Paid search ad optimisation is the daily grind for digital marketers. Tips and tricks become habits as campaign managers become experts. One such trick is leveraging Google Ads Quality Score to create champion PPC campaigns. If you work with ambitious brands that expect precision, efficiency, and results; you’d better ensure your Quality Score is at its maximum.
In this guide, we explain what Google Ads Quality Score is, why it matters, and how to improve it effectively to unlock better ad performance and a stronger return on investment: that’s what we consider a proper result.
What is Google Ads Quality Score?
Quality Score is a metric Google uses to assess the quality and relevance of your keywords, ads, and landing pages. It’s scored on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest.
While not a performance metric in itself, it is a diagnostic tool that indicates how well your campaigns are meeting Google’s expectations of quality for best user experience.
A high Google Ads Quality Score can significantly reduce your cost-per-click (CPC), improve your ad rank, and lead to greater visibility in competitive auctions. Conversely, a low score often results in inflated costs and diminished reach, even if your bids are aggressive.
Agencies and marketers who leverage the full Google toolkit – including Quality Score – are the ones who are able to turn campaigns into success stories time and time again, whilst those who ignore this data are scratching their heads.
How Does Google Calculate Ad Quality Scores?
Google asks three core questions of your ad account setup to determine Quality Score:
- Expected Click-Through Rate (CTR) – How likely your ad is to be clicked when shown to users?
- Ad Relevance – How closely does your ad match the intent behind the user’s search?
- Landing Page Experience – How useful and relevant is your landing page to users who click your ad?
Each of these components is individually rated as “Below Average”, “Average”, or “Above Average”, providing clear high-level insight into which area may need improvement.
- Expected CTR refers to how compelling your ad copy is. Your ad copy is your shop window. If users don’t find it persuasive or if it’s not aligned with their query, CTR suffers when they ignore it and keep on scrolling.
- Ad Relevance is about thematic alignment between keyword, ad copy, and intent (the purpose behind a search, as defined by digital guru Neil Patel). Misalignment causes performance degradation.
- Landing Page Experience considers content quality, page load speed, ease of navigation, and how well the page reflects the user’s original intent. Yep – not only is this vital for SEO, it’s vital for paid search too.
Understanding which component is underperforming allows advertisers to diagnose issues with precision and implement targeted optimisations.
Why is it Important to Maintain a Good Google Ads Quality Score?
Obviously, no one wants their work to be deemed “Below Average”. But there’s a little more to it than that.
Maintaining a strong Quality Score offers both strategic and financial advantages. Your ad rank is determined by your bid multiplied by Quality Score, improving your score enables you to achieve better placement without inflating costs.
From a financial perspective, a higher score means lower CPCs. In effect, you can outcompete advertisers with higher bids simply by delivering a better user experience. This creates a virtuous cycle of lower acquisition costs and higher ROI.
Plus, consistent Google Ads Quality Score improvements indicate a healthy, user-centric account. Google actively rewards this over time, so by practicing good housekeeping (always our number one Quality Score tip) you are going to improve performance and keep those expectant clients happy.
Using Your Quality Score to Create Better Ads
Our advice is not to view Google Ads Quality Score as a benchmark, but consider it a diagnostic framework for campaign performance. It’s not static. It will change as your campaigns mature.
Each of the three core components (CTR, relevance, and landing page experience) can be your Sherpa as you climb the Google Ads peaks of structure, messaging, and user experience.
For example, if your ad relevance is rated “Below Average”, it may signal that your ad groups are too broad or that your ad copy is disconnected from the user’s query. If CTR is lagging, consider testing new calls to action (CTAs), offers, or display paths to boost engagement. Weak landing page scores typically point to mismatched content, slow load times, or poor mobile usability (you can delve into this further very easily for free using Google Lighthouse).
If a keyword’s Quality Score remains stubbornly low despite optimisation, it may be worth pausing or reassigning it to a more focused ad group. Conversely, if you see an increase in Google Ads Quality Score, reinvest time and budget into those themes to amplify performance.
Ultimately, Quality Score should be part of your regular campaign audit process. Use it to highlight where to optimise and where to allocate budget for best results. And if you don’t yet have a campaign audit process, there’s your nudge to get it sorted. You’re welcome. We review Quality Score trends weekly for every account as part of our optimisation routine.
Improving Your Google Ads Quality Score
Structuring for Relevance
Well-structured campaigns are the basis of any good account, and the foundation of a strong Quality Score. Tightly themed ad groups ensure that keywords, ad copy, and landing pages align clearly with user intent. Please – avoid dumping too many unrelated keywords into a single ad group. Organise by intent or topic to allow for tailored messaging and improvement in both ad relevance and CTR.
As a general rule, each ad group should contain no more than 10-15 tightly related keywords, and each ad should mirror the language and intent of those keywords. This structure not only improves Quality Score but also simplifies performance analysis.
Crafting High-CTR Ad Copy
CTR is one of the most controllable aspects of Quality Score. Specificity is key. Ads that reflect the exact user query and promise a clear benefit tend to perform better. Incorporate strong CTAs, time-sensitive offers, or differentiators (such as “free delivery” or “same-day service”) to create urgency and encourage clicks.
Do we need to say complete a spelling and grammar check too?
And of course, test variations rigorously. Use responsive search ads to capture a wider array of high-performing combinations, and regularly analyse performance to phase out underperforming headlines or descriptions.
Optimising Landing Pages
Google expects (and rewards) a seamless user journey from ad click to conversion.
Want to ensure you have a high-quality landing page? Follow these tips to get a foothold on the stuff that matters:
- Message Match – Does the headline/text reflect the ad they clicked?
- Mobile Optimisation – Is it fully responsive and easy to navigate?
- Page Speed – Does it load in under 2 seconds?
- Content Relevance – Does it answer the user’s query and offer clear next steps?
Quick and easy changes such as improving headline clarity, removing distractions, or compressing images can yield significant improvements in both conversion rates and Quality Scores.
Too many advertisers are tripped up by things like pricing. For example if your ad says something is on sale for £10, but the landing page says £11, Google will recognise it. It’s simple stuff but it can be the difference between a good Quality Score and the dreaded “Below Average”.
Put Your Campaigns to Work
Improving your Google Ads Quality Score is not a one-off task. It’s a strategic discipline. That may sound like a daunting term, but in truth it’s a tiny part of the wider best practice of PPC essentials.
A high score reflects thoughtful structure, compelling creative, and a user-centric landing experience. By leveraging Quality Score as a performance signal rather than a vanity metric, advertisers can gain a competitive edge, reduce acquisition costs, and drive sustained growth in their paid search campaigns.
Build it into your optimisation routines, your audit practices and your bank of expert habits. Or, if you need to lean on a team who does this naturally, get in touch with our PPC experts.
