Search Ads Evaluation – Unpromising and Dissatisfying Part -1 – Lionbridge Rating

Introduction

In the task type Search Ads Evaluation, you are asked to first rate an Ad Creative and then in a second step, the Landing Page of the Ad Creative.

Here you can see an example of the first part of this task type. Keep in mind that the Ad Creative should be rated “as seen”. Please don’t try to open links presented in the Ad Creative. However, you can search for the company, if for example the location is important.

You then assign a rating based on the Ad Creative. Please also keep in mind to assign matching flags, e.g. “Used Prior Knowledge in Judging Advertiser” or “Secondary Interpretation of Query”. 

After assigning and submitting the rating for the Ad Creative, you are in most cases presented with a second step where you have to evaluate the landing page. The rating page either has a button leading you to the landing page or a QR code that you need to scan with your smartphone and/or QR code reader. 

Check the landing page against the criteria given in the instructions for the individual ratings and assign the one you see as matching. 

Common Scenarios

In this course we will focus on the negative rating ranges Somewhat & Very Unpromising for Ad Creatives and Dissatisfaction Possible/Likely for Landing Pages.

For these rating ranges, we put together some common scenarios for you to go through. Keep in mind that there might be other scenarios for which this rating range is applicable, so make sure to always refer to the instructions for evaluation.

Non-Dedicated Third-Party Search Engine

A Third-Party Search Engine is, just like the name implies, a search engine the user is sent to, from their original search. There are two different options:

Dedicated
A specialized search engine, e.g. Indeed for jobs or  Yummly  for recipes. These can be positive results, if they respond to the user query, e.g. when the user is looking for jobs or recipes. 

Non-Dedicated
These are gateway websites, that are not dedicated to a topic or such. Basically they are just another search step, often of lower quality than Google or such.
Here are two examples:

Example 1

The user query is: [samsung washer and dryer manuals]
Click here to view the Search Results

The Ad Creative is:

Step 1

Rate the Ad Creative

At first the Ad Creative seems to be a good result. The query is mentioned in the headline, in the visible URL as well as at the beginning of the text.

However, a closer look at the text shows that the AC doesn’t promise to lead the user closer to their goal. The text, “Search multiple engines for” only indicate that the user is led to another search engine, and it doesn’t seem to be dedicated to parts or such.

The instructions say:
“If it is not really clear whether users will find the ad useful, rate it as Somewhat Unpromising.  One example is if a user is searching for some information and the ad asks the user to search for the same information again elsewhere.  It is hard to know in these cases whether the ad will be able to provide anything useful to the user, since he/she is being asked to repeat the same action again possibly just to get similar results.”

The advised rating for this Ad Creative is therefore Somewhat Unpromising.

Step 2

Evaluate the Landing Page

In the next step you receive the Landing Page: Click to view the LP

The Landing Page is obviously a non-dedicated third-party search engine. The result page starts with rather large ads, which are then followed by search results. 

This result is an extra step in the user journey. The instructions say: 

“If the page can eventually lead to what the user wants, but only through many clicks or through clicks that lead to an entirely different website, use Dissatisfaction Possible.” 

And 

“If the page can eventually give the user what he or she is looking for, but the process is protracted and difficult, use Dissatisfaction Possible.” 

Since both descriptions are matching the scenario here, we best assign Dissatisfaction Possible for this landing page.

Example 2

The user query is: [homes for sale by owner in teresita nm]
Click here to view the Search Results

The Ad Creative is:

Step 1

Rate the Ad Creative

The Ad Creative has several markers that indicate that it only promises to lead to a non-dedicated third-party search engine.

• The user intent is looking for houses being sold by the owner, in a specific area. The headline of the AC as well as the text show a completely changed user intent, implying that the results are about selling a house, so the opposite of what the user is looking for.
• The AC completely ignores the explicit location in the user query.
• The wording indicates that the user is not moving forward in their journey, but that they would have to perform another search: “Search” and “Look Up Results”.

Furthermore, the headline is repetitive.

In this example, contrary to the first one, the query is aditionally altered to the opposite of what the user is looking for, so here the best rating would be either a very low Somewhat Unpromising or a rating in the Very Unpromising range.

Step 2

Evaluate the Landing Page

The next step is to evaluate the Landing Page: Click to view the LP

The Landing Page is clearly a non-dedicated third-party search engine. There are search results after a list of ads, however, they are, exactly as the AC promised, the opposite of what the user is looking for. The search results focus on selling houses, while the user is interested in houses for sale. The explicit location mentioned in the query is also missing.

In order to see more applicable results, the user would have to re-enter their query and search again. This means the user is actually led further away from their goal instead of closer to it. Here we assign a rating either at the very low end of Dissatisfaction Possible or in the Dissatisfaction Likely range.