Of all the Google Ads metrics, Quality Score (QS) might be the most misunderstood. Let’s debunk the myths and discuss the realities of Google’s Quality Score and what you can do to improve it.
A brief history of Quality Score
As I explained to Brandpoint, before the introduction of Quality Score, advertisers with big budgets could simply outbid everyone to achieve top positions on the search engine results page (SERP). Google introduced QS to make sure it was delivering high-quality, relevant ads to users while leveling the playing field for advertisers.
But over the years, Quality Score attained almost mythic status. Advertisers obsessed over it because ads with a higher QS generally pay lower CPCs. In an attempt to clarify QS, Google gave greater visibility into how it judges ad quality.
Because Quality Score has changed so much over the years, much of the information you find online is either out of date or incorrect.
What is Quality Score?
According to Google, Quality Score “is a helpful diagnostic tool, not a key performance indicator. [Your score] is like a warning light for a car’s engine that shows how healthy your ads and keywords are. It’s not meant to be a detailed metric that should be the focus of account management.”
Your Quality Score is a number between 1 and 10, based on three specific components:
- Expected click-through rate (CTR): the likelihood that your ad will be clicked
- Ad relevance: how closely your ad meets the intent of the user’s search
- Landing page experience: how relevant, transparent, and easy to navigate your page is for the user
Each of these three components is assigned a status of above average, average, or below average.
If you achieve a high QS, Google Ads rewards you with lower costs-per-click, better ad positions, and eligibility to display Ad Extensions. Ad Extensions give your ad extra real estate on the SERP with the addition of information such as your business address, pricing information, phone number, or online ratings.
What Quality Score is NOT
Many sites contain outdated information that your Ad Rank is calculated by multiplying your CPC bid by your Quality Score.
Quality Score is NOT used to calculate your Ad Rank.
The quality of your ads is calculated for each auction they enter. But this is the important point: the Quality Score you see in your account is not an exact representation of those real-time ad quality calculations—there are just too many factors that are taken into account for every auction to allow one figure to fully capture your quality. Instead, the Quality Score you see is a more general metric presented as a diagnosis of your overall performance in those auctions.
It’s easy to think that the Quality Score number of 1 to 10 is connected directly to the auction. But during a real-time auction we also consider many additional factors, like the user’s exact query and the context of that query (for example, their device, location and the time of day.) The Quality Score you see in your account is an average value calculated over a sample of your ads, and doesn’t reflect the variation caused by such factors.
In other words, your score is an aggregated estimate of your overall performance, but it is not used at auction time to determine Ad Rank. But those three components above? They DO factor in your Ad Rank and are recalculated with every auction.
And, just in case you read something about this elsewhere on the web, know that Google has stated flatly, “There is no such thing as ad group-level, campaign-level, or account-level Quality Score.”
Why does Quality Score matter?
Quality Score helps you see if Google believes your ads are delivering quality to users. In doing so, your ads are given more prominence. As Google says, “give your users what they need, and a great Quality Score should follow.”
How to check your Quality Score
In your Google Ads dashboard, click on Keywords. Choose Columns > Modify Columns, and ensure that Quality Score, Landing page exp., Exp. CTR, and Ad relevance are checked. If you are interested in comparing your current status to past performance, you may also add a checkmark to the historical components (abbreviated hist.).
Once your columns have been modified, you will be able to see your Quality Score for each keyword, as well as each component.
How to improve Quality Score
1. Optimize your site for mobile
Google factors in the user’s device in each auction. While you don’t need to have a separate mobile site, your site should be easy to navigate on any device.
One way to achieve mobile-friendliness is to build your landing page to AMP standards. AMP, or Accelerated Mobile Pages, is an open-source standard to load pages faster than traditional HTML. If you have an AMP, enter the AMP page URL into the Mobile URL field of your ads. This way, when a mobile user clicks on your ad, they’ll automatically be sent to your AMP landing page.
Even if your page isn’t an AMP, Google does judge your landing pages by how fast they load, so optimize your code and images with speed in mind. Use tools such as Pingdom or Webpagetest, and aim for a load time below two seconds.
2. Deliver what the user needs
The content of your landing page should help answer the user’s search. In other words, you don’t want your landing page to be a single page with a lead form but without any content. You should deliver information to the user, not simply ask for information from the user.
Even if your landing page isn’t part of your main site, keep your site navigation available so the user can click around freely.
Write copy that incorporates your keyword theme, but never engage in keyword stuffing. Use subheads to break information into easily digestible chunks.
3. Treat data responsibly
When Google says that quality landing pages are “transparent,” this translates to “the page handles user data responsibly.” In other words: make sure your landing page links to your site’s privacy policy.
This privacy policy should include any cookies you use and describe how you handle any data you gather from your site’s visitors.
If you don’t already have one, use a free privacy policy generator, such as Shopify’s.
What won’t impact your Quality Score
The following myths will not improve your Quality Score:
- Raising bids to try to increase your Expected CTR: Raising your bids might increase your Ad Position and therefore your CTR. However, Google normalizes its expectations for your existing Ad Position. So, if your ads are averaging position 3, Google already knows to expect a lower CTR than positions 1 or 2. Instead, focus on improving your ad copy and adding Ad Extensions to help improve expected CTR.
- Restructuring your account: Moving your keywords around will not by itself change your QS. However, if you’re re-organizing your account to make your keywords more relevant to the ads in the ad group, this will help.
- Running ads on the Google Display Network or Google Search Partners: Advertising on Google’s other networks will not impact your QS. However, doing so might align with your other PPC goals, such as getting more clicks.
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