How to Increase Your Quality Score in Google Ads

Improving your Quality Score in Google Ads is one of the highest-leverage things a paid-search account can do. A higher Quality Score means lower cost per click, better ad position for the same bid, and ads that show up for the searches you actually want. The mechanics are well-understood, and most accounts have meaningful room to improve once you understand the three factors Google evaluates.

This guide covers what Quality Score is in 2026, the three factors that determine it, and nine tactics that move the dial — updated for the current Google Ads environment (Responsive Search Ads, Smart Bidding, Performance Max, and AI-assisted optimization). Note: Google rebranded AdWords to Google Ads in July 2018 — if you’re reading older content that still says “AdWords,” the underlying concepts mostly carry over but the UI and several ad formats have changed substantially since.

What is Quality Score, and why does it matter?

Quality Score is a 1-10 rating Google assigns to each keyword in your account, indicating how relevant your ads, keywords, and landing pages are to people searching for that term. The score combines three sub-components, each rated as Below average, Average, or Above average:

• Expected click-through rate (CTR) — how likely your ad is to be clicked when shown for a given search.
• Ad relevance — how closely your ad copy matches the intent of the searched keyword.
• Landing page experience — how relevant, fast, transparent, and easy-to-navigate your landing page is.

Quality Score directly affects two outcomes that hit your bottom line:

• Cost per click (CPC). Higher Quality Score lets you pay less for the same click. Google’s ad-auction formula factors Quality Score in alongside your bid; a Quality Score of 8 typically pays meaningfully less than a Quality Score of 4 for the same position.
• Ad rank and eligibility. Higher Quality Score helps your ad reach better positions and stay eligible for premium ad placements.

Think of it as a credit score for your paid-search account. The factors compound, the score is built up over time, and small consistent improvements move the dial more reliably than a single sweeping change.

The factors that affect Quality Score

The three official factors:

• Expected CTR — Google’s estimate of how often searchers will click your ad. Driven by ad copy quality, ad extension usage, historical performance, and how well your keywords match the search intent.
• Ad relevance — How closely your ads match the keywords in the same ad group. Tightly themed ad groups with ad copy that mirrors the keyword score better.
• Landing page experience — How fast, mobile-friendly, accessible, transparent, and topically aligned the landing page is. Google specifically evaluates load time, mobile usability, content relevance, and trust signals.

Google doesn’t publish exact weights, but ad relevance and landing page experience are heavily weighted, and CTR is consistently described as a strong signal. The good news: every one of these factors is something you control directly.

1. Know the factors

Read the section above. Most accounts that struggle with Quality Score struggle because the operator doesn’t separate the three sub-components — they think Quality Score is one thing they need to fix instead of three distinct things. Pull up the Quality Score column in Google Ads (Keywords view → Columns → Modify columns → Quality Score) along with the three component statuses (Expected CTR, Ad relevance, Landing page experience). Diagnose component-by-component, fix one at a time.

2. Tighten ad group themes

The single biggest lever for ad relevance is keeping ad groups tightly themed. A “running shoes” ad group with 50 mixed running-shoe keywords and one generic ad will score worse than five smaller ad groups (men’s trail, women’s road, neutral cushioning, motion control, beginner) each with ad copy specific to the theme.

The modern best-practice rule of thumb: 5-15 closely related keywords per ad group, with at least 3 Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) per group. This gives Google enough variation to optimize without diluting relevance signals.

3. Do real keyword research

Build keyword lists with intent and match-type discipline:

• Use the Keyword Planner in Google Ads, plus third-party tools (Semrush, Ahrefs, SE Ranking, Mangools) for competitive insight and search-volume data.
• Distinguish match types deliberately. Phrase match was substantially expanded in 2021 to also cover the use cases of the deprecated Modified Broad Match; broad match is heavily AI-driven now and works best paired with Smart Bidding. Use phrase match as your default and broad match where you’re confident in Google’s automation.
• Map keywords to search intent. Commercial-intent keywords (“buy,” “pricing,” “best [tool] for [use case]”) belong in conversion-focused campaigns; informational keywords (“what is,” “how to”) typically don’t convert well in search ads — they belong in content marketing.
• Audit search-term reports weekly and add irrelevant queries as negative keywords (see #7).

