Short answer: Google Ads Quality Score is a 1 to 10 rating for each keyword in a Search campaign that shows how your ad quality compares with other advertisers. It is built from three components: expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance and landing page experience. Quality Score itself is a diagnostic, not an auction input, but the signals behind it feed Ad Rank, which affects where your ad shows and how much you pay per click. You improve it by tightening the match between keyword, ad and landing page.
What is Google Ads Quality Score?
Google describes Quality Score as a diagnostic tool that gives you a sense of how well your ad quality compares with other advertisers. It is calculated at the keyword level on a scale of 1 to 10, and it only applies to Search campaigns. Performance Max and Display campaigns do not show it.
Two points cause most of the confusion:
- It is a summary, not the real thing. Google states that Quality Score is not an input in the ad auction. Instead, Ad Rank is calculated every time someone searches, taking into account ad and landing page quality along with the context of that search, such as the query, location and device.
- It still matters. The same quality signals are part of Ad Rank. So a low Quality Score is a useful warning that your ads are probably losing auctions or paying more than they need to.
Quality Score is also not the same as Ad Strength. Ad Strength rates the variety and quality of the headlines and descriptions inside a responsive search ad. Quality Score rates the whole path from search to landing page.
The three components of Quality Score
Each component gets a status of Above average, Average or Below average, based on a comparison with other advertisers whose ads showed for the exact same search over the last 90 days.
1. Expected clickthrough rate
How likely your ad is to be clicked when it shows for that keyword. It is a prediction, adjusted for factors like ad position, so a keyword can have a high real CTR and still show an Average expected CTR.
2. Ad relevance
How closely your ad matches the intent behind the search. A keyword like “emergency boiler repair” in an ad group whose ads talk about “home services” will usually score lower than one whose headline says “Emergency Boiler Repair, 24/7”.
3. Landing page experience
How relevant and useful your landing page is to the person who clicked. Sending every keyword to the homepage is the classic reason this component is Below average.
Where to see Quality Score in Google Ads
- In the Campaigns menu, open Keywords.
- Click the Columns icon and choose Modify columns.
- Open the Quality Score section and add Quality Score, Exp. CTR, Ad relevance and Landing page exp.
- Add the historical (hist.) versions too. Segment the table by day to see how scores changed after your edits.
- Save the column set so you can reuse it.
If you see two dashes instead of a number, Google says there are not enough searches that exactly match the keyword to determine a score. That is normal for long-tail keywords and not a problem by itself.
Why Quality Score affects what you pay
Every time someone searches, Google calculates Ad Rank for each eligible ad. Ad Rank uses your bid, the quality of your ad and landing page, Ad Rank thresholds, the competitiveness of the auction, the context of the search and the expected impact of your ad assets. Google’s own help page on ad quality puts it simply: higher quality ads typically cost less per click than lower quality ads.
In practice, better ad quality means you can win the same position with a lower bid, or a better position with the same bid. Poor quality means you pay more for the same click, or you do not show at all because you fall below the Ad Rank threshold. If you are trying to understand your cost per click, my guide on how much Google Ads cost covers the other factors.
How to improve Quality Score: a practical checklist
Start with the keywords that spend the most. Raising Quality Score on a keyword that gets ten clicks a month does not move your account. Then fix the component that is Below average, not all three at once.
To improve expected CTR
- Put the keyword theme in at least one headline, and pin it only if you have a strong reason.
- Give a specific reason to click: price, delivery time, guarantee, availability today.
- Add ad assets such as sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets and calls. Google notes that assets can improve visibility and CTR.
- Use negative keywords to stop showing on searches that will never click. See my negative keywords guide.
To improve ad relevance
- Group keywords by intent. If one ad group holds “cheap running shoes” and “trail running shoes for women”, split it.
- Write headlines that answer the search directly, using the same words the searcher used.
- Check the search terms report. Low ad relevance often means a broad match keyword is pulling in searches the ad does not speak to.
To improve landing page experience
- Send each ad group to the most specific page available: the category or service page, not the homepage.
- Repeat the promise from the ad near the top of the page.
- Make the page fast and easy to use on mobile, with a clear way to buy or get in touch.
- Avoid intrusive pop-ups and add useful, original content such as reviews, FAQs and real product details.
Landing page work often brings the biggest gain, because it also lifts your conversion rate. That is why I pair Google Ads work with conversion rate optimisation when the landing page is the weak link.
What I recommend
- Treat Quality Score as a smoke alarm, not a goal. A 10 on a keyword that does not convert is worth less than a 6 on one that does.
- Weight it by spend. Sort keywords by cost, then look at Quality Score and its components.
- Change one thing at a time and check the historical columns a few weeks later.
- Do not delete good keywords because of a low score. If a keyword converts at a profitable cost, improve the ad and page instead.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good Google Ads Quality Score?
Does Quality Score affect cost per click?
Why does my keyword show no Quality Score?
Does Performance Max have a Quality Score?
Can someone audit my Quality Score problems?
Need help improving your Quality Score?
I’m Saifur Saif, a Google Ads specialist. I restructure ad groups, rewrite ads and fix landing pages so you pay less for the clicks that matter. Get a free ads audit and I will show you which keywords are costing you the most because of weak quality signals. If you are deciding between campaign types, also read Performance Max vs Search campaigns.