Google Says Mobile-Friendly Update Won't Affect PPC Quality Score; Others Not Convinced

Google has confirmed that last week's mobile-friendly update will not affect advertisers' Quality Score - but others in the digital marketing community are taking the news with a pinch of salt.

Rumours of a 'PPC mobilegeddon' began to simmer last week when Google was spotted running tests of its 'mobile-friendly' labels in paid search ads. These labels, in organic results, identify sites that meet Google's mobile usability recommendations, and thus benefit from a boost in rankings.

However, a post has now emerged in the Google AdWords help forums that appears to put these rumours to bed. AdWords' Kate O'Donovan posted an update on the day the mobile-friendly update began to roll out, and in it she unequivocally states:

Remember this update will not affect your AdWords performance or your individual Quality Scores.

Google also told Search Engine Land last week that that their PPC mobile-friendly tests would have no impact on Quality Score.

Search Engine Journal's readers, however, were less convinced. Commenting on its report on O'Donovan's update, reader Ryan M Jones wrote:

I'm going to say "directly, and not yet" because:

1.) Sending mobile visitors to a non mobile page seems like a waste of ad spend and a bad user experience. So I can see Google making this a factor soon.
2.) these people are more likely to bounce back to Google and select a different ad - and doesn't that affect quality score?

Mike Gracen, another reader, commented:

T-minus 3..2..1 until Mueller et al says the complete opposite..

So, Google has been quite adamant in its rebuttals of the rumours - but the PPC community is still expecting something to happen. What do you think?

News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in Search Engine Marketing & Internet Marketing.