Google (GOOG) announced that starting next week it will be changing the way that it calculates the quality scores for advertisers, the factor that determines what minimum bids will be, along with the placement of ads.
This is all in response to criticisms that marketers want more clarity in the process, whereas in the past many have considered everything too hidden and unknown to them.
Now the search giant will be allowing marketers to view data on minimum bids of the keywords withing their specific ad group, and add a rating system that tell the buyer whether their keywords will be "great," "ok" or "poor."
On Google's Inside Adwords blog they said, "Next week, we're launching improvements to the Quality Score algorithm that sets minimum bids for keywords in order to improve the quality of ads that we serve to our users. These changes should make it easier for high quality ads to enter the auction while also discouraging low quality ads. First, we're improving the way that we set minimum bids for keywords where we have limited data."
Some say that for those that know what they're doing, it really doesn't add much to the mix.
Those that will be most affected by the changes will be those that will purchase the more generic terms, because Google considers them of low quality. I think that those that buy huge batches of keywords could also be hurt, as some companies buy them by the thousands.
While it does add a little transparency, this seems almost like a non-event. It will also add costs to certain people that want certain words, while possibly pushing people to lose a competitive edge by helping those that havne't done their homework as thoroughly.
I'm not sure this really does anything but add interference to the process, although the service is optional according to the Google post, which at least is a good thing.
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