What is a quality score in Google Ads and how to improve it?

How can you use Google Ads more effectively and increase the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns? How can you improve your advertising efforts to reach more interested users? There is a key indicator that can greatly help your marketing efforts – quality score. Learn how you can use quality scores to improve the effectiveness of your Google Ads campaigns.

What is a quality score?

Google uses a quality score to evaluate the quality of ads, measured on a scale of 1 to 10. It reflects the relevance of the keyword, ad, and landing page to users viewing the ad. A higher quality score indicates greater ad relevance compared to competitors’ ads, while a lower score suggests improvements are needed. This score shows how well an ad responds to the needs and search intentions of potential customers, which can affect its effectiveness.

The quality score is, therefore, a feedback mechanism from Google that strives to display the most relevant ads for user queries. Along with other factors, it helps determine whether your ad meets this goal.

The Quality Score is a key factor in determining whether your ad meets this goal.

How is the quality score calculated?

Google Ads calculates the quality score by taking into account the performance of three key elements:

1. Click-through rate (CTR):
   • Specifies how often users will click on an ad based on a search keyword. Google relies on historical data to predict this rate. A higher expected CTR suggests that the ad is more attractive, positively affecting the quality score.
2. Advertising accuracy:
   • Measures how well the keyword and content of the ad respond to users’ needs. The more relevant the ad is to the query, the higher the quality score, making it more likely to be displayed.
3. Landing page quality:
   • Assessment of the page that users go to after clicking on an ad. Google takes into account aspects such as loading speed, mobile-friendliness, and content relevance. A better-quality landing page raises the quality score and encourages users to take the desired action.

Each of these components is rated as “Above Average”, “Average” or “Below Average”, based on a comparison with ads from other advertisers that displayed for the same keyword in the past 90 days.

A good quality score brings many benefits, these include:

• Increased visibility of ads: A higher quality score increases the chances of better ad positions, leading to higher visibility.
• Faster budget management: A higher quality score allows you to use your advertising budget more efficiently, allowing you to save money or reach more potential customers.
• Lower cost per conversion: A high quality score can reduce the cost per successful conversion by lowering the cost per click (CPC) and improving ad relevance.
• High ROI: A good quality score maximizes return on investment by reducing costs and increasing ad effectiveness.

Quality score affects the overall health and success of an advertising account. If the quality score at the keyword level is too low, the keyword may not participate in the auction, meaning the ad will not be displayed and cannot compete for users’ attention. A low-quality score leads to a low ad ranking, which is likely to result in less traffic and a lower return on investment.

How to check a quality score?

You can check the Quality Score in your Google Ads account. Each keyword your ads target gets a Quality Score.

1. 1. Open your Google Ads account and go to the „Campaigns”

tab.

1. 1. Select „Audience lists, keywords and content”, and then select „Keywords in the search network”

tab.

1. In the right corner, above the data, the option „Modify columns for keywords” is available. Once open, search for the keyword „Quality score”
2. You can search for the overall quality score as well as its individual components, i.e.:

• Landing page quality
• Predicted CTR
• Advertising accuracy

5. Confirm by clicking „Apply”

Note: You can also select historical data for the quality score, just designate a specific period and select „Modify columns for keywords”

in the menu.

• Quality score (hist.)
• Target page quality score (hist.)
• Advertising accuracy (hist.)
• Predicted CTR (hist.)

Note: If “-“ appears in a cell, it means that not enough data has yet been collected to determine the quality score.

From Google’s perspective, the quality score is crucial because it reflects the relevance of ads to user queries. As a leading search engine, Google strives to maintain its position, and the quality score helps ensure that the ads displayed are relevant to users’ searches.

For advertisers, the quality score is extremely important for other reasons. First, it determines whether a keyword can participate in the auction at all, meaning the ad will be displayed in response to a user’s query on Google’s search network. In addition, the quality score combined with the CPC rate determines an ad’s ranking, which is crucial, especially for advertisers with limited budgets

Quality score has a significant impact on the cost and effectiveness of Google search advertising campaigns.

