Google Ads Quality Score is a 1 to 10 rating Google gives each of your keywords, based on three things: how likely your ad is to be clicked (expected click-through rate), how closely your ad matches the search (ad relevance), and how useful your landing page is to the person who clicks (landing page experience). A low score almost always means one of those three is below average compared with other advertisers on the same keyword. Find out which one, fix that, and leave the rest alone.
The part most guides skip is that Google itself calls Quality Score a diagnostic tool, not something to be optimised for its own sake. It doesn't feed directly into the auction. The ad quality it reflects does, though, and that's what decides how much you pay for each click. This guide explains what the number really means, why small accounts so often end up with low scores, and the fixes I'd make first. It's part of my small business guide to Google Ads.
What Quality Score is (and what it isn't)
Short answer: Quality Score is a keyword-level report card on a 1 to 10 scale, comparing your ads with other advertisers whose ads showed for exactly the same keyword over the last 90 days.
Google's Quality Score help page describes it as "a diagnostic tool meant to give you a sense of how well your ad quality compares to other advertisers", measured from 1 to 10 and available at the keyword level. Each of the three components gets a rating of Above average, Average or Below average:
| Component | What Google is judging | What usually drags it down in a small account |
|---|---|---|
| Expected click-through rate | How likely your ad is to be clicked when it shows for that keyword | Generic ads, showing for searches that aren't really yours, no reason given to pick you |
| Ad relevance | How closely your ad matches the intent behind the search | One ad group with every service in it, so the ad talks about everything and matches nothing closely |
| Landing page experience | How relevant and useful your page is to the person who clicked | Sending every click to the homepage, slow mobile pages, no clear way to get in touch |
Just as useful is what Quality Score isn't:
- It isn't an input in the auction. Google says so in as many words: "Quality Score isn't an input in the ad auction."
- It isn't the whole picture of ad quality. Google's page on Quality Score for Search campaigns lists factors it doesn't capture, including the device someone is searching on, their location, the time of day and your assets.
- It isn't Ad Strength. The Poor to Excellent rating on your responsive search ads is a separate thing. Google's Ad Strength page says it "isn't used to calculate Ad Rank, Quality Score or auction wins". Chasing Excellent Ad Strength won't lift your Quality Score.
- It only applies to Search keywords. You'll see it in the keywords table of Search campaigns. Performance Max has no keyword-level Quality Score to look at.
Does Quality Score affect what you pay?
Short answer: not directly, but the ad quality behind it does. Better quality ads can win a higher position for a lower cost per click.
This is where people get confused, so it's worth being precise. Every time your ad is eligible to show, Google works out your Ad Rank. Its Ad Rank help page lists what goes into that: your bid, your ad and landing page quality, Ad Rank thresholds, how competitive the auction is, the context of the search, and the expected impact of your assets. Google then says: "even if your competition has higher bids than yours, you can still win a higher position at a lower price by using highly relevant keywords and ads."
So the auction uses a live, search-by-search judgement of quality. Quality Score is the rear-view mirror version of that same judgement, averaged over 90 days for exact searches of your keyword. It's a good sign of whether you're paying more than you need to, but the thing to fix is the underlying ad and page, not the number.
How to check your Quality Score
Short answer: Quality Score columns aren't shown by default. Add them to your keywords table and you'll see the score and all three components.
- In your Google Ads account, go to Campaigns, then Keywords.
- Click the columns icon at the top right of the table.
- Under Modify columns for keywords, open the Quality Score section.
- Tick Quality Score, Landing page exp., Exp. CTR and Ad relevance, then click Apply.
Those steps come from Google's guide to checking your Quality Score. The same section has historical versions of each column, marked "(hist.)". Add those too. They let you see what the score was on a given date, which is how you tell whether a change you made a month ago actually helped.
If you see a dash instead of a number, that isn't a bad score. Google says it means there aren't enough searches that exactly match your keyword to calculate one. In small local accounts that's common, and it's nothing to worry about.
You may also see a keyword marked Eligible (limited) with the status "Rarely shown due to low Quality Score". Google's keyword status documentation explains that this means the Quality Score is very low and is stopping the ad showing often. That one does need attention.
Why your Quality Score is low: the usual causes in small accounts
Short answer: in the small business accounts I look at, low scores nearly always come from the account structure and the landing page, not from anything clever. The same handful of causes turn up again and again.
| What I find | Component it hurts | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| One ad group holding every service (boiler repair, bathrooms, blocked drains) | Ad relevance | Split into tight ad groups, one service each, with ads that talk only about that service |
| Every ad sends people to the homepage | Landing page experience | Send each ad group to the page about that service |
| Broad match keywords with few negatives, so ads show for jobs, DIY and courses searches | Expected CTR | Review search terms, add negatives, tighten match types |
| Ads that could be for any business ("Quality service, great prices") | Expected CTR | Say something specific: the service, the area, the response time, reviews, a real reason to call |
| Slow page on mobile, pop-ups, phone number hard to find | Landing page experience | Fix speed, remove clutter, put the number and a short form at the top |
| Keywords for services you only half offer | All three | Remove them. If the page doesn't cover it, the keyword shouldn't be there |
The irrelevant search problem deserves more attention than it gets. If a plumber's ads show for "plumber jobs near me" or "how to bleed a radiator", those people don't click, and the expected click-through rate suffers. The fix is exactly what I cover in my guide to negative keywords and the search terms report. I exclude anything that isn't directly transactional, and in my experience that alone lifts click-through rate on most accounts I take over.
