How to Improve Your Google Ads Quality Score
Quality Score controls what you pay per click in Google Ads. Here's what the 1-10 score actually means, how it affects your costs, and how to improve each component. Published July 14, 2026.
Google Ads Quality Score is a 1-to-10 rating assigned to every keyword in your account. It measures three things: how likely someone is to click your ad, how relevant your ad copy is to the keyword, and how good your landing page experience is. A higher score lowers your cost per click and improves your ad position. A lower score raises your costs and suppresses your placement. All three components are within your control.
Quality Score is one of the most consequential numbers in a Google Ads account, and one of the most misunderstood. Most advertisers treat it as a vanity metric or ignore it entirely once they are running smart bidding. That is a mistake that shows up in inflated CPCs and weaker auction performance.
This post covers what Quality Score actually measures, how it feeds into Ad Rank and cost, what each component status label means, and the specific actions that move each component from Below Average to Above Average. The mechanics here are based on current Google Ads documentation and 2025-2026 account behavior.
What Is Quality Score in Google Ads?
Quality Score is a diagnostic metric Google assigns to each keyword in your Search campaigns. It runs on a 1-to-10 scale, where 5 represents average performance relative to other advertisers competing on the same keyword. Google calculates it based on how your ads and landing pages performed on searches using that exact keyword over the past 90 days.
The score itself does not directly determine what you pay or where your ad appears. What it does is feed into Ad Rank, the real-time calculation that determines your auction outcome. Think of Quality Score as your account's ongoing track record on each keyword, expressed as a number Google uses when you enter the auction.
Each keyword in your account gets one of three status labels for each component: Above average, Average, or Below average. These labels are how Google communicates where the problem is. A score of 7 or above typically indicates above-average performance across components. A score of 3 or below is a signal that one or more components need significant attention.
How Does Quality Score Affect What You Pay?
Quality Score feeds directly into Ad Rank, which Google calculates as: your maximum bid multiplied by your Quality Score, adjusted for other auction-time factors including ad format and expected context signals. A higher Quality Score means you can achieve the same or better ad position for a lower bid than a competitor with a worse score bidding the same amount.
The CPC impact is measurable. Google's actual CPC formula works like this: you pay the Ad Rank of the advertiser directly below you, divided by your Quality Score, plus one cent. That means Quality Score is literally in the denominator of what you pay. Research consistently shows that a keyword at Quality Score 1 to 3 can cost up to 400% more per click than the same keyword at the baseline score of 5. A keyword at Quality Score 10 can deliver a CPC discount of up to 50% compared to that same baseline.
In a smart bidding account, this dynamic does not disappear. Smart bidding amplifies quality signals: if your landing page experience is poor and your competitor's is strong, the bidding algorithm learns the conversion rate difference faster and adjusts accordingly. Quality Score still matters; it just operates through a more automated channel than it did in manual CPC accounts.
What Are the Three Quality Score Components?
Every Quality Score is built from three components, each rated Above average, Average, or Below average. Google weights them roughly as follows, based on Adalysis research: Expected CTR at approximately 39%, Landing Page Experience at approximately 39%, and Ad Relevance at approximately 22%. The two highest-weight components are also the two most controllable through systematic account work.
Expected CTR is Google's prediction of how often your ad will be clicked relative to all other ads showing for that keyword. This is not your historical CTR. It is a forward-looking comparison against every other advertiser competing on the same term. An ad that closely matches what a searcher is looking for earns a higher expected CTR, even on a new keyword with no history.
Ad Relevance measures how well your ad copy connects to the intent behind the keyword. When your ad headline and description directly address what someone searching that keyword wants, ad relevance scores above average. When a single ad group is covering 40 different keywords and the ad copy is generic, ad relevance scores below average on most of them.
Landing Page Experience is Google's assessment of the page a searcher lands on after clicking. It evaluates whether the page content matches the ad's promise, whether the page loads quickly, whether it works on mobile, and whether the experience is transparent (no misleading content, no disruptive interstitials, no bait-and-switch between ad message and page content). A February 2025 update expanded this evaluation to include navigational clarity and unexpected destination detection.
How Do You See Your Quality Score in Google Ads?
Quality Score is not displayed by default in the Google Ads interface. You need to add it manually as a column. In your Google Ads account, go to the Keywords tab, click the columns icon in the upper right of the table, open the Quality Score category, and add: Quality Score, Expected CTR, Ad relevance, and Landing page experience. These will then appear as columns in your keyword table.
