Google Ads Quality Score: What It Actually Affects and How to Improve It

Quality Score is widely reported and widely misunderstood

Most Google Ads accounts surface Quality Score as a headline metric. It sits in the dashboard, it gets flagged in reports, and it becomes the subject of optimisation briefs that assume a higher number automatically means better results.

The reality is more nuanced. Quality Score is a diagnostic tool, not a primary performance KPI. Understanding what it actually controls - and what it doesn't - lets you prioritise the right improvements.

What Quality Score is measuring

Google calculates Quality Score on a 1-10 scale at the keyword level. It reflects how relevant and useful your ad and landing page are expected to be for a given search query, compared to other advertisers targeting the same keyword.

It is made up of three components:

• Expected click-through rate - how likely your ad is to be clicked when shown at a given position, relative to historical CTR data across the platform
• Ad relevance - how closely your ad copy matches the intent of the search query
• Landing page experience - how relevant, transparent, and easy to navigate Google judges your landing page to be

Each component is rated as Above Average, Average, or Below Average. The composite score from 1-10 is derived from these signals.

Where Quality Score actually matters

Quality Score feeds directly into Ad Rank, which determines both your ad position and the amount you pay per click.

Ad Rank is calculated as:

Ad Rank = Bid × Quality Score × Expected impact of ad extensions and formats

A higher Quality Score means you can achieve competitive positions at lower bids. Two advertisers bidding the same amount will see different outcomes if one has a significantly stronger Quality Score.

This is where the real financial consequence sits. If your Quality Score is consistently below the platform average for competitive keywords, you are paying more per click than necessary and often ranking lower despite equivalent or higher bids.

The three components in practice

Expected click-through rate

This is typically the highest-impact component to address. It reflects not just your historical CTR on this keyword, but Google's prediction of future CTR based on what it knows about query intent, competitive behaviour, and your ad creative.

If your expected CTR is Below Average, the most common causes are:

• Generic ad copy that doesn't match the specificity of the query
• Missing calls to action
• Ad groups that are too broad, forcing one set of ads to serve many different intent signals
• Poor use of responsive search ad combinations - dominant asset combinations that underperform

The fix is usually tighter ad group structure (fewer keywords per group, more targeted copy) and systematic review of RSA asset performance to remove weak headlines and descriptions.

Ad relevance

This measures how well your ad text mirrors the language of the search query. It is not about keyword stuffing - Google is evaluating semantic relevance, not exact match repetition.

If ad relevance is Below Average, the likely causes are:

• A mismatch between the keyword theme and the ad creative
• Ad groups with too wide a scope pulling in queries outside the ad's core message
• Product or service pages being targeted with ads written for a different intent stage

Restructuring into tighter themes - ideally one ad group per intent cluster rather than one per product category - usually resolves this.

Landing page experience

Landing page experience is influenced by:

• Relevance - does the page content match what the ad promised?
• Transparency - is it clear who the business is, what they offer, and how to contact them?
• Navigation and usability - is the page easy to use on mobile, does it load quickly, and can users find what they need?
• Original content - is the page thin, templated, or does it add genuine value?

Page speed is a contributing factor but not the dominant one. A fast-loading page with irrelevant or thin content will still score poorly. The bigger lever is ensuring the page delivers on the specific promise of the ad.

Where not to spend your optimisation time

Chasing 10/10 universally

A Quality Score of 10 across every keyword in your account is neither achievable nor necessary. Scores for branded keywords, navigational queries, and very specific long-tail terms often sit lower because the comparison pool is smaller or the query intent is unusual.

A score of 7 or above for core commercial keywords is a reasonable working standard. Below 5 on high-spend keywords is worth investigating. Below 5 on keywords that also have poor CPA performance is a signal to restructure or remove.

Treating Quality Score as a reporting KPI

Quality Score is measured at the keyword level at a specific point in time. It fluctuates with the competitive landscape, seasonality, and data volume. Tracking it as a weekly metric creates noise. Use it as a diagnostic tool when you are investigating CPC or volume issues, not as a primary success measure.

Changing bids to influence Quality Score

Bids do not affect Quality Score. Changing how much you bid will alter your average position, which can indirectly influence measured CTR over time, but it is not a Quality Score lever.

A practical prioritisation framework

When reviewing Quality Score across an account, the right approach is to filter by spend and focus on the keywords where improvements translate into material cost reductions.

Step 1 - Sort keywords by spend descending. Filter to keywords with Quality Score below 6.

Step 2 - For each affected keyword, check which component is rated Below Average. This tells you where the problem sits.

Step 3 - Apply the appropriate fix:

• Below average expected CTR → restructure ad groups, refresh RSA assets, improve headline specificity
• Below average ad relevance → align ad copy more tightly to the keyword theme, create a dedicated ad group if the query type is distinct
• Below average landing page experience → review post-click page relevance, page speed, mobile usability, and content depth

Step 4 - Allow 3-4 weeks for Google to accumulate sufficient impression and click data before evaluating changes.

Step 5 - Track the impact through CPCs and auction insights rather than the Quality Score number itself. A reduction in average CPC or an improvement in impression share at the same budget is the real signal that structural improvements are working.

What this means at account scale

In a well-structured account with strong Quality Scores across core keywords, the compounding effect over time is significant. Lower CPCs mean more clicks at the same budget, better positions without higher bids, and improved eligibility for additional ad formats and extensions.

In a poorly structured account, advertisers often compensate for low Quality Scores by increasing bids - which inflates costs without fixing the underlying problem. The result is an account where spend is high but efficiency is poor.

Quality Score optimisation, done at the right level of priority and on the right keywords, is one of the higher-leverage activities in ongoing PPC management. It does not require a complete account rebuild. It requires systematic attention to structure, relevance, and the post-click experience.

Summary

Quality Score affects Ad Rank, which affects your CPC and position. The three components - expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience - each have distinct causes and fixes. The most productive approach is to prioritise high-spend keywords where below-average scores are costing real money, fix the specific component that is underperforming, and measure results through CPCs rather than the score itself.

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TwoSquares manages Google Ads campaigns for businesses across the UK. If your account has persistent efficiency issues or you want a structured audit of where Quality Score improvements are most likely to reduce your cost per acquisition, get in touch.