Quality Score is a key metric that significantly impacts cost-effectiveness when running Google Ads. A higher Quality Score means your ads are more likely to achieve better ad positions at the same bid amount, enabling efficient campaigns with lower cost-per-click (CPC).
This article provides a comprehensive guide covering Quality Score's definition and three components, its relationship to Ad Rank, how to check it, and specific improvement strategies.
Quality Score is a diagnostic tool in Google Ads that evaluates ad quality on a scale of 1 to 10 at the keyword level. A score closer to 10 indicates that your ad and landing page are accurate and useful for users searching that keyword.
Importantly, as stated in Google's official documentation, Quality Score itself is not used as a factor in the ad auction. It is strictly a diagnostic tool meant to help you identify areas for improvement in your ads, keywords, and landing pages. Google describes it as similar to a car's engine warning light—it alerts you to the state of your ads and keywords.
As a general guideline, scores of 1-3 indicate poor ad performance requiring urgent improvement, 4-6 represent a competitive level with room for improvement, and 7-10 indicate good quality where you can achieve high ad positions at lower costs.
Quality Score is calculated from three components. Each is assigned a status of "Above average," "Average," or "Below average," based on comparison with other advertisers who showed ads for the same keyword over the past 90 days.
Expected CTR indicates the likelihood that your ad will be clicked when shown. Unlike real-time click-through rates, it's calculated from historical click and impression data. Ad position influence is factored out, so simply achieving a higher position and getting more clicks won't improve Expected CTR. Creating compelling ad copy that users want to click is the key to improving this metric.
Ad relevance measures how closely your ad content matches the keyword you're targeting. It evaluates whether the ad displayed for a user's search query aligns with their search intent. When there's no thematic consistency between keywords in an ad group and the ad copy, this metric tends to score low.
Landing page experience evaluates how relevant and useful your landing page is to users who click your ad. Specifically, it considers the alignment between ad keywords and LP content, site usability (navigation and layout), page load speed, mobile responsiveness, and display of operator information and contact details (transparency and trustworthiness).
Quality Score is often confused with "Ad Rank." Ad Rank is a comprehensive evaluation metric that determines Google Ads placement position, while Quality Score is a diagnostic metric focused on ad quality.
Ad Rank is generally calculated as "Bid amount × Ad quality + Ad asset (formerly ad extension) impact." This means improving the Quality Score components—Expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience—also contributes to higher Ad Rank.
It's not uncommon for the lowest-bidding advertiser to secure the #1 ad position through superior quality. Conversely, even the highest bidder can see their position drop if quality is low. This makes Quality Score improvement a crucial effort that simultaneously achieves cost efficiency and better ad positions.
Let's review the specific benefits of achieving a higher Quality Score.
A higher Quality Score leads to a higher Ad Rank, making it easier to appear at the top of search results at the same bid amount. Higher placement means greater visibility, leading to increased clicks and conversions.
Ads with high Quality Scores require a lower CPC to maintain the same ad position. Higher Expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience generally correlate with lower required CPC. This means you can acquire more clicks with the same budget, improving ad cost efficiency.
When Quality Score is low, ads may not appear even with higher bids. Improving quality increases ad display opportunities (impressions), allowing you to reach more potential customers.
Quality Score can be checked from the Google Ads dashboard. Open the Keywords tab and add "Quality Score" to the displayed columns to see each keyword's Quality Score and the status of its three components (Expected CTR, Ad Relevance, Landing Page Experience).
If a Quality Score column shows "—," it means there isn't enough search data matching that keyword exactly to calculate a score. You'll need to wait until sufficient impression data accumulates.
Note that changing a keyword's match type (exact, phrase, or broad match) does not affect Quality Score, as it's evaluated based on impression performance for searches with the exact same content as the keyword.
Here are specific improvement approaches for each of the three Quality Score components.
Improving Expected CTR requires creating compelling ad copy that users want to click. Include target keywords in ad headlines to demonstrate relevance, and incorporate specific numbers (prices, discount rates, achievement figures) and benefits. Enhance ad assets (formerly ad extensions) like sitelinks, callouts, and structured snippets to increase ad information density and visibility, boosting CTR. Creating multiple ad variations and running A/B tests to find high-CTR patterns is also effective.
The most important factor for ad relevance is maintaining thematic consistency between keywords and ad copy. Structure ad groups using the "one theme per group" principle to ensure high relevance among keywords within each group. Split overly broad ad groups and create ad copy tailored to each group's keywords to improve relevance scores. Also, regularly review search terms reports and register search queries that don't align with ad intent as negative keywords.
Landing page experience improvement has a significant impact on Quality Score. First, aligning ad keywords with LP content is essential. Include primary ad keywords in LP titles and headings (H1/H2 tags) and provide information that addresses users' search intent.
Page load speed is also a crucial evaluation factor. Improve loading times through image compression, removing unnecessary scripts, and leveraging CDNs. Since Google prioritizes mobile user experience, verify there are no display issues on smartphones and that font sizes and button spacing are appropriate. Additionally, displaying operator information, contact details, and privacy policies helps improve transparency and trust evaluations.
Keep these important points in mind when working on Quality Score improvement.
Quality Score is a diagnostic tool, not a KPI to chase. Google's official documentation explicitly states it's not meant to be used as a detailed metric for account management. The true goal is acquiring conversions and growing revenue—be careful that raising the Quality Score number doesn't become the end goal itself.
Certain factors that affect ad quality aren't reflected in the Quality Score number. For example, user device, location, time of day, and ad asset impact are considered in real-time during ad auctions but aren't directly reflected in the Quality Score. Rather than judging ad quality solely by Quality Score, always review actual performance data (CTR, CVR, CPA, etc.) alongside it.
Moving an ad group to a different campaign or account does not affect ad quality. Quality Score is evaluated based on the combination of keyword, ad, and landing page, so account structure changes alone won't change your score.
Yahoo! Ads has a "Quality Index" equivalent to Google Ads' Quality Score. The evaluation mechanism shares many similarities, assessing click-through rate, ad copy and keyword relevance, and landing page experience. If you're running both Google Ads and Yahoo! Ads, optimizing with both quality metrics in mind is most effective.
Quality Score is a diagnostic tool that evaluates Google Ads quality on a 1-10 scale, composed of three elements: Expected Click-Through Rate, Ad Relevance, and Landing Page Experience. While Quality Score itself isn't a direct factor in ad auctions, these components influence Ad Rank in real-time auctions, making Quality Score improvement directly connected to better ad performance.
The improvement approach centers on three pillars: creating compelling ad copy to boost click-through rates, organizing ad groups by theme to strengthen keyword-ad relevance, and optimizing landing page content, load speed, mobile experience, and trustworthiness. However, rather than treating Quality Score as a KPI, focus on continuously delivering valuable ad experiences to users—this naturally leads to both Quality Score improvement and better business results.
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