1. Overcoming a Quality Score Slap Sean Marshall Director SEM, PPC Associates www.PPCAssociates.com

2. Quality Score Slaps 101

3. What is a Quality Score Slap?  Advertiser is banned from AdWords due to either manual review or automated analysis  Includes all accounts linked to “bad account” and potentially IP addresses too

4. How Do You Know You’ve Been Slapped?  Email from Google telling you  QS of 1s across the board  Can’t get clicks on your account  Having some ad text disapproved or a few keywords with QS 1 is not a slap!  A decline in traffic is not a slap, unless the decline goes to 1 or 0 clicks a day

5. Reasons for Slaps, #1: Categorization Sources: https://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/ answer.py?hl=en&answer=66238; http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/st atic.py?hl=en&guide=28439&topic=30210&pa ge=guide.cs&answer=190447 https://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/ answer.py?hl=en&answer=66238 http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/st atic.py?hl=en&guide=28439&topic=30210&pa ge=guide.cs&answer=190447

6. Reasons for Slaps, #2: Multiple Violations of Ts & Cs

7. Reasons for Slaps, #3: Egregious One-Time Violation Sources: http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/static.py?hl=en&topic=28449 &guide=28446&page=guide.cs http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/static.py?hl=en&topic=28449 &guide=28446&page=guide.cs

8. Reasons for Slaps, #4: Error by Google  Miscategorized?  Site outage?  Phone number?!!!

9. Overcoming a Slap

10. Step 1: Figure out the problem  Talk to your Google rep – they have a tool!  No rep? Call Google customer support or find someone with a rep

11. Step 2: Start Your Investigation  Who is responsible? Are they still at your company?  Was it a mistake or intentional?  Has it been corrected?  How do you know it won’t happen again?

12. Step 3: Prepare Your Case – Summary of Potential Arguments  Unique  Relevant  Legitimate  Lucrative  Reformed

13. Uniqueness Arguments  We were one of the first companies in this space  We are the only company to offer 24/7 customer support  Every product on our site is tested by experts

14. Relevancy Arguments  We buy keywords like “widget” and “blue widget” because we sell these items  We have more than 50 AdWords landing pages tailored to specific ad groups  Ad groups have specific ad text  Most keywords have a QS of >7 ImageSource: http://images.icanhascheezburger.com/completestore/2008/6/21/thisthr eadis128585095970765586.jpg http://images.icanhascheezburger.com/completestore/2008/6/21/thisthr eadis128585095970765586.jpg

15. Legitimacy Arguments  We have raised X millions of dollars  We have served more than 500,000 customers.  We have an A+ rating from the BBB  We’ve been in business since 1995  We won six Webbys

16. Lucrative Arguments  In the last year, we’ve spend $XXX,XXX on Google AdWords  Our financial plan calls for an increase of X% in this budget for FY 2011  Our market is growing by X% a year ImageSource: http://blog.adhack.com/2010/01/26/suggested-2010- resolution-for-ad-agencies-understand-the-google/http://blog.adhack.com/2010/01/26/suggested-2010- resolution-for-ad-agencies-understand-the-google/

17. Reformed Arguments  We have put mechanisms in place to make sure this won’t happen again  The guy who did this was fired  We will strive to far exceed minimum AdWords compliance standards

18. Step 4: Submit Request Re- Instatement  Be polite not combative  Don’t talk about the competition  Ask your rep to personally plead your case (office hours?)  Be prepared to follow through on promises immediately  Follow up until you get an answer

19. Thank You!  sean@ppcassociates.com sean@ppcassociates.com  www.ppcassociates.com (PPC agency) www.ppcassociates.com  www.blogation.net (PPC blog) www.blogation.net