Quality Score in Google Ads: How It Works

Quality Score is a diagnostic indicator, on a scale from 1 to 10, that Google Ads assigns to every keyword in an account, to show how your ads compare to those of other advertisers bidding on the same searches. The score is built from three components evaluated separately: expected clickthrough rate (Expected CTR), ad relevance to the search intent, and the experience offered by the landing page.

Unlike what many marketing guides claim, Quality Score is not used directly in the Google Ads auction — Google explicitly describes it as a diagnostic tool, not a variable in the Ad Rank formula. What is actually used in the auction is a quality assessment calculated separately, in real time, for each search, based on similar signals. In practice, however, any action that raises your account's visible Quality Score — more relevant ads, better landing pages — tends to also raise the quality used in the auction, which lowers your real CPC.

This article explains which components make up Quality Score, how to check it in your account, what a low score means compared to a high one, how to improve it factor by factor, which mistakes keep it stuck at low values, and how much you can actually save on cost per click with a better score.

Expertise note: HappyWeb tracks and optimizes Quality Score in the Google Ads accounts it manages for businesses in Romania, as part of a strategy to lower CPC and raise ROAS, not as an isolated number tracked without a link to actual account results.

The 3 components of Quality Score: expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience

Google evaluates each of the three components separately and rates them "Below average", "Average", or "Above average", by comparing your ads with other advertisers whose ads showed for the exact same search, over the last 90 days:

Expected CTR: the likelihood that your ad will be clicked when it is shown, independent of its position on the page.
Ad Relevance: how closely your ad's text matches the intent behind a user's search.
Landing Page Experience: how relevant and useful the page a user lands on after clicking is, for that specific keyword.

These three components really follow an old principle from classic marketing: customer orientation, described by Philip Kotler as the obligation to deliver exactly what the target market is looking for, not what is convenient for the advertiser. Ad and landing page relevance are, in effect, the digital measurement of this principle — and their place in the "Promotion" decision from E. Jerome McCarthy's 4P model (Product, Price, Place, Promotion, 1960) is clear: a promotional message that doesn't fit the product and the audience being searched for directly hurts the score.

How to check Quality Score in your Google Ads account

Quality Score is visible at the keyword level, not at the campaign or account level, and it is not shown by default in the standard columns. The official steps to display it:

Step 1: open the Keywords section from the Campaigns menu.
Step 2: click the columns icon in the upper-right corner of the table.
Step 3: from Modify columns for keywords, expand the "Quality Score" section.
Step 4: check the columns you want — Quality Score, Landing Page Exp., Exp. CTR, or Ad Relevance — and click Apply.

For trend analysis over time, there is also a "Quality Score (hist.)" variant, useful when you want to see whether a recent ad or page change actually affected the score.

Why Quality Score doesn't set your CPC directly, but influences it through Ad Rank

This is where most guides get it wrong: the old, still widely repeated formula, "Ad Rank = Max CPC × Quality Score", no longer reflects how the auction actually works today. Google states explicitly that Quality Score is not an input in the ad auction; it is a diagnostic tool, used to show how your ads affect the user experience.

What is actually used in the auction is Ad Rank, calculated from six factors: your bid, the quality of your ad and landing page (assessed in real time, not the score shown in your account), Ad Rank thresholds, the competitiveness of the auction, the context of the search (term, location, device, time), and the expected impact of your ad extensions and formats. Google's own documentation does confirm, though, that "higher quality ads can often lead to lower CPCs" — the relationship is real, but indirect, through the quality component inside Ad Rank, not through the 1-10 number visible in the Quality Score column.

Low vs high Quality Score: what the scores mean, side by side

Quality Score range	What it usually indicates	Recommended action
1-3 (low)	At least one component is "Below average", usually ad relevance or landing page experience	Urgently review keyword grouping, ad copy, and the landing page for that keyword
4-6 (medium)	Mixed components — one "Average" or "Above average", another "Below average"	Identify exactly which component is dragging the score down and optimize only that one
7-10 (high)	Most components are "Average" or "Above average"	Keep the current structure and monitor the score after any major ad or page change

An "N/A" Quality Score is not a low score, it's a missing one — it shows up for keywords with too few impressions for Google to calculate a meaningful estimate, which is common in new accounts or with very specific (long-tail) keywords.

How to improve Quality Score, factor by factor

Because the three components are evaluated separately, the most effective approach is to treat them separately, instead of trying to "optimize the ad in general":

For Expected CTR: write headlines that include the exact term being searched, use every relevant extension (sitelinks, call, price), and exclude mismatched search intent through negative keywords.
For Ad Relevance: split large ad groups into narrow, closely related groups (3-10 keywords with the same intent) and write dedicated ads for each group, instead of a single generic ad for the whole account.
For Landing Page Experience: check the page's load time, make sure the page actually contains the keyword and the offer promised in the ad, and remove extra friction (pop-ups, long forms) between the click and the information requested.

