In short: Quality Score is not Google's opinion, it is a calculation with three ingredients: expected CTR, ad relevance and landing page experience. Each one is compared with the other advertisers and comes out "above average", "average" or "below average". The 1-to-10 number is a diagnosis, not a score Google uses directly in the auction: what is used there is Ad Rank, calculated on every search.
In the previous lesson we saw that the auction is won on Ad Rank, and that Ad Rank mixes what you pay with the quality of what you offer. Today we open up that word. Because "quality" sounds like an opinion, and in Google Ads it is precisely the opposite: it is a calculation with three specific ingredients you can look at, measure and improve.
What is Quality Score made of?
Google assesses each of your keywords on three dimensions, and for each one it tells you whether you are below average, average or above average compared with the other advertisers:
1. Expected CTR
The probability that somebody clicks your ad when it appears for that search. Google estimates it from history: how people have responded to your ads and to similar ones. It is the ingredient that weighs most: an ad nobody clicks is, as far as Google is concerned, an ad that does not serve its users.
2. Ad relevance
How closely the text of your ad matches the intent behind the search. If somebody searches «women's trail running shoes» and your ad talks about "sports footwear", relevance is low even though that is exactly what you sell.
3. Landing page experience
Whether the page you send the user to is useful, fast, clear, usable on mobile and related to what the ad promised. Google measures it by combining automatic signals (speed, mobile, content) with behaviour (how long the visit lasts, whether people bounce).
What does the 1-to-10 Quality Score mean?
Those three ingredients are summed up in the Quality Score, a number from 1 to 10 per keyword. Three things you need to be crystal clear about:
- It is a diagnosis, not the value used in the auction. In the auction Google calculates quality in real time, for that search, that device and that moment. The number from 1 to 10 is a historical summary shown to you so you know where to improve.
- It is not a goal in itself. Going from 6 to 8 is worth nothing if it does not translate into cheaper clicks and more conversions. It is a compass, not the destination.
- It is measured per keyword, and every keyword has its own history. An account does not have "a Quality Score": it has hundreds.
| Score | What it usually means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| 1-4 | One ingredient is clearly wrong (often relevance or the landing page) | Review the ad group and the ad: is the keyword sitting in a group where it does not belong? |
| 5-7 | Normal, room to improve | Work on the ingredient marked "below average" |
| 8-10 | Good: cheaper clicks and better positions | Keep it up; use it as a model for the rest |
Why isn't my ad showing even though I'm bidding?
As well as ranking, Ad Rank has a minimum: the Ad Rank threshold. If your Ad Rank does not reach the threshold for that auction, your ad does not show, whatever you bid. Google does not publish the thresholds, but it does explain what they depend on:
- Your quality: the worse the quality, the higher the threshold (you are asked to pay more to compensate).
- The position: appearing at the top demands more than appearing at the bottom.
- The context: location, device, type of search.
- The nature of the query: some searches are more "expensive" to enter because of what is at stake.
This explains a phenomenon that baffles every beginner: "my keyword has zero impressions even though I have budget and a bid". Very often it is not that nobody searches for it; it is that you are not reaching the threshold.
💡 Ninja trick: when an important keyword has few impressions, before you raise the bid look at its Quality Score and its three ingredients. Bidding against a high threshold caused by poor quality is paying for the problem instead of fixing it. The Suite's QS Analyzer does this cross-check for you: it flags the keywords with low quality and high spend — the ones that give back the most money when you fix them.
How do you improve Quality Score?
This module is conceptual; the detailed "how" comes in the Intermediate level. But it is worth taking the map with you now:
- Expected CTR → ads that promise exactly what the search is asking for, with assets (sitelinks, callouts) that take up more space and give more reasons to click.
- Relevance → small, coherent ad groups: keywords that share an intent, with ads written for them.
- Landing page → one page per intent, not a homepage for everything; fast, with the ad's message visible at the top and the action clear.
What you should remember
- Quality is three measurable ingredients: expected CTR, ad relevance and landing page experience.
- Quality Score (1-10) is a historical diagnosis; the auction uses quality calculated in real time.
- Thresholds exist: with poor quality you can be shut out of the auction even with a bid and a budget in place.
- Each ingredient is fixed with a different action: the ad, the structure or the page. Knowing which one is failing is half the job.