Google Ads Quality Score: Definition, Components, Ad Rank and How to Raise It

The Google Ads Quality Score is one of the most watched numbers in a search campaign and one of the most misunderstood. According to Google Ads Help, it is "a diagnostic tool meant to give you a sense of how well your ad quality compares to other advertisers", measured from 1 to 10 at the keyword level. This guide explains what it measures, how it relates to Ad Rank and cost, where to find it and what to change when a component is weak.

What is Google Ads Quality Score?

Quality Score is a score from 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest) calculated for each keyword in your Search campaigns. Three facts define it:

• It is comparative. Each component is judged against other advertisers whose ads showed for the exact same search over the last 90 days.
• It is historical. Google bases it on past impressions for exact searches of your keyword, so it moves with a delay after you change an ad or a page.
• It can be empty. A dash "-" instead of a number means there are not enough searches that exactly match the keyword to calculate a score.

Quality Score applies to Search campaigns on Google. Other channels, such as Microsoft Advertising (Bing Ads), show their own quality indicator. For the basics of how campaigns, bids and auctions work, see our guide to Google Ads.

What are the three components of Quality Score?

Each component receives one of three statuses: Above average, Average or Below average. Together they produce the 1 to 10 score:

The three components do not weigh the same for every keyword, and Google does not publish an official weighting. In practice, a "Below average" status on any of them is the signal to act; the 1 to 10 number only summarizes them.

What is the difference between Quality Score and Ad Rank?

Ad Rank decides whether your ad can show and in which position. Google's page on Ad Rank lists six factors: your bid, the quality of your ads and landing page, the Ad Rank thresholds, the competitiveness of the auction, the context of the search and the expected impact of your ad assets. It is calculated every time a user searches.

The link between the two: the auction uses real-time estimates of the same qualities (expected clicks, relevance, landing page) for the specific search, device and moment. Quality Score is the summary; Ad Rank uses the live version. That is why raising quality pays off even though the score itself never enters the auction.

How does Quality Score affect your cost per click?

Google states on the Ad Rank page that "higher quality ads can often lead to lower CPCs". Two mechanisms explain it. First, a better-quality ad needs a lower bid to reach the same position. Second, the actual cost per click is usually below your maximum bid, because you pay what is needed to hold your position and clear the thresholds, and quality lowers that amount.

Tables circulating online claim precise discounts per Quality Score point (for example "-50% at 10"). Google does not publish such figures, so treat them as rough illustrations. The reliable conclusion: on a keyword you buy every day, moving from "Below average" to "Average" on a component reduces what you pay for the same traffic. Our guide to Google Ads costs details the other cost drivers (sector, competition, location, device).

Where do you find your Quality Score?

1. In Google Ads, open Campaigns, then the Keywords page.
2. Click the columns icon at the top right of the table.
3. Open the Quality Score section of the column list.
4. Add "Quality Score", "Exp. CTR", "Ad Relevance" and "Landing Page Exp." for the current values.
5. Add the "(hist.)" versions of the same columns to see past values over the reporting period, and segment by day to follow changes.
6. Click Apply.

Sort by cost, not by Quality Score: a 4/10 on a keyword that spends 2% of the budget matters less than a 6/10 on the keyword that spends 40%.

How do you improve each Quality Score component?

Google's own recommendations, in its help article 5 ways to use Quality Score to improve your performance, map to the three components:

Raise expected CTR

Write ads that answer the query better than the competitors next to you: the product name, the main benefit, a proof (delivery time, warranty, number of references) and a clear action verb. Test several headlines; responsive search ads rotate them for you. The CTR calculator helps compare variants on the same base.

Raise ad relevance

Group keywords by search intent: "engagement rings" and "wedding bands" deserve separate ad groups and ads, even if they sell in the same shop. Review the search terms report every week and exclude irrelevant queries as negatives. A clean keyword research before launch avoids most relevance problems.

Raise landing page experience

Send each ad group to the page that matches it, never to the home page by default. The headline of the page should repeat the promise of the ad, the offer should be visible without scrolling and the page should load quickly on mobile. Our checklist for a high-converting landing page covers structure, proof and forms, and our comparison of landing page software helps if you need dedicated pages per campaign. Page speed also matters for conversion, whatever the score shows.

What is a good Quality Score?

Many advertisers consider 7 and above healthy, 5 to 6 workable and 1 to 4 a sign of a real mismatch. These bands are practitioner conventions; Google publishes no official threshold. Three nuances matter more than the number:

• Brand keywords naturally score high; generic, competitive keywords score lower. Compare keywords of the same type.
• A low score on a profitable keyword is less urgent than a medium score on a keyword that loses money.
• Quality Score ignores conversions. A keyword at 9/10 that never sells is still a bad keyword. Judge profitability with return on ad spend and cost per acquisition.

Which mistakes should you avoid?

• Chasing the score instead of the result: Google designed it as a diagnostic, and a higher number with fewer sales is a loss.
• Huge ad groups: dozens of loosely related keywords with one ad lower relevance for most of them.
• Sending all traffic to the home page: it rarely matches a specific query.
• Judging too early: the score relies on history; wait for enough impressions after a change.
• Deleting and recreating keywords to "reset" the score: the comparison with other advertisers on the same search does not disappear.

How does Quality Score connect to SEO and GEO?

Landing page experience and organic rankings reward the same thing: a page that answers the query precisely, loads fast and works on mobile. Google's broader page experience signals for organic search follow the same logic. A page built well for an ad usually has what it needs to rank, and an article that ranks can become a strong landing page for ads.

The economics also connect. Every keyword you buy in PPC is a keyword you could win organically, and AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity now answer many of the questions that used to trigger ads. The SEO vs paid savings calculator estimates what your organic positions save you in ad spend. Sorank (our product) finds the keywords you could win, publishes optimized articles in autopilot and tracks whether AI assistants cite your brand, so paid campaigns can focus on the queries where ads really pay.

Quality Score is a diagnostic: read the three components, fix the weakest one on the keywords that spend the most, and judge the result in cost per acquisition. Start with ad groups by intent and landing pages that keep the ad's promise; the score follows.