Once visible, sort the Quality Score column from lowest to highest. Keywords with scores of 1 to 4 are your highest-priority optimization targets. For each low-scoring keyword, check which component is Below average: that tells you whether the fix is in your ad copy, your keyword grouping, or your landing page.
New keywords start with a default Quality Score of 6 in most cases, because there is not yet enough data for Google to evaluate expected CTR. The score will begin updating after the keyword accumulates impression data, typically within one to two weeks of significant traffic.
How Do You Improve Expected CTR?
Expected CTR improves when your ad copy matches the searcher's intent more precisely than competing ads do. The most effective way to do that is to write ads for specific keyword intent rather than using a single ad set for an entire campaign theme.
Start with tighter ad group structure. If one ad group is covering 20 keywords spanning different intents (informational, commercial, comparison), the ad cannot speak precisely to all of them. Breaking these into smaller, tighter groups (sometimes called single keyword ad groups, or SKAGs, for your highest-volume terms) lets you write ad copy that directly mirrors what the searcher is looking for.
In the headline of your responsive search ad, include the primary keyword or a close variant in at least one headline. Google's own guidance confirms that including keywords in your ad copy improves expected CTR because it creates a direct signal match between the search term and the ad. Use your remaining headlines to address objections, highlight a differentiator, or state the specific benefit the searcher is looking for.
How Do You Improve Ad Relevance?
Ad relevance below average almost always traces back to one of two problems: the keyword does not belong in that ad group, or the ad copy is too generic to serve the intent of the keywords it covers. Both are fixable.
Audit each Below average ad relevance keyword and ask whether the intent behind that search matches the intent your ad addresses. A keyword like "google ads management" belongs in an ad group with copy about professional campaign management. A keyword like "how google ads works" belongs in a separate, more educational-intent group or should be excluded with a negative keyword match. Mixing intent types in one ad group is the most common ad relevance killer.
For responsive search ads, provide at least 15 unique headlines that cover different angles of the keyword's intent: the problem the searcher has, the outcome they want, your specific differentiator, and a clear call to action. Avoid repeating the same concept across multiple headlines. The more unique and intent-specific your assets are, the more combinations Google can generate that are relevant to a specific search.
How Do You Improve Landing Page Experience?
Landing page experience is the component with the longest improvement cycle, because changes to a page require Google to recrawl and re-evaluate it before the score updates. That said, it is also the component with the most direct business impact beyond Quality Score, because a page that genuinely serves the searcher's intent also converts better.
The first test is message match: does the headline on your landing page reflect the specific promise in your ad? If your ad says "Google Ads Management for Denver Businesses" and the landing page headline says "Digital Marketing Services," you have failed the message match test. The fix is either a dedicated landing page for each campaign theme or dynamic content that adjusts the headline to match the ad.
Page speed is evaluated as part of landing page experience. A 1-second delay in mobile page load time can reduce mobile conversions by up to 20%, and Google uses its own crawl data to assess how quickly your page loads for real visitors. PageSpeed Insights (pagespeed.web.dev) gives you the diagnosis. The most common fixes are unoptimized images, render-blocking JavaScript, and slow server response times on shared hosting.
Transparency matters more than it used to. Google's 2025 update explicitly evaluates whether the page delivers what the ad promised: no hidden fees surfacing late in the checkout flow, no aggressive interstitials blocking content, no significant mismatch between what was advertised and what the page actually offers. If your account shows persistent Below average landing page experience on keywords where your content is strong and fast, review the page for anything that could register as deceptive: early-stage pop-ups, unclear CTAs, or a gap between ad-stated benefits and page-stated pricing.
Does Quality Score Still Matter With Smart Bidding?
Yes, and the stakes are higher in automated accounts than in manual ones. Smart Bidding reads Quality Score signals at every auction. When two advertisers have similar bids but meaningfully different Quality Scores, the system routes more auction wins to the higher-quality account, because the signal predicts better performance for the searcher.
What changes with automation is where you spend your optimization time. In a manual CPC account, a low Quality Score directly raises the bid you need to win a position. In a smart bidding account, the algorithm absorbs some of that friction, but it does so by spending more of your budget to compensate. An account with low Quality Scores running Target CPA or Target ROAS bidding will simply need a higher budget to deliver the same volume as an account with strong quality signals.
