What Is Quality Score | Google Ads' Rating Logic
Quality Score is a rating from 1 to 10 that Google assigns to your keyword. It summarises how relevant your ad is to that search, and it decides whether you pay more or less than a competitor for the same position.
This page explains what the score is. The work of raising it is covered on the Quality Score optimisation page.
Why it exists
Google’s commercial interest isn’t only showing the highest bidder — a search engine that shows irrelevant ads loses users. So ranking is decided by a score combining bid and quality together.
As a result, a relevant advertiser can outrank a competitor with a lower bid. In this sense the system protects the small-budget advertiser who does their work well.
Three components
First, expected click-through rate: how often your ad has historically been clicked for that keyword. Second, ad relevance: how well the keyword matches your ad copy. Third, landing page experience: page speed, mobile fit, and whether it delivers on the ad’s promise.
Google labels each component “below average”, “average” or “above average”. Looking at these three labels tells you directly what to do, more than the overall score alone.
Where to find it
Quality Score columns are hidden by default in the Google Ads interface. You have to customise columns on the Keywords screen to add the score and its three components.
In audits I frequently find account owners who didn’t know these columns existed. You can’t work on a metric you can’t see.
What a low score means
A low score doesn’t always mean bad management; sometimes it means the keyword is genuinely weakly related to your business. In that case, dropping it may make more sense than forcing it.
But if a keyword spending a large share of your budget has a low score, that’s a real loss. Priority should always go to high-spend keywords; a low score on one that barely spends isn’t urgent.
Want help? I can map your score distribution and show which component is weak on which keyword. You can reach me from the contact page.
Frequently Asked Questions
What counts as a good Quality Score?
There’s no single target. What matters is that the keywords spending your budget have a reasonable score, and it isn’t declining over time.
Why did my score suddenly drop?
The most common cause is a change on the landing page, or the page slowing down. Intensifying competition can also lower expected click-through rate.
Does Quality Score matter if I use smart bidding?
Yes. Smart bidding manages individual bids, but auction logic doesn’t change — Quality Score still affects what you pay.