Quality Score is a rating from 1 to 10 that Google Ads shows for each keyword. It estimates how your ads and landing pages compare with other advertisers bidding on the same keyword. Google describes it as a diagnostic tool: the score itself is not an input to the auction, but the quality signals behind it feed into Ad Rank.
The three components
Each component is rated Above average, Average or Below average relative to other advertisers whose ads showed for the same keyword over the previous 90 days.
- Expected click-through rate: how likely your ad is to be clicked when shown for this keyword.
- Ad relevance: how closely the ad matches the intent behind the keyword.
- Landing page experience: how relevant and useful the page is to people who click.
How to use it
Treat Quality Score as a pointer to where problems are, not a target. A Below average landing page rating on a high-spend keyword is worth investigating; a score that moves from 6 to 7 on a keyword with ten clicks a month is not.
Fixes usually come from structure. Group keywords that share an intent, write ads that speak to that intent, and send them to a page that answers it. For SaaS that often means a dedicated page per use case or competitor rather than the home page.
Where it falls short
Quality Score is calculated for exact searches of the keyword, so it says little about the many other queries a broad or phrase keyword can match. Low-volume keywords often show no score at all. And a high score on a keyword that never converts is not worth much.
Example
Fixing a landing page rating
Hypothetical company Ferrowell bids on “contract management for startups” and sends the click to its general pricing page. Landing page experience shows Below average. The team builds a page about contract management for early-stage teams, with the relevant features and pricing tier near the top, and watches the component rating over the following weeks.
Common mistakes
Chasing a 10 everywhere
Time spent raising scores on low-spend keywords is usually better spent on conversion tracking or search term cleanup.
Reading it as a ranking factor in itself
The auction uses real-time quality estimates for each search. The reported score summarizes those signals; it is not plugged into the auction directly.
Questions
Google needs enough impressions on exact searches of the keyword to calculate a score. Low-volume keywords often show no Quality Score.
