So, whenever you see "Quality Score", I want you to read BIG Score: Best Interests of Google. This will remind you that QS has nothing to do with quality and is designed to maximize revenue for the borg. For example, the dominant factor of QS is not relevance, but is, in fact, click-through rate. (Google defines that which results in you paying more money to them as "relevant.") Next up is account history, for much the same reason that e.g. an airline will throw you off the plane if Mr. Super-Diamond-Elite really wants your seat.
Defaults are also set to be notoriously BIG. For example, no responsible AdWords professional would suggest putting search and content ads in the same campaign, because the performance of the two is not comparable and this will result in massive overspending on the Content Network. Guess what the default behavior is? Yep, both checked. Default ad rotation strategy? BIG (n.b. which is sometimes in the best interest of the advertiser, too, if they're doing it wrong). The behavior of various match types? BIG etc, etc
The explanation is too much anti-Google. You are saying that QS is to maximize google's revenue ,so why is that when you have high QS, you basically paying nothing for the bids? Google punishes badly structured accounts that don't know how to advertise , takes awhile to learn what really works but it's really possible to get scores in 8-10 range.
I don't really know why the defaults are so large , but for new user I would assume is better to cast your net wide and then filter out what does not work for you. Yes , it cost money in the beginning.
no responsible AdWords professional would suggest putting search and content ads in the same campaign, because the performance of the two is not comparable
What is the difference in performance?
We haven't yet started a paid advertising strategy and are thinking of beginning one in the next few months. Google sent us a gift card to kick start a small (very small) campaign and we're debating the best way to use it.
The difference is going to vary depending your situation (product, keywords, ads, etc) - the key part is to run your ads separately so that you can monitor the difference.
PS> If your gift card isn't for $100 then may want to do some hunting around.
Sure. I don't imagine Google to be a public utility. But I am surprised that Google thinks it's in their best interests to have zero advertisers for the keyword "CoffeeScript" rather than one (clearly relevant) one.
Defaults are also set to be notoriously BIG. For example, no responsible AdWords professional would suggest putting search and content ads in the same campaign, because the performance of the two is not comparable and this will result in massive overspending on the Content Network. Guess what the default behavior is? Yep, both checked. Default ad rotation strategy? BIG (n.b. which is sometimes in the best interest of the advertiser, too, if they're doing it wrong). The behavior of various match types? BIG etc, etc