1. Impact on the effectiveness of ads: Google’s quality score provides information about the quality and relevance of ads, landing pages and keywords in the context of a user’s query. Although the score itself is not directly considered in an ad auction, its components play an important role. If an ad, landing page or keywords are rated as “Below average”, the ad may appear less often or not at all and may not have additional resources. On the other hand, a rating of “Above average” increases the chances of the ad being displayed.
2. Determines the ranking of an ad: An ad’s ranking is the score that determines its position on Google’s search results page. The quality score directly affects this ranking. A high-quality score can improve an ad’s position, making it more visible. Greater visibility translates into more clicks and increases the chances of achieving campaign goals.
3. Reduces cost per click: Cost per click (CPC) is the amount paid for each click on an ad. In Google Ads, CPC is not a fixed rate and depends on several factors, including quality score. Google strives to display the most relevant and useful ads, and the quality score measures how well advertisers meet this criterion. A high-quality score can lead to a lower CPC, as Google rewards advertisers for creating valuable ads that improve the user experience.

The quality score also affects the position of ads in Google’s ad network. The formula for ad ranking for keyword-targeted ads is:

Ad ranking = CPC rate × Quality Score

With a Quality Score, advertisers with small budgets can optimize their accounts and get higher ad positions, even if their rate is lower than that of competitors with lower Quality Scores.

Misconceptions about quality score

• Changing match types affects Quality Score: Google measures Quality Score regardless of keyword match type. This means that if your account has keywords in approximate, phrase and exact match, they will all have the same Quality Score. Google evaluates a keyword’s Quality Score based on the exact match to the query.
• The Quality Score worsens when ads or keywords are paused: Withholding ads or keywords does not affect the Quality Score because it is based on the effectiveness of active keywords and ads. If they are not active, they do not participate in the auction and are not displayed, so they do not affect the Quality Score.
• The Quality Score for display ads and search results affect each other: Quality scores for display ads and search results are separate and do not affect each other because the criteria for evaluating these scores are different.

Removing or restructuring items with low quality Scores removes their history: This is not true. According to Google, even if you pause, remove, or restructure account elements, their historical performance still affects your account history. Nonetheless, Google recommends removing poorly performing keywords and ads to prevent further negative impact on account history. As more performance data is collected, the negative impact of these elements will diminish but never disappear completely.

To improve Google Ads’ quality score, you need to focus on increasing the expected CTR, relevance of your ads, and quality of your landing page. You can start this process by identifying elements rated as “below average” or “Average.”

• Finding relevant keywords

Selecting the right keywords ensures that your ads reach users who are genuinely interested in your offerings. For example, if you sell handmade wooden dining tables, it is better to use the phrase “handmade oak dining table” instead of the generic term “dining table”. This increases the expected CTR and relevance of ads, which improves the Quality Score.

• Organize consistent groups of ads

Google Ads campaigns are divided into ad groups containing related keywords. The proper organization of these groups directly impacts the relevance of ads.

• Matching the content of the ad to the keyword intent

The content of the ad should match the user’s intent. If someone is looking to “buy the most comfortable stilettos”, the advertisement should highlight the features of the stilettos to directly address the user’s needs.

• Optimizing the landing page

The landing page must meet users’ expectations created from the ad’s content. If the site is difficult to navigate or does not live up to the promises of the ad, users will quickly abandon it.

Tips for improving landing page quality:

• The page should load quickly, especially on mobile devices.
• The website should be responsive and look good on all devices.
• Transparent and relevant content that should match the user’s search intent and the promise of the ad.
• Users should easily navigate the site with clear headings and easy-to-read text.
• Users should know what they should do next, such as make a purchase or register.

Summary

Summary, quality score in Google Ads plays a key role in shaping the success of ad campaigns. A high quality score leads to better ad visibility, lower cost per click and higher ROI. Key elements such as predicted CTR, ad relevance and landing page quality affect the quality score. By improving these areas through proper keyword selection, organization of ad groups, alignment of ad content with user intent, and landing page optimization, you can achieve better results and increase the effectiveness of your ad campaigns.