If you manage campaigns in Google Ads, At some point you've probably seen this number in your account and passed it by. Or worse: you haven't even activated it in your metrics table and aren't seeing it.
We are talking about the Quality Score o Quality Score in English, the score that Google assigns to each of your keywords in search campaigns and which has a direct impact on how much you pay per click and in which position your ads appear.
At DDigitals we have experience managing large Google Ads accounts. And if there is one resource that we see recurrently underused, it is this one. Not because it is difficult to understand, but because nobody has explained it properly. In this article we are going to remedy this.
What is the Google Ads Quality Score?
The Quality Score is a score from 1 to 10 that Google assigns to each keyword within your search campaigns. The higher the better.
But it's not just a note. It's Google's way of telling you how relevant it thinks your ad is to the person who just did that search. And that, as you'll see below, changes absolutely everything.
How the Google Ads auction works (and why the Quality Score changes everything)
There is a widespread belief that In Google Ads, whoever puts the most money on the table wins. This is not the case.
What really determines where your advertisement appears is the Ad Rank, which is calculated as follows:
Ad Rank = Maximum Bid × Quality Score × Expected impact of ad formats
This means that an advertiser with a lower bid can win the position over another advertiser. with a higher bid if it has a higher Quality Score. And when it comes to the actual CPC (what you end up paying), something equally interesting happens: The higher your Quality Score, the lower the cost per click you are actually billed.
If you want to understand in depth how Google measures the real value of each interaction in your campaigns, we also recommend you to read our article on Improved conversions on Google Ads, where we explain how to make sure that no conversion goes unregistered.
In short: improving your Quality Score doesn't just improve your ranking. It saves you money on every click.
What factors determine the Quality Score?
Google calculates this score on the basis of three variables. None is more important than the other two. You have to work on all of them.
Expected CTR (Expected Click-Through Rate)
Google predicts whether your ad will receive clicks based on the performance history of that keyword. If it does not generate clicks when it appears, Google interprets that it is not what the user is looking for.
An ad without a clear value proposition, a headline that engages or a call to action that invites you to click, is going to have an Low CTR. And a low CTR drag the Quality Score downwards.
Relevance of the announcement
Does your ad match exactly what the user is looking for? If someone types «running shoes for women» and your ad says «Discover our collection of running shoes», there is a relevance mismatch that Google penalises.
The ad copy has to connect directly with the user's search intention. And for this it is essential to segment the ad groups well and write specific messages for each one, instead of using a generic ad for all keywords.
Landing Page Experience (Landing Page Experience)
This is by far the most overlooked factor. It is also the one that has the most negative impact when it is not optimised.
It doesn't matter if the ad is perfect: if the user arrives at a landing page If you have content that has nothing to do with what you were looking for or that doesn't work well on mobile, Google detects this and penalises your score. Google knows. Google measures it. And Google charges you for it.
The landing page has to deliver on the promise of the ad. Quick, relevant and easy to navigate. No exceptions.
How to improve the Quality Score in Google Ads? Concrete actions
Once you understand what Google measures, the next question is obvious: how do you improve that score? Here are the actions that have the most impact.
Structure your campaigns and ad groups well
Having 50 keywords in the same ad group with a single text for all of them is one of the most common mistakes we see in the accounts we audit.. And one of the most damaging to the Quality Score.
Relevance comes from structure. Each ad group should contain keywords with the same search intent, and the ads in that group should match exactly that intent.
The technique SKAG (Single Keyword Ad Groups) is an option that, although it may seem extreme, allows you to maximise relevance for highly competitive keywords. And if you're also exploring automated campaign models such as Performance Max, Remember that working the structure well is still just as important, as the Quality Score also influences these environments.
Write more relevant ads
The copy of your ads is not a formality. It is what decides whether the user clicks or moves on.
Include the main keyword in the headline. Take advantage of the three headlines available in responsive search ads. Use descriptions with a real value proposition, not generic phrases that could be copied by any competitor in the sector.
And test systematically. Launch variants, measure which one generates the best CTR and stick with the one that works. Ad optimisation is not a one-off job: it's an ongoing process.
Optimise your landing page
We have said it before, but it deserves its own section: the landing page is the most neglected link and the one that most affects the user experience (and therefore the Quality Score).
- Loading speed: use Google PageSpeed Insights and aims to be above 80 on mobile. Every second of load you remove has a direct impact on performance.
- Relevance of content: What the user finds on arrival has to be exactly what you promised in the ad. If the ad talks about a specific product, the landing must talk about that product, not about your general catalogue.
- User experience and technical performance: Generally, more than 60% of search traffic is mobile. If your landing page is not optimised for mobile, you are losing on two fronts at once: conversions and Quality Score. Many of these aspects have a direct bearing on the Technical SEO of your website, an area that is often overlooked, but which has very visible consequences. And if you want to go deeper into what it means to create a good user experience beyond the ad, here's an article about that too.
Add ad extensions (now called «resources»).
Extensions do not directly affect the Quality Score, but it does affect the expected CTR. Sitelinks, callouts, call extensions, price or image extensions: the more you have configured and the more relevant they are for the user, the more chances you have of getting that click.
Work on negative keywords
A poorly managed negative keyword causes your ad to appear in searches that have nothing to do with your business. This generates impressions without clicks, which deteriorates your CTR and, with it, your CTR, the Quality Score.
Review the search term report regularly and adding as negatives everything that is not relevant is one of the simplest and most profitable tasks in the management of an account. At DDigitals we do this systematically in every account we manage, and the improvement in the overall quality of the account is always noticeable.
How to see the Quality Score in your account?
By default, it does not appear. You have to activate it manually.
Go to the view of keywords, Click on the columns icon, look for «Quality level» and add the columns of Quality Score, expected CTR, ad relevance and landing page experience. With that, you will have a clear diagnosis of where the problem lies for each keyword.
What is a good Quality Score?
A score of 7 or higher is considered good. Between 4 and 6 there is clear room for improvement. Below 4, there is a problem that needs to be solved before further increasing investment. on these keywords.
If the low scores are generalised, the problem usually lies in the account structure or landing pages. If they are specific to certain keywords, the focus is usually on the relevance of the ad.
The important thing is not to see it as a condemnation. The low Quality Score is diagnostic. And the diagnoses have a solution.
If you are investing in Google Ads and Quality Score is not part of your optimisation strategy, you are paying more than you should and appearing in worse positions than you are entitled to.
We are not talking about a minor technical detail. We are talking about one of the variables with the greatest impact on the performance of a search campaign. and, consequently, on the acquisition cost of each customer.
At DDigitals we work with it as an integral part of the management of any Google Ads account. Because getting it right from the start is always cheaper than correcting mistakes as you go along.
If you want us to review your account and tell you exactly where you are losing money, write to us. No commitment.
