Quality Score
Google Ads' 1-10 rating of keyword, ad, and landing page quality that affects ad ranking and cost-per-click.
What Quality Score means
Quality Score is Google Ads' diagnostic metric that rates the quality of your keywords, ads, and landing pages on a scale of 1 to 10. It's based on three components: expected click-through rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience. Quality Score directly impacts Ad Rank (determining ad position and eligibility) and actual CPC (higher quality scores reduce costs). From a compliance perspective, Quality Score rewards compliant advertising practices — ads that accurately represent their landing page, provide good user experience, and contain relevant content earn higher scores. Conversely, misleading ads or poor landing page experiences reduce Quality Score. Google evaluates landing page experience based on content relevance, ease of navigation, transparency about the business, and page load speed. Improving Quality Score and improving compliance are often the same effort.
Related terms
Relevance Score
A platform-assigned quality metric that rates how well an ad resonates with its target audience, affecting delivery and costs.
Cost Per Click
The amount an advertiser pays for each click on their ad in a pay-per-click advertising model.
Landing Page Policy
Platform rules governing the destination pages that ads link to, including requirements for functionality, content, and user experience.
Ad Auction
The real-time bidding process where platforms determine which ad to show to a specific user based on bid, quality, and relevance.