Google Ads Quality Score: What It Is and How to Improve It

Quality Score is the most optimised number in Google Ads, and Google says plainly that it should not be optimised at all.

Its help page calls it a diagnostic tool, states that it is not a key performance indicator, and says it is not an input in the ad auction.

This guide covers what the number actually is, what the three components mean, and how to use it the way Google describes rather than as a score to chase.

Key Takeaways

• Google calls it a diagnostic tool. Not a performance indicator.
• It is not an input in the auction. Google states that directly.
• Three components, three ratings. Above average, average, below average.
• Read the components, not the number. They say what to fix.
• It is set per keyword. So an account average means very little.

What Google Ads Quality Score Is

Quality Score is a number from one to ten, set for each keyword, that Google describes as a sense of how your ad quality compares to other advertisers.

The word Google uses is diagnostic. It is there to tell you whether ads showing for a given keyword are producing a good experience.

It is calculated per keyword, and that is the first thing people get wrong. There is no single quality score for a campaign or an account, so averaging it tells you nothing useful.

The scale itself is coarser than it looks. A keyword sitting at seven and another at eight are not meaningfully different, and both can have the same three component ratings.

Google is explicit about that too, saying it should not be optimised or aggregated with the rest of your data.

So the number is a signpost rather than a target. What it points at is where the keyword, the ad and the page have drifted apart.

Why It Is Not the Thing to Optimise

This is where most advice about google ads quality score goes wrong, and Google's own wording settles it.

The help page says Quality Score is not an input in the ad auction. The live auction uses its own signals, calculated at the moment somebody searches.

Quality Score is a report assembled afterwards out of accumulated historical data. The two things are clearly related, and they are not the same thing at all.

The practical consequence is about where attention goes. An hour spent moving a keyword from seven to eight is an hour not spent on the pages those clicks land on.

That distinction matters commercially. Anybody selling you a service priced on raising a Quality Score is selling you movement in a diagnostic reading.

It is also reported with a delay, built from accumulated history. A keyword with very few impressions may show a score that reflects almost nothing.

The work underneath is still worth doing. Better matched keywords, ads that answer the search and pages that deliver what the ad promised all improve results, and the score moves because of that rather than the other way round.

The Three Components

The components are the useful part, and each one is rated above average, average or below average.

Expected click-through rate is the likelihood that your ad will be clicked when it is shown.

Ad relevance is how closely your ad matches the intent behind somebody's search.

Landing page experience is how relevant and useful your landing page is to people who click the ad.

Read as a set, the three of them describe a chain. There is the search somebody typed, the ad that answers it, and the page that delivers on what the ad promised.

Each one is also relative. Above average means above other advertisers bidding on that keyword, so a competitive term is harder to rate well on than an obscure one.

A below average rating names which link in that chain is loose, and that is considerably more actionable than a number out of ten.

How to Improve Each Component

Three jobs, matched to the three ratings. Improving google ads quality score is only ever a side effect of doing these three properly.

1. Tighten what the keyword and ad group contain

A low ad relevance rating is usually a structure problem rather than a copywriting one.

An ad group holding twenty loosely related keywords cannot have an ad that answers all of them specifically.

The symptom is usually an ad that reads generically because it has to cover everything the group contains.

Split it. Group keywords that share an intent, then write an ad for that intent alone.

Look at the search terms report as well as the keyword list. Broad match brings in searches you never chose, and those are what the ad is being judged against.

Match types matter here more than most settings. Phrase and exact give you ads judged against searches you actually chose.

Add negatives for the ones that will never convert. Fewer, better matched searches is the whole fix.

2. Make the ad answer the search

Expected click-through rate is about whether people choose your ad when they see it.

Put the search words in the headline, because a searcher scanning results is looking for their own phrase.

Say the specific thing rather than the category. Emergency plumber in Bayan Lepas beats Professional plumbing services.

Avoid claims you cannot stand behind. An ad promising the cheapest prices sets up a landing page that has to prove it.

Give a reason to click that your competitors are not giving. Same day, no call out fee, open now, published prices.

Test two ads per group rather than one. Expected click-through rate is comparative, so having something to compare against is the point.

Then use the extensions. Sitelinks, callouts and a call button all give the ad more surface area and more reasons to be chosen.

3. Make the page deliver what the ad promised

Landing page experience is the component most often left alone, and it is usually the cheapest to fix.

Send the click to the page about that specific thing. An ad for one service that lands on a general home page has broken the very chain it is being judged on.

Repeat the ad's words on the page. Somebody who clicked an offer wants to see that offer, not a general introduction.

Match the offer exactly. If the ad named a price or a guarantee, that should be visible without scrolling.

Make the next step obvious and make the page load quickly, particularly on a phone.

Keep the page focused. A landing page carrying four different offers makes the visitor do the sorting the ad was supposed to have done already.

And be honest about what is there. A page that does not deliver what the ad promised fails the component and loses the sale as well.

Quality Score Ideas That Work Right Now

Five checks worth doing inside your own account at some point this week.

• Add the component columns. The ratings, not the number.
• Sort by below average. Start where the chain is loosest.
• Read your search terms report. See what you are really matching.
• Click your own ads. Check where they land.
• Split your largest ad group. Usually the worst performer.

Where to Check It

The component columns are hidden by default. That is a large part of why people fixate on the single number.

Every one of these is free and already in the account. Nothing in this table needs buying.

Turn them on once and the account stops looking like a scoreboard and starts looking like a list of jobs.

Common Quality Score Mistakes

• Averaging it across the account. Google says not to aggregate it.
• Treating it as a KPI. Google says it is not one.
• Believing it enters the auction. Google says it does not.
• Chasing ten out of ten. Effort better spent on conversions.
• Ignoring the components. They are the part that names the fix.
• Sending every ad to the home page. It breaks the chain being measured.

FAQs

What is a good Quality Score?

Google does not publish a target, and its help page says Quality Score should not be optimised or aggregated. The useful reading is the three component ratings rather than the number, so a keyword with everything at average or above is in reasonable shape.

Does Quality Score affect what I pay per click?

Not directly. Google states that Quality Score is not an input in the ad auction, which runs on its own signals calculated when somebody searches. The underlying quality of your keywords, ads and pages does affect results, and the score reports on that.

How do I see the three components?

Add the expected click-through rate, ad relevance and landing page experience columns to your keywords table in Google Ads. All three are hidden by default, and that is why most advertisers only ever see the single number out of ten.

Why is my Quality Score low on a keyword that converts?

Because it measures a different thing. The components describe how well the keyword, ad and landing page fit together compared with other advertisers, not whether the traffic turns into business. A converting keyword with a mediocre score is not a problem to solve.

Can an agency guarantee to raise my Quality Score?

Treat that offer carefully. Google describes the number as a diagnostic tool rather than something to optimise, so a service priced on moving it is priced on moving a reading. Ask instead what they will change about keywords, ads and landing pages.

Conclusion

Google ads quality score is a diagnostic reading, and Google says so in its own help page.

It is not a performance indicator, it is not an input in the auction, and it is set per keyword so an account average means nothing.

Add the three component columns, find the below average ratings, and fix whichever link in the chain they name.

Do that and the number moves on its own. That was always the only way it was going to move.

If you would rather hand it over, see how we approach digital marketing.