What is Quality Score in Google Ads?

What Quality Score measures

Google gives each keyword in your account a Quality Score from 1 to 10. It's built from three parts, each rated Below average, Average or Above average:

• Expected click-through rate: how likely people are to click your ad when it shows for that keyword.
• Ad relevance: how closely your ad matches what the person searched for.
• Landing page experience: how useful and relevant your landing page is once they click.

You can see it in Google Ads by adding the "Quality Score" columns to your Keywords report.

Why it matters for your costs

Quality Score itself is a diagnostic: Google doesn't plug the number directly into each auction. But the same signals behind it, expected CTR, ad relevance and landing page experience, feed into Ad Rank, which decides where your ad appears and how much you pay.

In practice, an advertiser with strong relevance can appear above a competitor who bids more, and pay less per click doing it. That's why two businesses in the same industry, say two aircon servicing companies in Shah Alam, can pay very different amounts for the same keyword.

A simple example

A dental clinic in Singapore bids on "teeth whitening price". Its ad says "Professional Teeth Whitening" and links to the homepage, which doesn't mention whitening prices. Quality Score: 4/10.

The clinic changes the headline to "Teeth Whitening Price from S$…", and sends clicks to a dedicated whitening page with clear prices and a booking button. Within a few weeks the keyword shows Above average for ad relevance and landing page experience, and the cost per click typically drops as a result.

How to improve Quality Score

1. Group keywords tightly. Each ad group should cover one theme ("emergency plumber", not "all plumbing"), so the ad can match the search closely.
2. Put the keyword in your headline. If someone searches "accounting firm Kuala Lumpur", a headline that says exactly that will usually win the click.
3. Send people to a matching page. A page about the exact service converts better and scores better than a general homepage.
4. Make the page fast and mobile-friendly. Most searches in Malaysia and Singapore happen on phones.
5. Remove keywords that attract the wrong people. Low click-through rates drag the score down, so add negative keywords and pause terms that never get clicks.

What is a good Quality Score?

7 or above is generally healthy. 5–6 is worth improving. Below 5 usually means the keyword, ad and landing page don't match well. Don't chase a 10 on every keyword; focus on the keywords that spend the most.

Why does a keyword show "—" instead of a score?

Google needs enough impressions for that exact keyword to calculate a score. New or low-volume keywords often show a dash until there's enough data.