How to improve a keyword’s Quality Score in Google Ads
To improve a keyword’s Quality Score, open the three component columns Google provides (expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance and landing page experience), find the one marked Below average for that keyword, and fix that one. A low expected clickthrough rate needs better ads or a tighter ad group. Low ad relevance needs ad copy that speaks to the search. A poor landing page experience needs a page that delivers what the ad promised. It also replaces our older article explaining Quality Score and Ad Rank, which described a formula Google no longer publishes.
What is Quality Score in Google Ads?
Quality Score is a diagnostic rating from 1 to 10, reported per keyword, that tells you how your ad quality compares with other advertisers. That is Google’s own framing on its Quality Score for Search campaigns page, and two lines on that page change how you should treat the number.
First, Google says Quality Score is not a key performance indicator and should not be optimised or aggregated with the rest of your data. Second, it says Quality Score is not an input in the ad auction. It is a summary of the same quality signals the auction uses, published so you can see where a keyword is weak. You do not raise your Quality Score to win auctions. You fix the weaknesses it points to, and the auction-time quality improves with them.
Older guides, including the one this article replaces, gave a formula of Ad Rank equals Quality Score multiplied by bid. Google’s current Ad Rank definition lists the factors as your bid, the quality of your ads and landing page at auction time, Ad Rank thresholds, how competitive the auction is, the context of the search, and the expected impact of your assets and ad formats. Quality Score as a reported number is not among them.
What are the three main factors that determine ad quality?
The three factors are expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance and landing page experience. Google reports each one for every keyword with a status of Above average, Average or Below average, and defines them this way:
- Expected clickthrough rate: the likelihood that your ad will be clicked when shown.
- Ad relevance: how closely your ad matches the intent behind a user’s search.
- Landing page experience: how relevant and useful your landing page is to people who click your ad.
Each component points at a different part of the account. Expected clickthrough rate is about the ad and the keyword’s history. Ad relevance is about the match between the ad copy and the search. Landing page experience is about the page. A keyword scoring 3 with all three at Below average has three problems. A keyword scoring 5 with one Below average has one, and that is where you start.
How to check Quality Score in Google Ads
Quality Score is hidden by default. To see it, go to Keywords in your campaign, open the columns icon at the top right of the table, and under Quality Score add the columns for Quality Score, Expected CTR, Ad relevance and Landing page experience. Google’s steps for viewing Quality Score also list the historical versions of each column, which show the last known score for the day at the end of the reporting period rather than the current one, so you can see whether a change moved the score.
A dash in the column means Google does not have enough exact match searches on that keyword to rate it. New keywords and low-volume keywords sit there for a while. Google also notes that Quality Score does not capture factors such as device, user location or time of day, which is another reason to treat it as a pointer rather than a target.
Sort the table by cost, then look at the Quality Score column. Keywords that spend the most and score lowest are the list to work through. A keyword scoring 4 that spends nothing can wait.
How to increase Quality Score of a low performing keyword
Work through the component that is Below average, one change at a time, and give each change two to four weeks of traffic before judging it.
Below average expected clickthrough rate
Your ad is not being clicked as often as Google expects for that search. Check first that the keyword sits in an ad group with keywords it belongs with. A keyword pulled into a mixed group gets ads written for something else, and the click rate shows it. Then rewrite the responsive search ad: put the keyword’s meaning in the headlines, make the first headline answer the search, and give a reason to choose you that a competitor’s ad does not. Add sitelinks, callouts and a call asset so the ad takes more space and offers more ways to click. Finally, look at the search terms triggering the keyword. Irrelevant searches that nobody clicks drag the expected rate down, and the fix is a negative keyword, not a new ad.
Below average ad relevance
The ad does not match the intent of the search. Usually the cause is structure. The keyword is in an ad group whose ads are about a broader or different topic, so move it to its own themed group with ads written for it. Where the keyword is broad match, check the search terms report to see what searches it is reaching, because the ad may be relevant to the keyword and irrelevant to the searches. Tighten the match type or add negatives until the searches and the ad agree. Our guide to Google Ads keyword research covers grouping keywords by intent.
Below average landing page experience
The page people land on is not delivering what the ad promised, or is slow, or works badly on a phone. Send the keyword to a page about that specific service rather than the homepage. Make the page heading match the ad’s promise, put the next step (call, form, booking) above the fold, and cut anything that makes the visitor hunt. Test the page on a mobile connection, because that is where most of the clicks come from. Our guide to designing high converting landing pages covers the page itself, and PWD builds dedicated pages for campaigns through our landing page development service.
Fix, pause or leave it
Not every low score needs work. A keyword scoring 4 that converts at a cost you are happy with can stay as it is. A keyword scoring 4 that spends and never converts should be paused regardless of what the components say. The keywords worth the effort are the ones that spend a meaningful share of the budget, convert sometimes, and have one component holding them back.
Account structure that keeps Quality Score up
Most Quality Score problems are structure problems. An ad group that contains “bathroom renovations”, “kitchen renovations” and “home extensions” cannot have an ad that is relevant to all three, and every keyword in it pays for that. Build ad groups around one intent with a handful of keywords, one set of ads and one landing page. When a keyword needs a different ad, it needs a different group.
Single keyword ad groups, where each keyword gets its own group and ads, push relevance as far as it goes. They are worth the management overhead on your highest-spending keywords and not on the rest. Our guide to Google Ads ad groups sets out the structure for a typical account.
Does Quality Score change what you pay?
Not directly, because Google says it is not an auction input. What changes what you pay is the auction-time quality of your ads and landing page, and Quality Score is the visible summary of it. Fix the components and you improve the thing the auction actually uses, which affects whether your ad is eligible, where it shows and what it costs relative to the advertisers next to you.
That is why the older claims of a fixed cost saving per point of Quality Score do not hold. The saving depends on the auction, the competitors and the keyword. Measure the result in cost per conversion and conversion rate on the keywords you worked on, not in the score itself.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good Quality Score in Google Ads?
There is no target number, because Google says not to optimise the score. A keyword with all three components at Average or above is doing its job. The keywords to work on are those with a Below average component and meaningful spend. If a keyword converts profitably at a score of 5, leave it and spend your time on one that does not.
Does this apply to Microsoft Advertising quality score?
No. Microsoft Advertising reports its own quality score with its own components and its own help documentation, and while the ideas are similar, the definitions and the way each element is weighted are Microsoft’s. This guide covers Google Ads only. Check Microsoft’s help pages before applying any of it to a Bing campaign.
When to hand this to an agency
Do it yourself if the account has a handful of ad groups, one landing page per service and enough time each month to read the component columns and act on them. The steps above are all inside the account.
Hand it to an agency when the account has grown past what you can restructure in an afternoon, when the landing pages need building rather than tweaking, or when the components keep coming back Below average and you cannot see why. An agency that runs accounts in your market has seen the same keyword fail for the same reason before, and can fix structure, ads and pages together rather than one at a time.
PWD manages Google Ads for Perth and WA businesses in-house from West Leederville. Conversion tracking is tested before spend starts, the account stays in your name, and the monthly report shows what we changed and why.
Get a free Google Ads account audit
Send us your account and we will review the Quality Score components on every keyword that spends, the ad group structure and the landing pages, and tell you in writing what to fix first. No obligation and no lock-in contract.
Request a free Google Ads account audit or call 08 6146 0195.
