You have spent hours crafting the perfect ad copy and creative and have left the campaigns running only to find irritatingly low Google Ads Quality Scores. What can you do to improve these scores? Our guide shows you what Google Ads quality score is and how you can increase yours through a variety of tactics.
TLDR: If you want to cut to the chase and start improving the quality score straight away, the table below shows you our top recommendations along with short explanations (references are available at the end of the guide for further reading)
| Area to check | Weight | How to improve it | Ref |
| Landing page experience | ~39% | Speed up load times, ensure mobile usability, keep messaging consistent from ad to page, use relevant and original content | 1, 2, 5 |
| Expected click-through rate | ~39% | Tighten keyword–ad alignment, write compelling, specific ad copy and clear calls to action, use precise keywords | 1, 2, 5 |
| Ad relevance | ~22% | Match the language of your ad text to user search terms, group tightly themed keywords, split broad ad groups | 1, 2, 5 |
| Responsive search ads | Lever for the two above | Supply varied, relevant headlines/descriptions, pin only where necessary, let Google test combinations | 2 |
| Keyword hygiene | Cross-cutting | Focus effort on high-value, high-impression keywords; prune low-relevance/broad terms; add negatives | 3 |
| What to ignore | — | Components already “above average” (no upside), account-level/”legacy” QS boosts (myth), treating QS as a real-time auction input | 3, 4 |
What is a Google Ads Quality Score?
A Google Ads Quality Score is a 1–10 estimate of how relevant and useful your ad, keyword and landing page are to someone searching on Google.
In simple terms, it helps you understand whether your ads are giving users what they are looking for. A higher Quality Score suggests that Google sees your ad and landing page as more relevant and useful compared with other advertisers targeting the same keyword.
Quality Score is based on three main components:
- Expected click-through rate: How likely your ad is to be clicked when it appears.
- Ad relevance: How closely your ad matches the intent behind someone’s search.
- Landing page experience: How useful, relevant and easy to use your landing page is after someone clicks.
Each of these components is rated as Below average, Average or Above average, giving you a clearer view of where improvements may be needed. For example, a low ad relevance rating could suggest that your ad copy does not closely match the keyword or search intent, while a low landing page experience rating may point to issues with the page content, speed, layout or relevance.
Google compares Quality Score to a warning light on a car dashboard. It tells you that something may need attention, but it is not the full story on its own. This is why Quality Score should be treated as a diagnostic tool rather than a performance target.
It is also important to note that Quality Score itself is not directly used in the ad auction. Instead, Google uses real-time signals around ad quality, relevance and landing page experience when determining how ads perform. So, rather than trying to chase a perfect 10/10 score, advertisers should use Quality Score to identify practical ways to improve the user experience and make campaigns more effective.
How can I check the quality score in Google Ads?
You can check your Quality Score in Google Ads from the keywords section of your account. It is shown at keyword level, so you can see which search terms may need more attention.
To view it, go to your Google Ads account, open your Search campaign, then go to Audiences, keywords and content and select Search keywords. From there, click the Columns icon, choose Modify columns, then open the Quality Score section. You can then add columns such as:
- Quality Score
- Expected CTR
- Ad relevance
- Landing page experience
- Historical Quality Score
- Historical expected CTR
- Historical ad relevance
- Historical landing page experience
Once these columns are added, you will be able to see your Quality Score alongside your keyword performance data.
Why does quality score matter in Google Ads?
Quality Score matters because it shows how well your ads, keywords and landing pages work together.
Google wants to show ads that are useful and relevant to the person searching. When your ad matches the search intent and your landing page provides a good experience, your campaign is more likely to perform efficiently.
Better underlying quality signals can help support stronger ad positions and lower average cost per click. This means your budget has a better chance of going further, as you may be able to get more clicks or better visibility without only increasing your bids.
Quality Score is not the only factor that matters. Your bids, competition, ad assets and campaign setup all play a role. However, it is useful because it points you towards practical improvements, such as making ad copy more relevant, improving landing page content or better matching keywords to search intent.
How is the Quality Score calculated?
Whilst Google does not publish and official formula of how quality score is calculated, research within the community suggests that Google assigns point values to each sub-score, the following from Adanalysis could provide some insight into the weightings:
Landing Page Experience | Ad Relevance | Click Through Rate | |
| Above Average | 3.5 points | 2 points | 3.5 points |
| Average | 1.75 points | 1 points | 1.75 points |
| Below average | 0 points | 0 points | 0 points |
The three Quality Score factors explained
Expected click-through rate
Expected click-through rate, or expected CTR, is Google’s prediction of how likely your ad is to be clicked when it appears. This is based partly on past performance and how relevant the ad is likely to be for the search. More specific keywords often perform better here because they usually match a clearer user intent.
Ad relevance
Ad relevance looks at how closely your ad matches the intent behind the keyword. If someone searches for a specific product or service, your ad should clearly reflect that need. Well-built responsive search ads can help here, as varied and relevant headlines give Google more options to match your ad to different searches.
Landing page experience
Landing page experience measures how useful and relevant your page is after someone clicks your ad. A strong landing page should match the promise of the ad, load quickly on mobile, be easy to navigate and provide honest, original content. The easier it is for users to find what they expected, the better the experience is likely to be.
How to improve your Quality Score (the levers that matter)
The formula tells you exactly where to spend your time. Because expected click-through rate and landing page experience each carry roughly 39% of the weight, while ad relevance accounts for only about 22%, the biggest and fastest gains come from fixing the first two. Here are the levers in priority order, starting with the heavy-hitters.
