. I build more content around my landing pages and added some more incoming links and let it all “cook” for a while. Finally I went to rebuild/re-activate my campaigns. I build a new landing page with dynamic keyword insertion and fired off SpeedPPC and Google Adwords Editor to upload my campaigns. I was instantly slapped with $10.00 minimum bids. I modified the landing pages again and let it sit before I tried again. Bang, $10.00 minimum bids. I built new keyword lists and bang, $10.00 minimum bids. No matter what I tried – the extremely high minimum bids just did not go away.

So, I went and bought a new domain name, uploaded the content from my other side only changing the domain name inside the text (as an example for the copyright, etc.) and then recreated my Adwords campaigns in SpeedPPC with the new domain name. I then uploaded the campaigns and bang, $0.03 minimum bids in many cases. It felt like Christmas when somebody turned on the lights on the Christmas tree. All my keywords were activated with minimum bids ranging from $0.03 to $0.05 and “Great” quality score ratings across the board. My campaigns are running again and I am ready to make some cash.

My Conclusion: Since deactivating my campaigns and starting with new ones from scratch (none of the old ones were used / I copied keywords and ad copy into new campaigns and pointed to a new landing page file) Google Adwords “remembered” the old quality score punishment and instantly applied towards anything done on that domain. I know from other occasions you can go back, delete the old campaign, fix some problems and come back and life is good – Google gives you another chance so to speak by re-evaluating your keywords, ad copy, and the landing page. However, if time passes by for too long without making changes (here: me just de-activating the campaigns, but not doing anything to the site for a few months) the punishment seems to move from temporary and fixable to permanent and non-fixable. The only “fix” in such a case is to register a new domain name and start fresh. That’s what I did and got my campaigns back up and running. So, if you are stuck on high minimum bids in Google Adwords, spend $8.00 on a new domain name and try again. It might save you a lot of time and might make you more money.

PS: If you are interested in buying SpeedPPC, make sure to do it through my affiliate link. I am still offering $100.00 Cash Back Bonus pay. Send me a copy of your purchase receipt and once your purchase is confirmed you’ll receive $100 cash back via PayPal.

Related posts:

1. Google Adwords Quality Score
2. Adwords Quality Score and my PPC Landing Pages
3. Google Quality Score – Beat it up
4. Quality Score Improvements
5. Google Adwords tracks domains across different Accounts