The accounts most at risk of misunderstanding this are the ones where smart bidding is performing adequately on a surface level. If your campaigns are hitting target CPA but your Quality Scores are 3 to 5 across the board, you are overpaying per conversion relative to what you would pay with strong quality signals. The campaign looks like it is working, but it is working inefficiently. Improving Quality Score in that context does not just improve a score: it reduces the actual cost of every conversion you are generating.
For a broader look at how bidding strategy and quality signals interact, see Google Ads Bidding Strategies Explained and Smart Bidding in Google Ads: What Works and What Doesn't.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quality Score, Answered
What is a good Quality Score in Google Ads?
A Quality Score of 7 or above on a keyword is generally considered above average, meaning your ad copy and landing page are performing better than most competitors showing on the same keyword. Scores of 8 to 10 are excellent and typically reflect tightly themed ad groups with dedicated landing pages. A score of 5 is average by definition since Google calibrates the scale against other advertisers on each keyword. Scores below 4 indicate at least one component is Below average and is actively increasing your cost per click.
How does Quality Score affect cost per click?
Quality Score appears in the denominator of Google's actual CPC formula: you pay the Ad Rank of the advertiser directly below you, divided by your Quality Score, plus one cent. A higher Quality Score reduces what you pay for the same position. Research consistently finds that a keyword at Quality Score 1 to 3 costs up to 400% more per click than the same keyword at a baseline score of 5. A keyword at Quality Score 10 can produce a CPC discount of up to 50% compared to that baseline. These are not small differences on a competitive keyword with meaningful volume.
What are the three components of Quality Score?
The three components are Expected CTR, Ad Relevance, and Landing Page Experience. Expected CTR is Google's prediction of how likely your ad is to be clicked compared to other ads competing on the same keyword. Ad Relevance measures how closely your ad copy matches the intent behind the keyword. Landing Page Experience evaluates whether the page you send people to is relevant, fast, mobile-friendly, and transparent. Each component receives one of three status labels in your account: Above average, Average, or Below average.
How do I see my Quality Score in Google Ads?
Quality Score is not visible by default. In the Google Ads interface, navigate to the Keywords tab, click the columns icon, open the Quality Score category, and add the Quality Score, Expected CTR, Ad relevance, and Landing page experience columns. Once added, sort the Quality Score column from lowest to highest to identify which keywords need attention first. For each low-scoring keyword, the component status labels tell you whether the problem is in your ad copy, your keyword grouping, or your landing page.
How long does it take to improve Quality Score?
Ad relevance improvements can show up in your score within one to two weeks once Google accumulates enough impression data against your updated ad copy. Landing page experience changes take longer because Google needs to recrawl your page and re-evaluate it on its own schedule, which can range from a few days to a few weeks depending on crawl frequency. Expected CTR improvements depend on accumulating enough click data to demonstrate a statistically meaningful change, which means high-volume keywords will update faster than low-traffic terms. For new keywords with no history, the default score updates as soon as the keyword has meaningful impressions.
Does Quality Score matter if I am using smart bidding?
Yes. Smart Bidding does not remove Quality Score from the Ad Rank formula. The underlying signals, ad relevance, landing page quality, and expected engagement, still influence every auction outcome. In an automated account, poor Quality Scores translate into higher budget requirements to deliver the same conversion volume, because the algorithm compensates by spending more per auction rather than improving the quality signal itself. An account with low Quality Scores running Target CPA bidding is hitting its goals but overpaying for every conversion it generates. Improving Quality Score in that context directly reduces cost per acquisition without requiring a bid strategy change.
Which Quality Score component should I fix first?
Start with the component marked Below average that is easiest to identify from the ad group structure. Ad relevance below average almost always means a keyword does not belong in that ad group or the ad copy is too generic. That is the fastest fix: tighten the ad group theme and rewrite the headlines. Landing page experience below average typically requires more work but has the broadest impact because it affects conversion rate as well as Quality Score. Expected CTR below average means your ad is not compelling enough relative to competing ads, which requires copy testing and tighter message-to-intent alignment.
About the author. Jaron Mossman is the founder of 360ROI, a boutique digital marketing consultancy based in Castle Rock, Colorado. He spent two years managing multimillion-dollar advertising accounts at Google's Manhattan office for Fortune 500 travel and hospitality brands before founding 360ROI in 2013. He manages Google Ads campaigns across medical aesthetics, B2B manufacturing, and professional services clients.