So your ads are hitting a Quality Score of 10? Great! That means better placement in search engine results pages (SERPs), lower costs paid per click of your online ads, and, almost assuredly, a better conversion rate with your customers.
Batting a bit closer to three or two or even… one? A low Google Ads Quality Score can pretty much guarantee your ads are hardly being served to a relevant audience at all — and when they are, you’re probably paying more than you want for clicks that may not even be driving potential customers further down the funnel.
Your Google Ads Quality Score is a measure of the quality of your ads, to be sure, but it’s also a self-fulfilling prophecy: With ads that rank well in this metric usually comes more success; with ads that rank poorly come negative outcomes.
Understanding Quality Score in Paid Search
In Google Ads, and similar platforms like Microsoft Advertising, a Quality Score is a metric that reflects the overall quality of a marketer’s ads and the landing pages to which those ads point. The Quality Score is used to determine ad ranking and cost-per-click (CPC). This indicator is a diagnostic tool, typically on a scale of one to 10, that indicates how relevant and useful your ads are to users searching for your keywords. It also tells the search engine how well to rank you and how often to serve your ads. Quality Score is important for paid search advertisers because it directly impacts ad costs and visibility on search engine results pages.
Where Can Advertisers See Their Quality Scores?
Marketers can see their Quality Scores within their Google Ads and Search Ads 360 accounts by customizing the keyword columns. By adding a “Quality Score” column, marketers can view the overall score and its components: Expected CTR (click-through rate), Landing Page Experience, and Ad Relevance.
Is Quality Score a Real-Time Metric?
Quality Score is generally considered a real-time metric, as it’s updated each time your ad is triggered in an auction. That means your score reflects the current relevance of your ad to a user’s search query.
Factors Influencing Quality Score
Quality Score is not a one-size-fits-all proposition; there is a lot that goes into the “numbers” the algorithms crunch, and historical performance is a significant factor contributing to your Quality Score. Specifically, the individual keyword and a matched ad, as well as the overall historical CTR of the entire Google Ads account, are factored in when calculating the expected CTR, a key determinant of Quality Score.
What Is the Expected Click-Through Rate and How Does It Affect Quality Score?
In Google Ads, the expected CTR is a prediction of how likely a user is to click on an ad when it appears for a specific keyword. It’s a crucial component of Quality Score, which significantly impacts ad rank and CPC. A higher expected CTR generally means a higher Quality Score, which can lead to lower costs and better ad positioning.
How Does Ad Relevance to Keywords Impact Quality Score?
Ad relevance is a key factor in determining an advertisement’s Quality Score. A higher ad relevance score, which indicates how closely the ad copy aligns with the searcher’s intent, leads to a higher Quality Score. This, in turn, can result in lower cost-per-click and better ad positioning.
How Does Landing Page Experience Influence Quality Score?
Landing page experience is a critical factor heavily influencing your Google Ads Quality Score. A good landing page experience — characterized by relevance, usefulness, and user-friendliness — can lead to a lower CPC and improved ad rank. Conversely, a poor landing page experience can negatively impact your Quality Score, resulting in higher CPCs and lower ad positions.
The Benefits of a High Quality Score
The better the score, the better the SERPs placement, the lower the costs, and the more the conversions. What’s not to like?
Does a High Quality Score Impact Eligibility for Ad Extensions and Other Features?
A higher Google Ads Quality Score can dramatically impact the eligibility of your ads for display with ad extensions and other ad formats. Ad extensions, like sitelinks or callouts, can in turn enhance the visibility and effectiveness of your ads by providing additional information and functionality. Google’s algorithm determines whether or not these extensions are shown based on several factors, including ad placement, other ads on the page, past extension performance, and your ad’s rank.
How Does It Contribute to Better Overall Ad Performance and ROI?
A high Quality Score in Google Ads leads to better ad performance and a higher return on investment (ROI) through lower costs, improved ad placement, and increased visibility. A higher Quality Score indicates that your ads, keywords, and landing pages are well-aligned and relevant and useful to users, which Google rewards with lower CPC and better ad positions. This leads to more clicks, conversions, and ultimately, a better ROI for your ad spend.
