Quality Score is a 1 to 10 rating, given to each keyword, that compares the quality of your ads with other advertisers' ads. It combines three components: expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance and landing page experience. According to Google Ads' official help page, it is a diagnostic tool: it is not an input in the ad auction.
In your keyword list, open the columns icon, go to the Quality score section, and add the score and its three components. Focus on active keywords: a paused keyword keeps the score it had when it was last active.
For each keyword that spends, note the component with an 'Average' or 'Below average' status. That component tells you where to act: the ad, the page, or the keyword.
Look at the keyword's Google results page. If people are looking for information, a job, or a product you do not sell, remove the keyword or add it as a negative instead of rewriting the ad.
Use the wording of real search terms, and split mixed ad groups into tighter themes, by product or by service.
Highlight a specific benefit and a clear call to action that matches the landing page. Aim for the right clicks rather than the most clicks.
The page should show what the search asked for, deliver on the ad's promise, work well on mobile, and load fast.
Compare clickthrough rate, conversion rate and site engagement. Quality Score works as a filter that tells you where to act, not as a target to hit.
Google describes Quality Score as a diagnostic tool. It gives you a sense of how your ad quality compares with other advertisers. The score runs from 1 to 10 and is available at the keyword level. The higher it is, the more relevant and useful your ad and landing page are judged to be for someone searching that keyword.
Its job is to show you where to look: the ad, the landing page, or the choice of keyword itself. Google is firm on this point. It is not a key performance indicator, and it should not be optimized for its own sake or aggregated with the rest of your data.
To see it, open Keywords in the Campaigns menu, select the columns icon and open the Quality score section. Four columns can be added: Quality Score, Landing Page Exp., Exp. CTR and Ad Relevance. Historical versions also exist, so you can follow the score over the period you are reviewing.
The score combines the performance of three components. Each one gets a status: 'Above average', 'Average' or 'Below average'. The evaluation compares your ads with those of other advertisers whose ads showed for the exact same search over the last 90 days.
Expected clickthrough rate needs a word of explanation. It is a prediction, separate from the actual CTR shown in your account. Google adjusts it to remove the effect of ad position and assets, and assumes the search matches the keyword exactly. Google also notes that a keyword can have a high Quality Score and a low expected CTR, or the other way around.
A formula still circulates in several guides: Ad Rank would be your bid multiplied by your Quality Score. That is not what Google writes today. Its help page is explicit: Quality Score is not an input in the ad auction. It is a tool that helps you see how the ads shown for certain keywords affect the user experience.
What counts in the auction is ad quality, which the score summarizes. According to Google, Ad Rank depends on six factors: your bid, the quality of your ad and landing page, the expected impact of assets and other formats, Ad Rank thresholds, the context of the search, and how competitive the auction is. A higher-quality ad typically earns a better position and costs less per click. With low quality, your actual cost per click can get close to your maximum bid, even with little competition.
Google corrects a few other misconceptions. Changing match types does not change Quality Score, which is based on the history of exact searches for your keyword. Your bid amount does not affect how quality is assessed. Moving an ad group as is to another campaign changes nothing, and the conversions you report have no effect on ad quality.
Expected CTR measures one simple thing: the likelihood that someone clicks your ad when it shows for that keyword. If most people who type that keyword want something other than what you sell, few of them will click, however good the copy is.
Take a US online store that sells hiking boots. On 'womens hiking boots', an ad reading 'Women's Hiking Boots, Free Shipping' answers what the searcher wants. On 'how to dry hiking boots', the same ad misses: the searcher already owns boots and wants advice. It makes sense that few people click, and that the keyword's expected CTR suffers. Ad relevance and landing page experience can follow the same path, since a product page does not answer the question.
Google puts it its own way: the expected CTR status helps you identify keywords that might not be relevant enough to perform well. For a 'Below average' status, Google suggests editing your ad text. But when the problem is the keyword's intent, no rewrite will fix it. The right answer is to remove the keyword or add it as a negative.
That is where Should I Bid's intent analysis comes in, before the first impression. It reads the Google results page for each keyword, compares it with what your company sells, and returns a Bid, Test or Skip verdict with a score out of 100: Bid at 70 or above, Test from 50 to 69, Skip below 50. To compare approaches, see our roundup of keyword intent analysis tools.
Google offers five ways in, covered in the steps below, with one simple principle: give people what they are looking for. A few of Google's details are worth keeping in mind. For relevance, its example is a jeweler who puts 'engagement rings' and 'wedding bands' in two separate ad groups. For clickthrough rate, it warns that a more specific ad can lower CTR while raising conversion rates.
For the landing page, there is no need to repeat the query word for word in your headline: Google says it is not required, as long as the page delivers what the searcher wants. Conversion rate can serve as a proxy for landing page experience, even though it does not affect that status.
If the Quality Score column shows a dash instead of a number, there are not enough searches that exactly match your keywords to calculate a score. Google suggests two options: find relevant keywords with more volume using Google Keyword Planner, or broaden your match types. Broadening does not change how the score is calculated, but it lets the keyword enter more auctions and gather more exact-match search data.
A broad match keyword can also get a score with no impressions of its own, as long as a matching exact match keyword in the same ad group had impressions in the last 90 days. Finally, some factors related to ad quality are not captured by the score, such as the device, the user's location, the time of day, or your ad assets.
Before you chase volume, make sure that volume comes from people who can buy. Broadening a keyword with no buying intent mostly adds wasted clicks. Our guide to reducing wasted Google Ads spend and our comparison of negative keyword tools explain how to filter those searches out.
Should I Bid does not calculate your Quality Score: Google Ads calculates it, and you read it in your account. The tool also does not do backlinks, organic rank tracking or technical SEO audits.
Its role comes earlier: choosing keywords whose intent matches what you sell, and ruling out the others with the negatives recommended for each analysis. That sorting happens before launch; any effect on the score shows up later in your account. It works with credits, one credit per keyword analyzed, with free analyses to try it and no credit card: see credit-based pricing.
Google's help pages do not give a target score, and Google advises against optimizing the number itself. Look at the three components instead: a 'Below average' status points to a problem to fix, and an 'Average' status may leave room to improve. The higher the score, the more relevant your ad and page are judged to be compared with other advertisers.
Not directly: Google says it is not an input in the ad auction. But ad quality, which the score summarizes, is part of Ad Rank. According to Google, higher-quality ads typically cost less per click and earn better positions. A low-quality ad can end up paying an actual cost per click close to its maximum bid.
It is calculated from the combined performance of three components: expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance and landing page experience. Each gets a status, from 'Below average' to 'Above average', based on a comparison with other advertisers whose ads showed for the exact same search over the last 90 days.
When the column shows a dash, there are not enough searches that exactly match your keyword to calculate a score. Google suggests finding relevant keywords with more volume in Keyword Planner, or broadening the match type so the keyword enters more auctions. The way the score is calculated stays the same.
No. Google states that the score is based on historical impressions for exact searches of your keyword, so switching from broad match to phrase match, or back, does not change it. Broadening can only help a keyword with no score gather enough data. To improve the score, work on the ad, the landing page and the keyword choice.
It can weigh first on expected CTR: if most people who type that keyword want something other than your offer, few of them click your ad. Ad relevance and landing page experience can suffer too. Tweaking the ad will not change much: it is better to drop the keyword, ideally before launch.