Mini implementation checklist, useful to review monthly for high-volume keywords:

Ad groups contain closely related keywords, not a mixed bag of topics
Each ad group has at least 2-3 dedicated ads, not one recycled from another group
The landing page loads quickly and clearly contains the keyword and the offer from the ad
The negative keyword list is updated from the search terms report
Quality Score is checked after any major ad or page change, not only once at launch

Common mistakes that keep Quality Score low and how to avoid them

Very broad ad groups with mismatched keywords: a single ad cannot be relevant for 50 different keywords. Mitigation: narrow groups down to keywords with identical intent.
Generic ads that don't include the searched keyword: this directly lowers Ad Relevance. Mitigation: write headlines and descriptions that reflect the exact searched term, not a generic brand message.
A slow or unclear landing page: a user who lands on a page that is hard to navigate or unrelated to the ad hurts Landing Page Experience. Mitigation: test page speed and manually verify the page's relevance for that specific keyword.
Ignoring low-volume keywords with a low score: even if their individual impact seems small, they can drag down the account's average relevance. Mitigation: pause them or regroup them into a more relevant ad group.
Confusing Quality Score with Ad Rank and optimizing the wrong thing: treating the 1-10 score as the sole cause of a high CPC leads to the wrong decisions. Mitigation: also analyze your bid, search context, and extensions, not just the Quality Score shown in your account.

Numeric example: how much you save on CPC with a better Quality Score

Illustrative example, to show the comparison logic: a local business in Romania runs the same service campaign, on the same keyword, with the same monthly budget, at two different points in time — before and after optimizing the three Quality Score components.

Situation	Quality Score	Monthly budget	Average CPC	Estimated clicks
Before optimization	4/10	3,000 RON	~4.20 RON	~714
After optimization (narrow groups + dedicated page)	8/10	3,000 RON	~2.10 RON	~1,428

Illustrative figures, for demonstration purposes, showing the typical pattern observed in accounts managed by HappyWeb — a lower CPC and a higher click volume, at an equal budget, after optimizing relevance and the landing page. They do not represent a real client's results, are not a universal benchmark, and do not come from an official Google formula that ties the 1-10 score directly to a fixed CPC discount; results vary by niche, competition, and the account's starting quality.

Frequently asked questions about Quality Score

What is Quality Score, in simple terms?

It is a diagnostic indicator, on a scale from 1 to 10, that Google Ads assigns to every keyword in an account, to show how relevant and useful the ad and landing page are for that specific keyword.

Does Quality Score directly affect CPC in the auction?

Not directly. Google explicitly states that Quality Score is not an input in the auction, but a diagnostic tool. The actual auction uses Ad Rank, which includes a quality assessment calculated separately, based on similar signals — which is why a higher visible score usually translates into a lower CPC, but not through a direct mathematical formula.

What Quality Score is considered "good"?

There is no single official threshold, but a score of 7-10, with most components rated "Average" or "Above average", usually indicates ads and landing pages that are well aligned with search intent. A score of 1-3 deserves priority optimization.

Does Quality Score differ across Search, Shopping, Display, and Performance Max?

Quality Score, as a visible 1-10 score at the keyword level, is specific to Search campaigns. Shopping, Display, and Performance Max campaigns use similar quality signals in their bidding and targeting logic, but they don't expose the same "Quality Score" column at the keyword level.

Conclusion: Quality Score shows you where to optimize, not what you pay directly

Quality Score is, first and foremost, a diagnostic tool, useful for quickly identifying whether an account's problem is ad relevance, the landing page, or expected clickthrough rate. It isn't the variable that calculates your CPC in real time, but the components behind it directly influence the Ad Rank used in the auction — which is why optimizing it remains one of the most effective ways to lower your cost per click without increasing your budget.

We run Google Ads campaigns focused on real ROAS, not just an isolated score. See our services.

Want a better Quality Score and a lower CPC, without raising your budget?

HappyWeb structures ad groups, ad copy, and landing pages for Google Ads campaigns that raise real Quality Score, not just the number in your account. Contact us for a free audit.

Sources

Article last updated: 2026-06-29 · Recommended review: within 90-180 days, since Google periodically updates its ad quality evaluation mechanisms.

Google Ads Help — "About Quality Score for Search campaigns". Official documentation: support.google.com/google-ads. Checked 2026-06-29.
Google Ads Help — "About Ad Rank". Official documentation: support.google.com/google-ads. Checked 2026-06-29.
Philip Kotler — Marketing Management, for the customer-orientation principle as the basis for matching an offer to its target market. Consulted from HappyWeb's internal library.
E. Jerome McCarthy — Basic Marketing: A Global-Managerial Approach, for the 4P model (Product, Price, Place, Promotion, 1960) and placing ad messaging within the "Promotion" decision. Consulted from HappyWeb's internal library.

If you have questions or want a tailored review of the Quality Score in your Google Ads account, contact us.

Image generated with AI, used for illustrative purposes.

Quality Score in Google Ads: How It Works and How to Improve It