Not getting the results you want from your Google Ads? It could all come down to one key factor – your Quality Score.
This little number can make a big difference, helping you get better results, higher rankings, and lower the cost of your ads. Want to know how to improve it? Let’s dive in!
What is Google Ads Quality Score?
Quality Score is a tool for measuring how your ads compare against your competitors.
The Quality Score reflects the entire ad experience, including the ad and the landing page. Google looks at how relevant and seamless the whole user journey is, from clicking on the ad to landing on the page.
A higher Quality Score means your ad is more relevant and user-friendly than competitors’, which leads to better ad placements and lower costs.
Google rewards ads with higher Quality Scores by showing them more often and in better positions, resulting in increased visibility and potentially higher click-through rates.
Use Google Ads Quality Score to spot opportunities for improvement around your ad content, landing pages, or keywords! In PPC, there’s often too much reliance on platform tools like Google Ads’ Optimisation Score or Ad Strength, but those aren’t true indicators of performance—relevance, audience understanding, and strategic intent matter far more than chasing a perfect score.
Let’s start with the basics first…
How is your Quality Score calculated?
Your Quality Score depends on the three factors:
- Expected CTR: Will people click on your ad? Is your content relevant and enticing?
- Ad Relevance: Does your ad match what they’re looking for? This is where search intent comes into play – you can read about search intent here.
- Landing Page Experience: Is your landing page helpful and easy to use? Does it load quickly enough? Does the content on the page match the ad copy? Is the layout user-friendly? Is the content clear and valuable without excessive copy and ambiguous language?
As you can see, there are many factors that come into play, and this is where SEO and PPC can work harmoniously together!
Each factor gets rated as ‘Above average‘, ‘Average‘, or ‘Below average‘ based on how your ads compare to others using the same keyword over the past 90 days.
How to check your Quality Score
You can find your score on the keyword level under ‘Audiences, keywords and content’. Here is how to get there:
- Open your Google Ads Account
- Locate the left hand side menu and find Audiences, keywords and content – this will allow you to see the list of keywords under the specific Campaign.
- Now you need to modify the columns and add the relevant sections, namely the Quality Score column and its components – Landing Page Experience, Expected CTR and Ad Relevance. To do so, click on the Column Icon, as per below and select the option to modify.
- Search for the relevant option using the magnifying glass icon. As a reminder, you are looking for the below. Once you have found all 4, click apply at the bottom of the screen.
- Quality Score
- Landing Page Exp
- Exp. CTR
- Ad Relevance
- Here is what you should see after applying the changes.
Obviously, seeing ‘Average’ or ‘Below average’ is your cue to fine-tune your ad elements, whether it’s the ad copy or the landing page.
Why does the Quality Score matter?
As mentioned above, each factor (CTR, Landing Page Experience and Ad Relevance) gets rated as ‘Above average’, ‘Average’, or ‘Below average’ based on how your ads compare to others using the same keyword over the past 90 days.
These ratings feed into your overall Quality Score on a 1-10.
For example, if all components are rated as Above Average, you can expect a Quality Score close to 8-10, reflecting strong ad relevance, high expected CTR, and a great landing page experience.
According to research, Google Ads Quality Score formula uses values for each factor—Landing Page Experience, Ad Relevance, and CTR — where each factor is scored based on its quality, like 3.5 for “Above average” or 1.75 for “Average,” and 0 for “Below average.
While Google hasn’t revealed the exact factors that determine the value, research suggests your overall Quality Score is based on the combined value of these three elements. In short, the better your ad, landing page, and engagement, the higher your score.
If your Quality Score is low, it’s a signal from Google to improve your ads and landing pages. A low Quality Score means your ads are less relevant to users, which can result in higher costs per click (CPC), lower ad rankings, and fewer impressions.
Remember, the better the score, the better the placement, which means better results ultimately.
But how?
This is where ad rank comes in.
Ad Rank and Quality Score go hand in hand. A higher Quality Score improves Ad Rank, meaning better ad placements at lower costs.
Ads can show above or below search results on Google – obviously, the higher it shows, the better chances of exposure, clicks and conversions.
Ad Rank is calculated based on factors like your competition, the user’s search context, and your ad’s quality.
So yes, better ads mean better Ad Rank and lower CPCs, saving you money.
The types of Google Quality Score
There are different types of Quality Scores in Google Ads, each showing how specific areas of your campaign are performing. This helps you focus on where to improve.
Keyword Quality Score
Your Keyword Quality Score, rated from 1 to 10, is a snapshot of how well your keywords perform—the closer to 10, the better.
It’s visible at the keyword level – just go to ‘Audiences, keywords and content’ as explained above.
The Quality Score metric reflects how relevant your keywords, ads and landing pages are to users and their searches.
You can also view your score for the previous reporting periods – Quality Score(hist.), along with the associated components:
- Landing Page Exper. (hist.)
- Ad Relevance (hist.)
- Exp. CTR (hist.)
Remember that your keyword-level score is based on how well search queries that exactly match your keyword perform. This means your keyword’s score stays the same, no matter which match type you use.
Here’s what influences your score:
- Keyword relevance to your landing page content and the user’s intent
- The past performance of your keywords.
- The likelihood of users clicking based on past data.
A high Quality Score means better rankings, lower costs, and stronger results for your campaigns!
Landing Pages Quality Score
The landing page quality score helps you monitor whether you provide high-quality results to your searchers once they land on your site.