Diagnosing and Improving Quality Score
A low Quality Score will negatively affect how your ads perform, but it’s not a life sentence. In most cases, with effort, you can improve your Quality Score within a matter of weeks.
How Can You Identify Which Keywords Have Low Quality Scores?
To identify keywords with low Quality Scores in Google Ads, you can utilize the Quality Score filter in your account and examine the individual keyword Quality Scores and their components. A score of seven or above is considered good, while a lower score, typically below five, indicates lower relevance and potential for improvement.
What Steps Can You Take to Improve Your Expected CTR?
To improve your expected CTR, focus on making your ads more relevant and appealing to your target audience. This often involves optimizing ad copy, using more relevant keywords, refining your targeting, and leveraging ad extensions. Additionally, consider A/B testing different ad variations and landing page variations and monitoring your campaign performance to make necessary adjustments.
What Are Some Strategies for Improving Landing Page Experience?
To enhance a user’s experience on your landing pages, focus on clarity of design and copy, page load speeds, and engagement opportunities. Simplify a page’s design to ensure faster loading times, and make the call to action (CTA) clear and prominent. Align the landing page content with the ad that led the visitor there, and optimize it for viewing and interaction on mobile devices. Also, consider using social proof like testimonials and incorporating engaging elements like videos or interactive features.
Common Misconceptions About Quality Score
You need to know what’s accurate and what’s not when it comes to Google Ads Quality Scores so you can approach them properly.
Is Quality Score a Direct Ranking Factor?
Quality Score in Google Ads is a ranking factor for paid search results, but it’s not a direct ranking factor for organic search results. Quality Score is a metric used to assess the quality of your ads and landing pages in the context of paid advertising, specifically in Google Ads. While it influences ad rank and cost per click in paid search, the score does not directly impact how your website ranks in organic search results.
Can You Directly Buy a Higher Quality Score?
You can’t directly buy a higher Quality Score with Google Ads. While your bids and budget can impact the visibility of your ads (which might indirectly influence the data used to calculate your Quality Score), they are not direct factors in determining the score itself. Think of your Quality Score as a reflection of how good and relevant Google deems your ad experience to be for users, rather than a price tag.
Does Pausing and Restarting Campaigns Affect Quality Score?
Pausing and restarting a Google Ads campaign does not directly impact Quality Score, but it can indirectly affect performance. While your Quality Score and historical data are retained, performance may be delayed when a campaign is resumed due to a learning period required for the algorithms to adjust.
Is Quality Score the Same Across All Match Types for a Keyword?
Quality Score is not different for a keyword based on its match type. A keyword’s Quality Score is the same regardless of whether it’s used in a broad phrase, or exact match. It’s calculated based on the performance of search queries that are an exact match to that keyword.
Key Takeaways
A Google Ads Quality Score is a metric that estimates the relevance and quality of your ads, keywords, and landing pages. A higher Quality Score generally leads to lower costs (in the form of lower CPC) and better ad positioning in search engine results, making it crucial for campaign success. While a good Quality Score is beneficial, it’s not a key performance indicator (KPI) to optimize directly; instead, focus on improving the underlying factors that influence it. These include expected CTR, ad relevance (how closely your ad copy matches the user’s search query, for example) and user landing page experience.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is a “good” Quality Score?
A good quality score is generally considered to be seven or above, with a 10 being the best possible ranking, while a poor score is seen as below five. With improved ad relevance and landing pages, you can usually start to raise Quality Scores within a month or so.
How often is Quality Score updated?
An ad’s Quality Score is updated by Google Ads every time an ad enters an auction, which can be multiple times a day for high-volume keywords. While the underlying score is constantly recalculated, the displayed quality score in the Google Ads interface might not update immediately and can lag behind.
What tools can help me analyze and improve my Quality Score?
To analyze and improve your Google Ads Quality Score, you can always use tools within Google Ads itself, such as the Keyword Planner and the Search Terms report, but also consider leveraging third-party platforms like Semrush, WordStream, and Ahrefs.
How important is mobile landing page experience for Quality Score?
A good mobile landing page experience directly impacts the Quality Score, which in turn affects ad ranking and cost-per-click. Google assesses the relevance, transparency, and usability of your landing page, and a mobile-friendly, fast-loading, and easy-to-navigate page contributes to a higher Quality Score.