How to fix each component
Short answer: look at which component says Below average and work on that one. Improving a component that's already Above average won't move much.
Expected click-through rate
Google's advice on using Quality Score to guide improvements is to make the ad more compelling, closer to what the keyword is about, and to highlight what makes you different. For a local service business, that translates into practical things:
- Put the service and the area in the headline: "Emergency Plumber in Croydon" beats "Professional Plumbing Services".
- Give a reason to pick you: same-day callouts, fixed prices, years trading, a review rating you can back up.
- Add sitelinks, callouts and a call asset so the ad takes up more space and gives people more ways in.
- Stop showing for searches that were never yours. Clicks from the right people are the ones that lift CTR.
One caution Google makes itself: a more specific ad can get fewer clicks but more conversions. That's a trade I'll take every time. A lower CTR from the right people beats a higher CTR from people who'll never book.
Ad relevance
This is the easiest one to fix and the most common one to be Below average. Group keywords by theme, so each ad group holds one service, and write ads that use the language of those keywords. Google's own example is splitting "engagement rings" and "wedding bands" into separate ad groups. For a trade business it's splitting "boiler repair" from "boiler installation", or "emergency electrician" from "EV charger installation".
If a keyword doesn't fit any ad you'd be happy to write, it probably doesn't belong in the account.
Landing page experience
Google's guidance on optimising ads and landing pages comes down to this: choose a page that closely matches your ad and keywords, make it work well on a phone, make it quick and easy to take the action you want, and give genuine, useful information about what you offer. For most small businesses, that means:
- A dedicated page for each main service, with the service in the heading.
- The phone number and a short enquiry form visible without scrolling on a phone.
- Real reviews, photos of your own work, the areas you cover and what happens when someone gets in touch.
- A page that loads quickly on mobile data, without pop-ups getting in the way.
My guide on how to create a landing page that converts goes into this in detail. It's worth the effort twice over, because the page that improves your landing page experience is also the page that turns more clicks into enquiries.
What I'd fix first in a small account
Short answer: start with the keywords that spend the most money, not the ones with the lowest score.
A keyword with a Quality Score of 3 that's had two impressions this month doesn't matter. A keyword with a score of 5 that takes a third of your budget does. This is the order I work in:
- Sort keywords by cost over the last 30 days, with the Quality Score and component columns showing.
- Clean the search terms for those keywords first. Irrelevant searches hurt CTR and waste money at the same time.
- Fix ad group structure where ad relevance is Below average. Split by service.
- Point each ad group at the right page. Build the page if it doesn't exist.
- Rewrite the ads to be specific and local.
- Check the historical columns after a few weeks. The score is based on the last 90 days, so it moves gradually.
What I don't do is pause a keyword just because its Quality Score is low. If it brings in enquiries at a cost per lead you're happy with, it's doing its job. Quality Score is a way of spotting problems, and a keyword that produces customers profitably doesn't have one worth chasing.
If your Quality Scores look fine but you're still getting clicks and no calls, the problem is somewhere else. My guide on why Google Ads get clicks but no calls works through the other causes, and my article on how much Google Ads cost in the UK explains what else drives the price you pay per click. For ongoing tweaks, how to optimise your PPC campaigns covers the routine.
FAQ
What is a good Quality Score in Google Ads?
Google doesn't publish a target score, and it describes Quality Score as an indicator of where to focus rather than a score to be optimised. The components are more useful than the number: any keyword spending real money with a Below average component is worth looking at.
Is Quality Score used in the Google Ads auction?
No. Google says Quality Score isn't an input in the ad auction. The auction uses a live measure of ad and landing page quality for each search, along with your bid and the search context. Quality Score is a diagnostic summary of that quality over the last 90 days.
Why does my keyword show a dash instead of a Quality Score?
Google shows a dash when there aren't enough searches that exactly match your keyword to calculate a score. It's common in small local accounts and doesn't mean anything is wrong.
How long does it take for Quality Score to improve?
Quality Score is based on the last 90 days of impressions for exact searches of your keyword, so changes show gradually. Use the historical Quality Score columns to compare before and after, and judge the change on cost per lead as well as the score.
Does improving Ad Strength improve Quality Score?
No. Google says Ad Strength isn't used to calculate Ad Rank, Quality Score or auction wins. It's feedback on the variety of your headlines and descriptions. Write ads that are specific and relevant to the search, and let Ad Strength follow.
Low scores and high costs?
Quality Score is useful because it points at the problem: the wrong searches, the wrong structure or the wrong page. Fix those and you usually pay less per click and get more enquiries from the same budget.
If you're running your own ads and they're not paying, I'm happy to take a look. I'll show you which keywords are costing you the most, which component is holding them back, and what I'd change first. Read about my Google Ads management service and wider PPC services, or get in touch and you'll deal with me directly.
