Key takeaways
- Quality Score is Google's 1 to 10 read on your ad quality. Here is what drives it, how to improve each part, and why a higher score cuts your CPC.
- Quality Score is a diagnostic built from three parts: expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance and landing page experience, each scored per keyword.
- The 1 to 10 number is a diagnostic, not a live auction input. The real-time quality of your ad and landing page is what feeds Ad Rank.
- Higher ad quality can lower what you pay per click and lift your position for the same bid, so improving quality often buys cheaper, better-placed traffic.
- Improve each part at its source: tighter, themed ad groups for relevance, compelling copy for clickthrough rate, and fast, matching pages for experience.
Your Quality Score is Google’s 1 to 10 rating of how useful your ads and landing pages are to the people searching, and lifting it is one of the few changes that makes the same budget go further. A higher score can lower what you pay per click and win better positions for the same bid, so weak quality works like a tax on every click until you fix it. This guide covers what it is, the three parts behind it, how to improve each, and why it moves both your cost per click and your Ad Rank.
What Quality Score is, and what it is not
Quality Score is a diagnostic from 1 to 10, reported at keyword level, that estimates the quality of your ads and landing pages against other advertisers bidding on the same terms. It is a health check, not a number to game for its own sake.
Here is the part most guides get wrong. The 1 to 10 figure is not itself an input in the auction. Google is clear that Quality Score is a diagnostic tool, built to show how your ads affect the experience of the people who see them (Google Ads Help, About Quality Score). What the auction actually uses is a real-time read of the same underlying quality, worked out fresh every time someone searches. So the score on your screen is the readout, and the live quality behind it is what wins or loses the auction. Improve the real thing and the number follows.
The three components of Quality Score
Quality Score is built from three parts, expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance and landing page experience, each rated Above average, Average or Below average. Those ratings compare you with other advertisers who showed for the exact same search over the last 90 days, so they are relative, not absolute.
| Component | What it means | How to improve it |
|---|---|---|
| Expected clickthrough rate | How likely your ad is to be clicked when it shows, setting aside position and format | Write sharper, more specific copy, lead with a real benefit or offer, and match the ad to the keyword |
| Ad relevance | How closely your ad matches the intent behind the search | Group keywords into tight themes and mirror the searcher’s language in your ad text |
| Landing page experience | How relevant, useful and easy to use your page is after the click | Deliver what the ad promised, speed the page up, and make it work well on mobile |
Treat a “Below average” flag as a to-do list, not a grade: it tells you which part to fix first.
Expected clickthrough rate
Expected clickthrough rate is Google’s forecast of how often your ad will be clicked when it shows, so the fix is copy that earns the click. It looks past your position and ad format at the words themselves.
Make the offer more compelling and specific: lead with a genuine benefit, add the detail that matters such as price, location or next-day delivery, and use active language such as book, get a quote or compare (Google Ads Help, five ways to use Quality Score). Then cut the searches that drag your click rate down. Irrelevant queries you never wanted still count against expected clickthrough rate when people scroll past, which is one more reason a tidy negative keyword list lifts quality as well as saving spend.
Ad relevance
Ad relevance measures how closely your ad matches what the person actually searched for, and the quickest win is tighter ad groups. One ad group holding twenty loosely related keywords cannot speak to all of them at once.
Split sprawling ad groups into small, themed ones, each with a handful of closely related keywords and copy written for that exact theme. If the keyword is “emergency boiler repair”, the headline should say emergency boiler repair, not “heating services”. Mirror the searcher’s own words wherever it is honest to do so. This is dull, mechanical work, and on a neglected account it is usually the single biggest lever you have.
Landing page experience
Landing page experience is Google’s read on what happens after the click, so the ad and the page have to keep the same promise. A strong ad pointed at a slow, vague or off-topic page still scores badly, and you pay for it.
Send the click to a page that delivers exactly what the ad offered, with the same message front and centre, a clear next step, and nothing to hunt for. Speed counts, so compress images and cut anything that slows the first load, and check the page works well on a phone, where most searches now happen. Because the page is where clicks turn into customers, it is also where a thorough Google Ads audit spends much of its time.
Why a higher Quality Score lowers your CPC and lifts Ad Rank
Better ad quality can win a higher position for a lower cost per click, because quality is one of the main things Google weighs when it ranks ads. Your bid matters, but it is not the whole story.
Ad Rank, which decides whether your ad shows and where, is set by your bid, the quality of your ad and landing page, the Ad Rank thresholds, how competitive the auction is, the person’s context at the time, and the expected impact of your assets (Google Ads Help, About Ad Rank). Quality sits in the middle of that list, which is why Google states plainly that higher quality ads can often lead to lower CPCs. Two outcomes follow: for the same bid, stronger quality can lift your position; for the same position, it can cut what you pay.
A composite example, illustrative rather than a specific client: two businesses bid the same on one keyword, but one runs tight ad groups and a fast, matching page while the other sends a generic ad to a slow homepage. The first often shows higher and pays less per click, while the second pays a premium to sit beneath it. Same bid, different quality, very different cost, and that gap compounds across every click. For the fuller picture of what clicks go for over here, we cover how much Google Ads costs in the UK.
How to check and use Quality Score without obsessing over it
Add the Quality Score columns to your keyword view, read the component ratings rather than the single number, and fix the weakest part first. The number is a summary, and the three statuses tell you what to actually do.
In the keywords table, switch on the columns for Quality Score, expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance and landing page experience. Sort by your highest-spending keywords, look for anything marked “Below average”, and fix the flagged component at its source before moving to the next. Then give it time, as scores move on accumulated data, not overnight. Do not chase a 10 on every keyword either. A steady 7 or 8 on the terms that matter, with no “Below average” flags, beats a vanity 10 on a keyword nobody searches.
The mistakes we see most
Most low-quality accounts we pick up share the same handful of habits, and each one maps back to a component.
- Giant ad groups with dozens of mismatched keywords, so ad relevance never stands a chance.
- One generic landing page for every ad, instead of a page that matches each promise.
- Chasing the 1 to 10 number rather than fixing the component actually flagged “Below average”.
- No negative keywords, so irrelevant searches quietly drag down expected clickthrough rate.
- Slow, mobile-unfriendly pages that undo good ad copy at the final step.
- Bidding harder to force position when better quality would win it for less.
Fix the quality, not just the bid
Quality Score rewards the unglamorous disciplines: tight ad groups, honest and specific copy, and fast pages that deliver what the ad promised. Get those right and Google often charges you less for better positions, a rare case in paid search of getting more for less.
If you would rather have it audited and improved by people who do this every week, we are a Leicester-based growth agency working with UK businesses across the East Midlands and beyond. Our Google Ads and PPC management covers the structure, copy and landing page work that moves quality. Book a free growth review or get in touch, and we will tell you where your quality is costing you and what to fix first.