Quality Score (a 1-to-10 rating assigned by Google) measures the perceived relevance of a keyword, an ad, and a landing page. A high score mechanically lowers the cost per click needed to hold a given position.

The three official components

Google breaks Quality Score down into three signals: expected click-through rate (does this ad have statistically good odds of being clicked for this keyword), ad relevance to the keyword, and landing page experience.

Expected click-through rate

This signal builds over time from the account’s and keyword’s performance history. An ad that faithfully echoes the searched terms and offers a differentiating hook improves this signal more effectively than a generic ad.

Ad relevance

This is the consistency between the targeted keyword and the ad copy itself. An ad group that’s too broad, with keywords of different intents sharing the same ad, mechanically dilutes this signal.

Landing page experience

Load speed, content consistency with the ad’s promise, ease of mobile navigation: Google evaluates whether the page actually delivers on what the ad promised. Systematically redirecting to the homepage rather than a dedicated page generally hurts this signal.

Quality Score is measured at the keyword level, not the account level

There’s no global Quality Score for an account. Each keyword has its own, meaning an overly broad account structure with generic ad groups makes it impossible to pinpoint precisely which keywords suffer from a low score.

What not to do

Creating a different landing page for every keyword without genuinely differentiated content doesn’t improve the score if the page stays generic. The signal being sought is real relevance as perceived by the user, not a technical trick.

The concrete impact on budget

A gap of a few Quality Score points between two advertisers on the same keyword can represent a cost-per-click difference of several tens of percent to hold the same position. It’s one of the most profitable levers to work on before increasing a budget.

For a copywriting method aligned with these criteria, see how to write ads that convert.