1. Fix your landing page experience first
This is one of the two highest-weighted factors, so it earns the top spot. Run your key landing pages through Google’s PageSpeed Insights and compress oversized images to cut load times. Check that every page works cleanly on mobile, since most searches happen there. Most importantly, make the page deliver exactly what the ad promised: if the ad offers “20% off winter boots,” that headline and offer should be the first thing a visitor sees, in the same language. Keep the content useful, original, and easy to navigate.
2. Lift your expected click-through rate
The other 39% factor. Tighten the link between keyword and ad so the ad visibly echoes what the person searched for. Write specific, benefit-led copy with a clear call to action (“Get a quote,” “Start free trial”) rather than vague brand statements. Favour precise keywords over broad ones, because broad terms pull in loosely related searches that depress your click-through rate.
3. Sharpen your ad relevance
Lower weight than the first two, but still worth fixing once they are sound. Group tightly themed keywords into small ad groups so a single ad can speak directly to all of them. Mirror the keyword’s wording in your headlines. If an ad group has drifted to cover several different intents, split it into separate, focused groups so each ad stays on-message.
4. Build strong responsive search ads
Your responsive search ads are the practical tool behind both expected CTR and ad relevance, so treat them as a lever, not a set-and-forget. Give Google plenty of distinct, relevant headlines and descriptions to test against each query. Resist the urge to pin everything: pin only where a legal or brand requirement forces it, and let the system find the best-performing combinations on its own.
5. Prune the keywords dragging you down
Audit for broad or loosely related keywords that rack up impressions but few relevant clicks, and pause or remove them. Add negative keywords to stop irrelevant searches from triggering your ads in the first place. A tighter, more intentional keyword list lifts relevance across the whole account rather than just one ad group.
Work down this list in order. Each step still helps, but the ones at the top move your score the most, so that is where a limited hour is best spent.
How to analyse Quality Score at scale (and where to focus first)
On a small account with a handful of keywords, you can read your Quality Scores straight off the Keywords tab and work through them one by one. On a larger account with thousands of keywords spread across dozens of ad groups, that approach falls apart. You end up staring at a wall of numbers with no sense of which ones actually matter. The real skill at scale is knowing where to look first.
Because Google only reports Quality Score per keyword, the trick is to roll those scores up into an impression-weighted view at the ad-group and account level. Impression-weighting simply means a keyword with 50,000 impressions counts far more toward the average than one with 50, which is exactly right, since the high-traffic keyword shapes most of your spend and most of your users’ experience. A plain keyword-level average treats a rarely triggered term as equal to your biggest traffic driver, and that hides your genuine problems. An impression-weighted average drags them into the light.
Next, put Quality Score alongside the metrics that pay the bills. A low score on a keyword that doesn’t spend a lot of the budget isn’t worth your afternoon. A low score on a keyword soaking up a big share of budget, or sitting on strong conversion volume, absolutely is. Comparing Quality Score against spend and conversions tells you where an improvement will move the needle, rather than where it would merely be tidy.
From there, build a priority list. Rank your ad groups by impression-weighted score and focus on the ones that combine high impressions (or high spend) with low scores. That intersection is where the cheapest wins live. Work down the list instead of trying to fix everything at once.
Finally, track it over time. Quality Score shifts slowly, so a single snapshot tells you little about whether your work is paying off. Check your scores weekly, using the history columns Google provides for each component, so you can tie a rising or falling score back to the specific changes you made and change course early if something isn’t landing.
Key takeaways
- Quality Score is a diagnostic, not a vanity metric. It is a 1 to 10 keyword-level rating built from three components (expected click-through rate, ad relevance and landing page experience) that flags where your ads, keywords and pages need work. The visible number itself is not the auction input, so treat it as a warning light pointing you toward fixes rather than a score to chase for its own sake.
- The weighting tells you where to focus. Expected click-through rate and landing page experience each carry roughly 39% of the weight, while ad relevance accounts for about 22%. Fixing your landing pages and tightening keyword-to-ad alignment (helped by strong responsive search ads) deliver the biggest, fastest gains, so start there before anything else.
- Treat it as an ongoing habit, not a one-off fix. Check your scores regularly, prioritise your high-spend, low-scoring keywords first, and track changes over time to see what is working. Because the quality signals behind the score feed your Ad Rank, steady improvement means better positions for a lower cost per click.
FAQ
What is a good Quality Score in Google Ads?
A score of 7 or above is generally considered good, 5 to 6 is average and represents room to improve, and 3 or below is actively working against you and should be fixed first. Aim to get your highest-spend keywords to 7 or higher, since that is where score improvements save you the most money.
How does Quality Score affect my CPC?
The quality signals behind your Quality Score feed directly into your Ad Rank, which determines both where your ad appears and what you pay per click. Higher quality generally means you can hold a strong position for a lower cost per click, so improving the three components tends to reduce your costs as well as lift your visibility. Note that the visible 1 to 10 score itself is a diagnostic, not the direct auction input: it is the underlying quality that does the work.
References from the summary table
- Google Ads Help — About Quality Score for Search campaigns: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6167118
- Google Ads Help — 5 ways to use Quality Score to improve your performance: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6167130
- Google Ads Help — Using Quality Score to guide optimizations: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6167123
- Search Engine Land — The Quality Score formula revealed (legacy-boost myth): https://searchengineland.com/google-ads-the-quality-score-formula-revealed-348063
- Adalysis / Store Growers — reverse-engineered visible QS formula and component weights: https://adalysis.com/google-ads-quality-score/ and https://www.storegrowers.com/google-ads-quality-score/
