Why is my Google Ads Quality Score so bad?

A bad Quality Score means that, for the exact searches of this keyword, your ad or landing page compares poorly with other advertisers over the last 90 days. Google rates three components, expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance and landing page experience, as “Above average”, “Average” or “Below average”. The component marked “Below average” tells you where to start.

Quality Score is a diagnostic tool on a scale from 1 to 10, not a key performance indicator. According to Google it is not an input in the ad auction itself; the auction uses ad quality at the moment of the search. A low score is still a useful warning that your ads may cost more or show less often than they could.

What makes a Quality Score low?

• Expected CTR below average. Google expects your ad to be clicked less often than competing ads for the same search. Typical causes are generic headlines, no clear offer, or keywords that attract people looking for something else.
• Ad relevance below average. The ad does not match the intent behind the search closely enough. This often happens when one ad group contains keywords on very different topics, so a single set of ads cannot fit all of them.
• Landing page experience below average. The page people reach after clicking is not relevant or useful enough for the search. Common reasons are a homepage instead of a matching service or product page, content that does not deliver what the ad promised, or a page that is hard to use on mobile.
• Strong competition on the exact search. All three components are relative. The same ad can be “Average” in one market and “Below average” in another where competitors are very good.

How do I see which component is the problem?

1. Go to Keywords within the Campaigns menu.
2. Select the columns icon in the upper right corner of the table and open the Quality score section.
3. Add Quality Score, Exp. CTR, Ad Relevance and Landing Page Exp. as columns.
4. Sort by cost and look at the keywords that spend the most first. A low score on a keyword with little spend matters far less.
5. If the column shows “—”, there are not enough searches that exactly match the keyword yet. That is a data issue, not a quality verdict.

How do I improve each component?

• For expected CTR: write headlines that repeat the topic of the search and give a concrete reason to click, and add relevant assets such as sitelinks. Exclude search terms that do not fit your offer with negative keywords.
• For ad relevance: split broad ad groups into smaller ones with closely related keywords, and write ads for each group that speak to exactly that topic.
• For landing page experience: send each ad group to the page that answers the search best, keep the promise from the ad visible at the top of the page, and make sure the page loads quickly and works well on mobile.
• Do not chase match types: Google states that changing a keyword’s match type does not change its Quality Score, because the score is based on exact searches of the keyword.

Fix the component marked “Below average” on your highest-spending keywords first. Matching ad groups, ads and landing pages to one topic each usually helps more than any single trick in the ad text.

Sources

• Google Ads Help: About Quality Score for Search campaigns
• Google Ads Help: Quality Score definition
• Google Ads Help: About Ad Rank

Want to know why your keywords score low and what it costs you? We review ad groups, ads and landing pages together and show you which changes pay off first. Book a free intro call or read more about our Google Ads management.