Quality Score is the single number that determines whether you overpay or underpay for every click on Google Ads. Brands that ignore it hand their competitors a structural cost advantage that compounds across every campaign they run.
What It Is
Quality Score is Google's 1-10 per-keyword rating of how relevant and useful your ad experience is for someone searching that term[1]. It is not a direct input into the auction; Google uses a real-time variant called Ad Rank Quality for that. Still, it remains the best visible signal you have for diagnosing why your costs are high or your ads are not showing.
The score combines three signals, each rated Below Average, Average, or Above Average, into a single composite number. Most advertisers sit between 5 and 7, though a score of 10 is achievable. The gap between 4 and 8 is often the difference between a viable campaign and a money-losing one.
The Three Components
- Ad relevance: how closely the keywords in your ad group match the intent and language of the search query. An ad that uses the searcher's exact phrase scores Above Average, while a generic ad pulled in by a broad match keyword scores Below Average.
- Expected click-through rate (CTR): Google's prediction of how likely someone is to click your ad for that keyword, relative to other advertisers. Historical CTR, combined with signals from similar auctions, feeds this estimate. A compelling headline targeted to a specific intent scores Above Average; a generic headline does not.
- Landing page experience: how useful, relevant, fast, and trustworthy Google judges your landing page to be for someone who clicks that ad. Googlebot crawls the page and evaluates content relevance, page speed, mobile usability, and transparency. This is the only component you can improve without changing your ads.
How It's Scored
Quality Score is reported on a 1-10 scale per keyword[2]. Each of the three components is rated independently:
- Above Average: performing better than most advertisers competing for this keyword
- Average: performing similarly to most advertisers competing for this keyword
- Below Average: performing worse than most advertisers competing for this keyword
A keyword with all three components rated Above Average typically earns an 8, 9, or 10. All Average lands around 6, and any Below Average component pulls the score toward 1-4.
Google calculates Quality Score using a sample of auctions where the keyword triggered an impression. New keywords with little history start at 6 (neutral) by default, and scores update regularly as more auction data accumulates.
Why It Matters: The Hidden Tax
Quality Score acts as a multiplier on your cost per click. Google's Ad Rank formula is: Ad Rank = Max Bid x Quality Score. Advertisers with higher Quality Scores win better positions at lower costs[3].
The practical cost impact is steep[6]:
- A score of 10 can reduce your CPC by approximately 50% compared to a score of 6
- A score of 1 can increase your CPC by approximately 400% compared to a score of 6
- Brands that dominate their category organically tend to hold the highest Quality Scores in their vertical, because strong organic presence and strong ad quality reinforce each other
Two advertisers bidding the same amount will pay very different prices as a result. A brand with a Quality Score of 8 can outrank one scoring 4 while spending half as much per click. At any meaningful ad budget, this gap compounds into millions of dollars annually.
Meta runs a parallel system called Quality Ranking inside its ads auction[4]. It uses the same three-axis structure (quality, engagement rate, and conversion rate ranking) and applies the same logic: low-quality experiences pay more to show the same ad.
How to Check Yours
In Google Ads, Quality Score is visible at the keyword level. To add the relevant columns from the Keywords tab:
- In the Keywords table, click the Columns icon
- Under Quality Score, add: Quality Score, Landing Page Exp., Ad Relevance, Exp. CTR
- Sort by Quality Score ascending to surface your worst-performing keywords first
Keywords scoring 1-4 with significant impression volume are your highest-priority fixes[5]. Any component rated Below Average is a specific, actionable signal telling you exactly where to focus.
How Site Scanner Helps
Of the three components, landing page experience is the one you control most directly and the one where technical execution matters most. Google evaluates page speed, mobile usability, content relevance, and crawlability when rating your landing page.
The Site Scanner measures your landing pages against the same signals Google's quality systems evaluate: Core Web Vitals (LCP, CLS, INP), mobile usability, structured data, content legibility, and agent accessibility. A page that scores well in Site Scanner is one that Google's quality assessment will rate Above Average for landing page experience.
Running a scan before launching a new campaign or investigating why an existing campaign's CPCs have climbed gives you a concrete checklist of the technical issues dragging your Quality Score down.