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

The problemWhat is Quality Score in Google Ads?

Quality Score is a diagnostic number Google assigns to each keyword in your Search campaign. It reflects how relevant and useful Google considers your ad experience compared to other advertisers competing on the same keyword. Scores run from 1 (poor) to 10 (excellent), and a score of 7 or above is generally considered healthy for competitive keywords.

Quality Score is calculated at the keyword level and is shown in your Google Ads account as a column you can add to the Keywords report. It is a snapshot metric, not a real-time auction signal, but it is a reliable indicator of where your account health stands.

• Scores range from 1 to 10 per keyword
• Each keyword gets its own independent score
• It is visible directly in your Google Ads Keywords report
• A score of 7 or higher is typically considered competitive

The approachWhat are the three components of Quality Score?

Google builds Quality Score from three equally important components, each rated as Below Average, Average, or Above Average. Understanding each one tells you exactly where to focus your improvements.

Expected Click-Through Rate (CTR) predicts how likely your ad is to be clicked when shown for that keyword, based on historical performance adjusted for position. Ad Relevance measures how closely your ad copy matches the intent behind the keyword. Landing Page Experience rates how useful, transparent, and easy to navigate your landing page is for someone who clicks your ad.

• Expected CTR: does your ad earn clicks relative to its position?
• Ad Relevance: does your ad copy clearly address the search intent?
• Landing Page Experience: is your page fast, relevant, and easy to use?
• Each component is rated Below Average, Average, or Above Average

In practiceWhy does Quality Score matter for cost and ad position?

Google does not award the top ad position purely to the highest bidder. It uses a metric called Ad Rank, which is calculated by multiplying your bid by your Quality Score (along with other auction-time factors). A higher Quality Score lets you win better positions at a lower cost per click than a competitor with a poor score and a higher bid.

Concretely, an advertiser with a Quality Score of 8 can often pay significantly less per click than one with a score of 4, for the exact same keyword and position. Low Quality Scores drain budget faster, suppress impressions, and make it harder to compete even when you raise your bids.

• Ad Rank = bid x Quality Score x auction-time factors
• Higher scores reduce your actual cost per click
• Low scores can price you out of top positions even with large budgets
• Improving score is often more cost-effective than simply raising bids

What you getHow to check your Quality Score in Google Ads

To see Quality Score in Google Ads, go to your campaign, click Keywords in the left navigation, then click the Columns icon and add Quality Score, Landing Page Exp., Ad Relevance, and Exp. CTR to your view. Each keyword will then show its score and the rating for all three components.

You can also segment by time to track whether scores are improving after you make changes. Note that brand-new keywords with little impression history may show a dash instead of a score until Google has enough data.

• Navigate to Keywords, then use the Columns menu to add Quality Score
• Also add the three component columns for a full diagnostic view
• New keywords may show no score until they accumulate impression data
• Segment by date to measure improvement over time

QualityHow to improve your Google Ads Quality Score

Improving Quality Score means improving relevance at every step of the user journey. Start by tightening keyword-to-ad group alignment so each ad group covers a narrow theme and your ad copy clearly addresses that theme. Add negative keywords to stop your ads showing on irrelevant queries, which drags down expected CTR. Write specific, benefit-driven headlines that match what the keyword promises. Then make sure your landing page loads fast, matches the ad message, and answers the visitor's question without friction.

AdBuilder can help surface several of these issues directly. Its one-click recommendations flag ad groups that have no active ad, identify wasted search terms you should be excluding, and highlight missing or broken ad extensions - all based on your real account data. It also runs A/B tests on ad copy and picks the winning version using real performance metrics, which directly supports improving expected CTR and ad relevance over time.

• Group keywords by tight themes so ads stay highly relevant
• Add negative keywords to filter out low-intent or irrelevant queries
• Write ad copy that specifically answers the intent behind each keyword group
• Ensure landing pages are fast, relevant, and match the ad's promise
• Use ad extensions (sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets) to lift CTR

OverviewCan Quality Score improvements compound over time?

Yes. Quality Score improvements tend to build on each other because Google's expected CTR component is influenced by your historical click-through performance. As you write better ads, exclude irrelevant traffic, and improve landing pages, real CTR rises, which feeds into a better expected CTR score, which further reduces your cost per click and surfaces your ads more often.

This is why regular account audits matter. AdBuilder's analysis answers questions about your account in plain language - including inside Slack and Telegram - so you can spot issues like keywords with Below Average landing page experience or ad groups running without an active ad before they erode your score further.

• Better CTR history raises your expected CTR score over time
• Lower costs from improved scores free up budget for more volume
• Regular audits catch score-damaging issues before they compound
• Monitoring component ratings shows you exactly which lever to pull next