4. Write high-quality Responsive Search Ads

Important update: Expanded Text Ads (ETAs) were sunset by Google. They stopped accepting new ETAs on June 30, 2022 and stopped serving them on January 31, 2023. Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) are now the only standard search-ad format.

An RSA lets you supply up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions; Google’s system mixes and matches them in real time per query. To maximize Quality Score from RSAs:

• Provide as many headlines and descriptions as Google asks for; aim for 8-15 headlines, all genuinely distinct.
• Mention the target keyword in at least 2-3 headlines.
• Include benefit, feature, social proof, and call-to-action variants.
• Use Pinning sparingly — pin only when something must always appear (e.g., legal disclaimer, brand name) because pinning reduces optimization flexibility.
• Add all relevant ad assets (formerly ad extensions): sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, image, lead form, location, price, promotion. More assets give Google more to work with and improve expected CTR.

5. Improve your landing page

Landing-page experience is the most-overlooked sub-factor — improving it usually moves the dial fastest. Key checks:

• Match the ad to the page. If the ad promises “running shoes for trail use,” the landing page should be a trail-running shoes page, not a generic shoe-category page. Misalignment is the most common cause of low landing-page-experience scores.
• Hit Core Web Vitals targets: LCP < 2.5s, CLS < 0.1, INP < 200ms (INP replaced FID in March 2024). Test on PageSpeed Insights and run real-user monitoring (Vercel Analytics, Google Analytics 4) on live traffic.
• Mobile-first. Most paid traffic is mobile; the mobile experience is what gets evaluated. Test the actual mobile flow, not just the desktop version.
• Accessibility. WCAG 2.2 Level AA compliance. Beyond legal exposure (DOJ Title II 2024 / EAA / ADA), Google’s landing-page evaluation factors mobile usability and accessibility signals.
• Trust signals: HTTPS (baseline since 2014), clear privacy policy, contact information, no aggressive popups (Google’s 2017 mobile-interstitial penalty still applies).
• Clear CTA above the fold. Match the ad’s promise; one primary action per landing page.

Use Google Page Speed Insights, Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test, and Lighthouse in Chrome DevTools to spot-check before launching new pages.

6. Keep ad groups small (don’t over-stuff)

The old advice was 15-20 keywords per ad group; modern best practice is 5-15, and many accounts perform better at 5-10 with very tight themes. Smaller ad groups make it easier to write RSA copy that genuinely matches every keyword in the group, which directly improves ad relevance.

If you find an ad group ballooning past 15 keywords, that’s usually a signal it should be split into 2-3 more focused ad groups, each with its own RSA copy.

7. Use negative keywords aggressively

Negative keywords tell Google when not to show your ad. They’re one of the most underused tools in Google Ads. Adding negatives improves Quality Score indirectly by:

• Filtering out irrelevant clicks that drag down your CTR.
• Preventing your ads from showing for queries that don’t match your offering — those clicks waste budget and rarely convert.
• Forcing tighter intent matching, which boosts ad relevance scoring.

Run weekly search-term reports and add negatives for any query that’s clearly off-target. Use negative keyword lists at the account level for evergreen exclusions (e.g., “free,” “cheap,” “jobs,” competitor names if appropriate, irrelevant industries).

8. Use Responsive Search Ad assets and Smart Bidding strategically

Replacing the old “Expand Your Text Ads” tactic with the modern equivalent: lean into RSAs and Smart Bidding to let Google’s machine learning optimize for your goal.

