Yahoo search ads have been ranked using a quality index since the launch of Panama. This number is important, because ads with a higher quality index can receive higher ranking in sponsored search results. Advertisers can see what their ad’s quality index is, on a scale of one to five, within their account interface. But knowing how to improve that index is another matter.
Yahoo offers some tips to understand and improve your quality index in the Yahoo Search Marketing blog.
Your ad’s quality index reflects its ability to meet the needs and desires of users – that is, how well it helps them find what they want, quickly and accurately. If your ads don’t meet the needs of users, users are less likely to click them. Fewer clicks means fewer customers and conversions.
When this happens, nobody wins: not you, not us and not the user. High-quality ads, by contrast, can help create winners out of all of us. The quality index was set up to encourage advertisers to better meet the needs of users – who are, after all, the reason we are both here.
Tactics to improve quality index include using relevant keywords within an ad group, including keywords in creative, utilizing excluded keywords, and using ad testing. Yahoo also suggests gathering intelligence about competitors’ ads, and including special offers in your ad copy.