How to Improve Google Ads Quality Score

Is your Google Ads campaign underperforming? One key factor could be your Quality Score. 

This important metric plays a crucial role in determining your ad’s position and cost. According to Google, Quality Score measures the relevance and quality of your ads, keywords, and landing pages. A higher Quality Score often leads to better ad placements at a lower cost, while a lower score can hinder your performance and increase expenses.

Improving your Quality Score requires attention to three key components: Expected Click-Through Rate (CTR), ad relevance, and landing page experience. By optimizing these elements, you can enhance your campaign's effectiveness, attract more clicks, and reduce your ad spend. 

Boosting your Quality Score from 5 to 10 can slash your cost-per-click by 50%, dramatically lowering your ad spend! (Source)

In this post, we’ll explore proven strategies to boost your Quality Score, helping you cut costs and outperform competitors in ad visibility. Start improving your ads today for better results tomorrow!

7 Ways To Improve Google Ads Quality Score

1. Understand the Components of Quality Score

Quality Score is determined by three main factors:

Expected Click-Through Rate (CTR)

This metric represents the likelihood that users will click your ad when it’s shown. Google estimates this based on historical data, factoring in how well your ad performs compared to others targeting similar keywords. 

A higher CTR indicates that your ad is compelling and relevant to users. To improve CTR, focus on writing clear, engaging ad copy, using strong calls-to-action (CTAs), and including your targeted keywords in your headlines.Download Your Free Guide Now:  A concise, benefit-driven phrase that tells users exactly what they’ll get and prompts immediate action.

Ad Relevance

Ad relevance refers to how closely your ad matches the user's search intent. If the keywords you’re targeting align well with the content in your ad, it signals to Google that your ad is highly relevant to the user's query. 

To improve ad relevance, ensure your ad copy clearly reflects the user's search intent, and use relevant keywords in your headlines and descriptions. 

Also, organizing your ads into tightly themed ad groups with highly relevant keywords can improve this factor.

Landing Page Experience

Google assesses the relevance, transparency, and usability of your landing page to your ad and keywords. A great landing page should offer users valuable content that matches their search query, load quickly, and be easy to navigate, especially on mobile devices. 

The user experience is crucial if users find what they’re looking for and can easily complete a desired action (like making a purchase or submitting a form), your landing page experience score will improve. 

Additionally, ensure that your landing page is transparent, providing clear information about your product or service and an easy path to conversion.

 2. Optimize Your Ad Copy for Relevance

Your ad copy should align closely with the keywords in your ad group. By including the exact keywords within your ad’s headlines and descriptions, you increase the relevance of your ad, which is critical for improving your Quality Score. 

When the text in your ads matches what users are searching for, they are more likely to engage with your ad, improving your click-through rate (CTR). A well-crafted ad copy not only boosts relevance but also directly impacts the overall performance of your Google Ads campaign.Ex: If your keyword is ‘buy running shoes’, your ad headline could be ‘Shop Running Shoes - Lightweight & Durable’.

3. Improve Your Landing Page Experience

Google assesses the quality of your landing page based on its relevance, transparency, and ease of navigation. Your landing page should offer content that is directly related to the keywords and ads users clicked on. 

If users arrive at a page that doesn’t match their expectations, they’re more likely to bounce, negatively affecting your Quality Score.

To enhance the landing page experience:

• Relevance: Ensure your landing page matches the user’s search intent. The content should provide the solution they were looking for when clicking on your ad.
• Speed: A slow-loading page can lead to high bounce rates, so make sure your page loads quickly, particularly on mobile devices.Tools to consider: Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix
• Mobile Optimization: Given the increase in mobile search, your landing page should be fully responsive, load quickly, and meet Google’s Core Web Vitals thresholds (e.g., LCP under 2.5 s, FID under 100 ms, CLS below 0.1) to ensure a top-notch page experience on all devices..
• Clear Calls-to-Action (CTAs): A well-defined CTA guides users toward the next step, improving conversion rates.

4. Structure Your Ad Groups Tightly

The structure of your ad groups plays a major role in ad relevance. Instead of having broad or generic ad groups, organize your campaigns into tightly themed groups with closely related keywords. 

For example, if you're selling different types of shoes, create separate ad groups for “running shoes,” “formal shoes,” and “sandals.” This approach allows you to tailor the ad copy to each specific group, improving relevance and increasing the chances that your ads will be clicked.

5. Utilize Negative Keywords

Negative keywords help prevent your ads from being shown for irrelevant searches. This helps increase your CTR and ensures your ads are displayed to a more relevant audience. 

For instance, if you're selling luxury watches, you might want to add “cheap” as a negative keyword to avoid showing your ad to users searching for inexpensive options.Regularly review your Search Terms Report in Google Ads to uncover irrelevant queries and add them as negative keywords.

6. Leverage Ad Extensions

Ad extensions provide extra information and can increase the visibility of your ads, making them more engaging and informative. By adding sitelinks, callouts, or structured snippets, you give users more reasons to click on your ad. 

This added information enhances user experience and increases the chances of a conversion, which can lead to higher CTR and Quality Score.

Types of Ad Extensions:

• Sitelinks: Direct users to specific pages of your website.
• Callouts: Highlight special offers, free shipping, or key benefits.
• Structured Snippets: Provide more detailed information about your product or service.

7. Monitor and Adjust Regularly

Google Ads requires ongoing optimization to ensure continued success. Continuously monitor your campaign performance, adjusting ad copy, keywords, bidding strategies, and landing pages, and consider using Automated Rules or Google Ads Scripts to automatically, for example, pause underperforming keywords, adjust bids based on time-of-day, or scale budgets as conversions increase.

A/B Testing: Regularly run A/B tests on key elements such as:

• Headlines: Try different value propositions or keyword placements.
• CTAs: Test variations like “Get Your Free Demo” vs. “Start Your 7-Day Trial.”
• Landing-Page Designs: Compare layouts, form lengths, images, or color schemes to see which drives higher conversion rates.

By leveraging automation for routine tweaks and systematically A/B testing these components, you can maintain and even boost your Quality Score over time.

Conclusion

Improving your Google Ads Quality Score is essential for achieving better ad placements and reducing costs. By focusing on ad relevance, landing page experience, and CTR, you can enhance your campaign's effectiveness.

Remember, regular monitoring and optimization are key to maintaining a high Quality Score. Implement these strategies to see a significant impact on your advertising performance.

Need Expert Help

Improving Quality Score isn’t always straightforward, and sometimes, a second set of expert eyes makes all the difference. If you’re looking to get better results from your ad campaigns, our performance marketing services can help refine your strategy, boost relevance, and cut costs. Get tailored support to move your metrics in the right direction.