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Google Ads Quality Score explained

By SpendCanary team · Updated

Quality Score is a score from 1 to 10 that Google gives each keyword in a Search campaign. It summarises how your ads and landing page compare with other advertisers’ for the same searches. Google is clear that it’s a diagnostic, not a target: it isn’t used in the auction, but the things it measures are, so a low score points to something worth fixing.

The three parts

Each part is rated Above average, Average or Below average:

  • Expected click-through rate: how likely people are to click your ad when it shows.
  • Ad relevance: how closely your ad matches the intent behind the search.
  • Landing page experience: how relevant and useful your page is to people who click.

Google works these out by comparing your ads with other advertisers whose ads showed for the exact same search over the last 90 days. Because it’s based on exact searches, changing a keyword’s match type doesn’t change its Quality Score. A dash (“—”) means there weren’t enough exact searches to score it.

What Quality Score is, and isn’t

  • It’s not an input in the auction, and Google says it’s not a performance measure: don’t try to optimise it or average it across your account.
  • What does count is Ad Rank, which decides whether your ad shows and where. Ad Rank uses your bid, the quality of your ads and landing page at auction time, the minimum thresholds for that auction, the competition, the context of the search, and the expected impact of your ad assets.
  • Google says higher-quality ads can often cost less per click, and that low-quality ads can push your cost per click close to your maximum bid even with little competition.

So treat Quality Score like a warning light: the score itself doesn’t cost you money, but what’s behind a low score can.

Where to see it

  1. Open Campaigns > Keywords.
  2. Select the columns icon > Modify columns for keywords > Quality score, and add Quality Score, Exp. CTR, Ad Relevance and Landing Page Exp.
  3. Add the (hist.) versions to see past scores for your date range; segment by day to see when they changed.

Google renames menus from time to time, so the labels may differ slightly in your account. Quality Score is shown per keyword in Search campaigns.

What to fix for each part

Ad relevance below average

  • Use wording in your ad that matches what people search for.
  • If one ad group holds many keywords that one ad can’t cover, split it into tighter groups by theme, each with its own ad.

Expected click-through rate below average

  • Make the offer in your ad more compelling and more specific: a price, a guarantee, “same-day”.
  • Make sure the ad answers what the keyword is looking for, and use a call to action that fits your landing page.

Landing page experience below average

Look at Quality Score alongside your click-through rate and conversions, not on its own.

Ad strength is something else

Ad strength (Incomplete to Excellent) rates how well you’ve written a responsive search ad. Google says it doesn’t affect whether your ad can show, and isn’t used to calculate Ad Rank, Quality Score or auction wins. It’s a writing guide, not a score that changes your costs.

Sources

Common questions

What is a good Quality Score in Google Ads?
Google doesn’t set a target. It calls Quality Score a diagnostic tool, not a performance measure, and says not to optimise or average it. Look at which of the three parts is below average and fix that.
Does Quality Score affect what I pay per click?
Not directly: Google says Quality Score is not an input in the ad auction. What counts is the quality of your ads and landing page at auction time, which Quality Score summarises. Higher-quality ads can often cost less per click.
Why does my keyword show a dash instead of a Quality Score?
There haven’t been enough searches that exactly match the keyword to work out a score.
Does ad strength affect Quality Score?
No. Google says ad strength isn’t used to calculate Ad Rank, Quality Score or auction wins. It’s a guide for writing ads.