• Add every relevant asset. Sitelinks (4-6 minimum), callouts (4+), structured snippets (header + values), images, price, promotion, lead form, location. Google explicitly cites “ad asset usage” as a factor in expected CTR.
• Try Smart Bidding strategies matched to your goal: Maximize Conversions, Target CPA, Target ROAS, or Maximize Conversion Value. Manual CPC still has its place for very small accounts or specific campaign types but Smart Bidding generally outperforms once you have enough conversion data.
• Use audience signals on Performance Max and standard search campaigns to give Google’s system better targeting context.
• Set up enhanced conversions (now standard) and Consent Mode v2 (mandatory for EU traffic since March 2024) to keep conversion data flowing as third-party-cookie restrictions tighten.

9. Be careful with Dynamic Keyword Insertion

Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI) is still available in Google Ads — it inserts the user’s search term into your ad copy on the fly. The trade-offs are real:

• When DKI helps: e-commerce with many SKUs, where a single ad needs to flex across product names, and where you have a strict negative-keyword list to prevent embarrassing combinations.
• When DKI hurts: small accounts with tight ad groups (where it adds nothing), brands sensitive to grammar or tone (where awkward insertions damage credibility), and competitive verticals where competitors can trigger problematic insertions.

If your ad groups are already tightly themed (per #2 and #6), DKI usually adds little and can hurt ad relevance scoring by producing copy Google’s system sees as less coherent. Test before deploying broadly.

The modern Google Ads landscape

A few 2024-2026 shifts worth knowing about, even if Quality Score itself is still focused on classic search-ad mechanics:

• Performance Max campaigns combine Search, Display, YouTube, Discover, Gmail, and Maps inventory into one AI-managed campaign. Quality Score doesn’t apply directly to Performance Max, but creative quality and conversion-data quality are both heavily evaluated.
• Demand Gen campaigns (replaced Discovery Ads in 2024) focus on visual brand discovery across YouTube and Discover.
• Generative AI assistance (Google’s Gemini-powered features in Google Ads, expanded 2024-2025) generates RSA assets, suggests keyword expansions, and recommends optimizations. Treat AI suggestions as a starting point, not a finished campaign.
• AI Overviews and Search Generative Experience are reshaping how organic SERPs look — paid search remains relatively unchanged for now, but the broader shift toward AI-mediated search is something to watch.

Frequently asked questions

What’s a good Quality Score?

Anything 7 or above is considered good; 8-10 is excellent. Anything below 5 needs attention — you’re likely paying significantly more than necessary for those keywords. Focus your optimization efforts on keywords with high spend and Quality Scores below 6.

How quickly does Quality Score change after I make improvements?

Component-level changes (ad relevance, landing-page experience) update within hours to days. Expected CTR takes longer to recover because Google needs to see actual click data on the new ads. Plan for 2-4 weeks to see a stable post-change Quality Score.

Does Quality Score apply to Performance Max or Demand Gen?

No. Quality Score is a search-keyword concept. Performance Max and Demand Gen use different optimization signals (creative quality, conversion data, audience signals). The underlying principles — relevant ad copy, fast landing pages, solid creative — still matter, just measured differently.

Are Expanded Text Ads still worth talking about?

No. ETAs stopped serving on January 31, 2023. If you find any old guides recommending them, the right modern equivalent is Responsive Search Ads (RSAs). Migrate any remaining ETA-style thinking into RSA practices.

How does Smart Bidding interact with Quality Score?

Smart Bidding (Maximize Conversions, Target CPA, Target ROAS, etc.) doesn’t directly use Quality Score, but it bids on individual auctions where Quality Score is one of the inputs Google uses to evaluate auction-time signals. Higher Quality Score helps Smart Bidding find more efficient auctions to win.

The bottom line

Quality Score is a small number with outsized impact on what you actually pay per click and where your ads show up. The fundamentals haven’t changed since the AdWords-to-Ads rebrand in 2018: tight ad groups, relevant RSA copy, fast and on-message landing pages, and disciplined negative keywords still drive most of the wins. The 2026 layer is about pairing those fundamentals with modern campaign types (RSAs over the dead ETAs, Smart Bidding when you have conversion data, Performance Max for cross-channel reach) and the AI-assisted optimization Google has built into the platform.