What Is Quality Score?
Quality Score is Google's 1-10 rating of the quality and relevance of your keywords, ads, and landing pages. Higher scores mean lower costs per click and better ad positions. It's one of the most important factors in PPC success.
The Three Components
- Expected Click-Through Rate (CTR): How likely users are to click your ad. Improve with compelling ad copy and relevant extensions
- Ad Relevance: How closely your ad matches the searcher's intent. Improve with tightly themed ad groups and keyword-specific ad copy
- Landing Page Experience: How relevant, useful, and fast your landing page is. Improve with message-match, fast loading, and mobile optimization
Why It Matters
Quality Score directly affects: your CPC (higher scores = lower costs), ad position (higher scores = better placement), and whether your ads show at all. A Quality Score of 10 can reduce your CPC by up to 50% compared to a score of 5.
How to Improve
- Tighten ad group themes — fewer, more relevant keywords per group
- Write ad copy that includes the target keyword in headline and description
- Create dedicated landing pages for each ad group
- Improve page speed (under 3 seconds)
- Ensure mobile-friendly design
- Add relevant ad extensions (sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets)