What is Quality Score (Google Ads)
Also known as: Google Ads Quality Score, QS, keyword quality score
Quality Score is a 1 to 10 rating Google Ads shows for each keyword, comparing the quality of your ads with those of other advertisers. It is calculated from three components: expected click through rate, ad relevance and landing page experience. Google itself describes it as a diagnostic tool, meant to show where to improve your ads, landing pages or keyword selection.
An English school advertises on the keyword English classes for adults. Its Quality Score is 4, with average expected click through rate, average ad relevance and below average landing page experience.
The diagnosis points to the problem: the ad sends people to the home page, which talks about kids' classes. The school builds a page just for adults, with evening schedules and pricing. Landing page experience rises to above average, and the score goes to 7.
The three components
Each component gets a status of above average, average or below average, compared with other advertisers whose ads showed for the exact same search over the last 90 days.
| What it evaluates | |
|---|---|
| Expected click through rate | The likelihood that the ad will be clicked when shown |
| Ad relevance | How closely the ad matches the intent behind the search |
| Landing page experience | How relevant and useful the page is to people who clicked |
A diagnostic, not a goal
Google presents Quality Score as a diagnostic tool that helps you understand your ad quality relative to competitors. What actually enters the auction, for each search, is ad quality at that moment, together with the bid and other Ad Rank factors.
In practice, chasing a 10 is not the goal. The goal is improving the components rated below average, because they show where your ad loses to competitors.
How to improve each component
- Expected click through rate: headlines that echo the search, a clear offer and ad assets such as links and prices.
- Ad relevance: ad groups with keywords from a single theme, and ads written for that theme.
- Landing page experience: a page specific to the search, fast on mobile, that delivers what the ad promises.
- Across all: add negative keywords for terms that bring clicks from people who would not buy.
Why the score hits your budget
Higher quality ads tend to win better positions while paying less, because quality is part of Ad Rank. A low score signals that part of the budget is being spent to make up, with bids, for a quality gap that could be fixed in the ad or the page.
Frequently asked questions
What is Quality Score?
A 1 to 10 rating, per keyword, that compares the quality of your ads with other advertisers' ads in Google Ads.
What are the components of Quality Score?
Expected click through rate, ad relevance and landing page experience, each rated above average, average or below average.
Is Quality Score used in the auction?
Google presents it as a diagnostic tool. In the auction, what counts is ad quality at the time of each search, together with the bid and other factors.
How do I raise Quality Score?
With ads that echo the search intent, keyword groups well separated by theme and landing pages that are specific, fast and useful.
Why does my keyword have no Quality Score?
Because the rating depends on data from searches that exactly match the keyword. Without enough impressions in the last 90 days, the score may not appear.
Related terms
- Ad auctionThe ad auction is the process that runs with every Google search to decide which ads will appear, in what...
- CPCCPC (cost per click) is how much an advertiser pays, on average, for each click on an ad. It is also...
- CTRCTR (clickthrough rate) is the percentage of people who clicked after seeing an ad, an email or a search...
- Landing pageA landing page is the page a person reaches after clicking an ad, email or link, built to lead to a single...
- Paid trafficPaid traffic is the visits that reach a website, page or profile through ads: on Google, YouTube, Instagram...
- Conversion rateConversion rate is the percentage of people who took the desired action out of everyone who had the chance...
Rodrigo Fávaro
Founder of ROO3, a marketing and technology agency in São José do Rio Preto, Brazil. Builds AI products running in production (Tobia, gerar.app, Pense Mercado) and maintains the AI Benchmark, a public ranking of AI models.
X @rodmf LinkedIn rodrigofavaroMarketing you can measure, from the ad to the sale.
ROO3 builds and runs paid media, SEO and websites with real targets, dashboards and numbers. The first conversation is free.