Factors influencing your score are:
- Relevancy of content
- Formatting
- Ease of navigation
- Transparency of policies
- Unique copy
- Loading speed
- Calls to action
This means that your landing page should reflect the keyword and ad copy directly. If you promised a discount or a free guide in your copy, this should be available on the page.
At the same time, don’t forget about the user experience – a slow-loading page or a poor mobile experience can hurt your Quality Score. Use tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights to identify any of these issues.
Also worth noting is formatting and ensuring your content is written in a way that is easy to understand. For a software client, we first had to improve the landing page experience since their existing pages were too cluttered and not ad-friendly. Many lacked clear messaging, making it hard for visitors to convert. In most cases, we have to create dedicated landing pages tailored for the ads to ensure better relevance, higher engagement, and lower CPC.
Most importantly, don’t forget your audience and ensure your calls to action on the page match their needs.
Some users will be ready to get in touch, but some might not; therefore, offer a selection of calls to action depending on the stage of their journey, from downloads to trial sign-ups.
We have tested running Search Ads for a client in the finance industry. We focused on the landing page experience, creating more relevant calls to action as well as comprehensive and easy-to-digest content. This has brought more enquiries and, more importantly, relevant and quality leads.
Ad-Level Quality Score
You may be running a number of ads within a campaign and an ad group, testing the calls to action and different content variations.
Naturally, some of your ads will have a higher click-through rate than others. And, the performance of your ads will impact your Quality Score, as the click-through rate (CTR) is a key factor.
Google considers all ads in your ad groups when calculating scores, and low-CTR ads can drag your score down. Your goal, therefore, is to:
- Create ad copy with your target audience’s needs and pain points in mind.
Incorporate keywords that ensure that there is a connection between the user’s search query and your ad text, which can significantly boost CTR. - Implement ad extensions to provide additional information and ways for users to interact with your ad, such as site links, callouts, and structured snippets.
- Using Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI), which automatically adds the user’s search term into your ad. DKI ads often feel more relevant and get more clicks, but it’s important to monitor for high CTR ads that don’t convert to avoid hurting your ROI.
A high CTR indicates to Google that your ad is relevant and valuable to users, rewarding you with a better position at a lower cost.
Ad Group Quality Score
Ad Group level Quality Score is the opportunity for you to assess how your ad groups perform within the campaign. Although there is an individual score associated with the ad group, you can look at the average of the keyword quality scores in that specific ad group.
To improve your Ad Group Quality Score, consider restructuring your campaigns into specific ad groups to create more targeted, relevant ads. Tailored ad copy and extensions lead to higher engagement, better CTRs, and more conversions.
If you’re selling vegan Easter chocolate, you could create a Campaign titled “Vegan Easter Chocolate” with the following ad groups:
- Easter Eggs: Keywords like “vegan Easter eggs” with ads linking to a product page for vegan Easter eggs.
- Gift Boxes: Keywords like “vegan chocolate gift box,” with ads pointing to your gift box collection.
This way, you’re matching what people are searching for with exactly what you sell!
Remember: SEARCH INTENT!
Key actions to improve your quality score (or ensure it’s high in the first place)
- Keyword research is foundational to PPC success. Keywords should be highly relevant to your offerings and the queries your potential customers are using.
- Include negative keywords, which can prevent your ads from showing for irrelevant searches, improving your campaign’s overall relevance and efficiency. You can do it before you launch a campaign but also by reviewing the search terms your ads are showing for.
For example, for a Vegan Easter Chocolate campaign, you’ll want to use negative keywords to avoid irrelevant clicks that waste your budget. Here are some examples:
- Dairy chocolate
- Milk chocolate
- Easter decorations
- Easter costumes
- Cadbury milk chocolate
- Lindt milk chocolate bunny
- Review your landing page in terms of speed (read about factors that contribute to a slow load time), user experience and usability as well as search intent to ensure you can deliver information that speaks directly to what your visitors are searching for.
As an example, I searched for ‘vegan sports nutritionist’ and came across the below ad.
There are two things wrong with this ad.
Firstly, it uses the homepage as a landing page and secondly, it doesn’t align with the targeted keywords – in fact, it says the opposite.
It’s a perfect example of why it’s so important to know your audience. If you are actively searching for support or advice you don’t immediately see content that contradicts your values or needs. It’s a missed opportunity.
Here is an example of how to do it right. A landing page that matches your ad copy improves Quality Score, drives conversions, and maximises ad spend.
- Review, review, review! Constantly monitor your click-through rate and ensure your rating is ‘average’ as a minimum, and update your copy. Ensure top-performing keywords are in your ads and the landing page is highly relevant. Consider incorporating Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI) ads to boost CTR.
- Conduct an account audit and restructure where needed.
- Consider pausing keywords with a CTR <1.5% with few or no conversions.
- Create smaller, more tightly themed ad groups.
Final thoughts
In this article, we covered the basics of Google Ads Quality Score, providing recommendations for improving your current metrics.
If you’ve been managing ads for a little while, you should be able to review the three components of Quality Score and update your ad text, keyword selection, or landing page content to further improve the score.
If time is limited, and this is something you would like help with, please get in touch with us today.
We offer a free Google Ads Account audit or can simply assist with setting everything up from scratch. Book your audit here >
Alternatively, if you are comfortable with setting everything on your own, download our checklist to make sure you apply all the recommendations included in this blog.