Quality Score is a 1 to 10 rating Google Ads assigns to each keyword in an account, estimating how relevant that keyword's ad and landing page are to the person searching for it. It appears at the keyword level inside the Google Ads interface and is calculated from real user data as a keyword accumulates impressions, which is why a newly added keyword typically shows no score until enough activity has been recorded against it.

Quality Score is built from three components. Expected click-through rate estimates how likely an ad is to be clicked when shown for that keyword, based on historical performance. Ad relevance measures how closely the ad's message matches the intent behind the keyword. Landing page experience assesses whether the page a click leads to delivers on what the ad promised, factoring in load speed, mobile usability, and how directly the page content matches the keyword, not just whether the page loads.

Why It Affects Cost

A higher Quality Score generally lowers the cost per click an advertiser pays for a given ad position, since Google's ad auction weighs relevance alongside bid amount rather than awarding placement to the highest bidder alone. Two advertisers bidding on the same keyword can end up paying meaningfully different amounts per click if one has built stronger relevance between its keyword, ad copy, and landing page than the other.

What The Score Actually Represents

The 1 to 10 number visible in the Google Ads interface is a diagnostic summary rather than a live input the auction uses directly. Google recalculates a more granular, auction-time version of the same underlying signals at the moment each search happens, which is why cost per click can shift even when the visible Quality Score has not changed. The visible score is useful as a directional indicator of where an account has weaknesses, rather than as a number to optimize in isolation.

Where Advertisers Typically Lose Points

• Ad copy that targets a keyword broadly without directly reflecting the specific intent behind it

• Landing pages that lead to a general category page instead of content matching the exact keyword

• Slow-loading or poorly optimized mobile landing pages

• Overly broad ad groups containing keywords with different search intents grouped under the same ad

• Low historical click-through rate on a keyword relative to its position on the results page

Reading Quality Score as a Diagnostic

Because landing page experience and ad relevance are frequently the most neglected components relative to their impact, reviewing Quality Score by component, rather than chasing the single blended number, tends to reveal more actionable fixes. A keyword scoring poorly on landing page experience but well on ad relevance points toward a page-level fix, while the reverse points toward rewriting ad copy or restructuring ad groups around tighter keyword themes.