How to Improve Google Ads Quality Score: A 2026 Playbook

You open Google Ads on a Monday morning, glance at the Quality Score column, and see a wall of 5s and 6s. You know that number matters. You're just not sure what to do about it.

Most accounts we audit lose 20 to 40 percent of their budget to a low Quality Score, often without realising it. The advertiser keeps paying more per click than competitors and never connects the dots.

This guide shows you exactly how to improve Google Ads Quality Score using the same playbook we run on client accounts every quarter. No theory, no fluff — only the tactics that move the number.

What Quality Score actually is (and why most advertisers misread it)

Quality Score is a 1 to 10 rating Google assigns to every keyword in your account. It tells you how relevant your keyword, ad, and landing page are to the searches it triggers.

A higher score means cheaper clicks and better ad positions. A lower one means you outbid competitors just to get the same impression.

Here is the part many advertisers miss. Quality Score is diagnostic, not a metric you optimise directly. You move it by fixing the three signals underneath it.

The three signals Google scores you on

Google breaks Quality Score into three components. Each gets a label of "Above average", "Average", or "Below average" in the keyword's status column.

Expected click-through rate

Google's forecast of how likely a click is when your ad shows for a keyword. It is based on the historical performance of that keyword in your account and across similar advertisers.

Low expected CTR usually means your ad is generic or your keyword is too broad for the audience you target. The fix is sharper ad copy and tighter keyword grouping.

Ad relevance

How closely your ad copy matches the intent behind the keyword. If your keyword is "emergency plumber London" and your ad headline says "Affordable plumbing services UK", relevance is poor.

To raise this, the ad's headline 1 should mirror the searcher's query. Dynamic keyword insertion helps in some cases, but a manually written, intent-specific headline beats it most of the time.

Landing page experience

Google evaluates the page your ad sends people to. It looks at speed, mobile responsiveness, content relevance, and trust signals.

A slow site, a generic homepage instead of a dedicated landing page, or a thin offer page all drag this signal down. We covered the cost of slow pages in detail in our web performance and Google Ads ROI guide.

Why a low Quality Score quietly drains your budget

Google rewards advertisers who give searchers a good experience. The formula behind Ad Rank multiplies your bid by Quality Score. So an advertiser with a 9/10 score can outrank you while paying half your CPC.

Concretely, on the same keyword:

• A QS 9 advertiser pays around €0.85 per click
• A QS 6 advertiser pays around €1.40 per click
• A QS 3 advertiser pays around €3.20 per click

Same keyword, same auction, same ad position. Three times the cost for the worst-scored account. That gap is your monthly waste.

Eight tactics to improve Google Ads Quality Score

These are the levers that actually move the needle. We use them in this order on every account audit.

Tactic 1 — Restructure into tight ad groups

Most underperforming accounts have one ad group with 50 keywords. Google cannot serve a single ad that is relevant to all of them.

Break that ad group into 5 or 10 tightly themed groups, each with 3 to 5 closely related keywords. Single Keyword Ad Groups work well for high-value terms.

When the ad group is tight, the ad headline can speak directly to the keyword. Relevance and expected CTR both climb within two weeks.

Tactic 2 — Rewrite ad headlines to mirror search intent

Look at the actual search terms inside your highest-spending keywords. Write headlines that use the same wording.

If users search "free SEO audit Brussels", your headline should not say "Digital marketing services". It should say "Free SEO Audit · Brussels". Direct, specific, mirroring.

Use all 15 responsive search ad headlines, and pin the most relevant one to position 1. Google still uses pinning as a strong relevance signal.

Tactic 3 — Add negative keywords aggressively

Negative keywords prevent your ad from showing on irrelevant searches. Irrelevant impressions hurt expected CTR.

Pull your search terms report weekly for the first month. Add anything that does not match your offer as a negative — at exact, phrase, or campaign level depending on volume.

A clean account typically has more negative keywords than positive ones. That is normal.

Tactic 4 — Build dedicated landing pages per ad group

Sending paid traffic to your homepage hurts landing page experience. Build a dedicated page per service or campaign.

The landing page headline should repeat the keyword and the offer. Include trust signals near the fold — reviews, certifications, recognisable client logos. Add a single, prominent call to action.

Speed matters too. Our conversion rate optimization guide covers the landing page mechanics in detail.

Tactic 5 — Improve page speed to under 2 seconds

Google looks at how fast the landing page loads on mobile. The threshold for "above average" is around 2 to 2.5 seconds Largest Contentful Paint.

Compress images to WebP or AVIF. Lazy-load anything below the fold. Remove unused JavaScript. If your site runs on WordPress, audit your plugins — most slow sites lose half their speed to bloated themes and trackers.

Run PageSpeed Insights on every landing page and target a mobile score above 80.

Tactic 6 — Use ad extensions on every campaign

Sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, call extensions, location extensions. They all push your CTR up, which lifts expected CTR.

Add at least four sitelinks per campaign with clear, specific labels. "Pricing", "Case studies", "Free audit", and "About us" beats "Click here" or "More info".

Extensions are free real estate in the SERP. Most underperformers ignore them.

Tactic 7 — Use Enhanced Conversions for first-party data

Google needs accurate conversion data to predict click value. Enhanced Conversions feed hashed first-party data — email, phone — back into Google Ads.

This improves bid algorithms and feeds back into Quality Score over time. Set it up through Google Tag Manager. The setup takes about an hour and pays off within a quarter.

Tactic 8 — Refresh ads every 6 to 8 weeks

Ad fatigue is real. After 6 to 8 weeks, even high-performing ads start losing CTR.

Build a habit of swapping in two new responsive search ads per ad group every two months. Pause the worst performer based on the past 30 days. Let the algorithm pick winners from the rotation.

Common Quality Score myths to ignore

Several myths float around. They distract you from the work that matters.

• Myth: Quality Score updates immediately when you change something. It does not. Expect 2 to 4 weeks of fresh impression data before the score adjusts.
• Myth: Higher bids fix a low Quality Score. Wrong. Bidding more can win you the auction temporarily but never improves the score itself.
• Myth: Brand keywords need optimising. Branded terms naturally score 9 or 10. Focus on commercial keywords where you genuinely compete.
• Myth: Display campaigns have Quality Score. They have their own quality signal but it is not the same metric. This playbook is for Search and Shopping.

When not to obsess over Quality Score

There are cases where Quality Score is a distraction.

Low-intent informational keywords often have lower scores by design — that is fine if your goal is awareness and your CPL still works. New campaigns also need 2 to 4 weeks of data before the score stabilises. Do not panic-restructure in week one.

If you sell something with a 6-month sales cycle and large deal sizes, focus on lead quality metrics and revenue attribution, not the Quality Score column.

A 90-day Quality Score recovery plan

Here is the timeline we use on client accounts.

Days 1 to 14 — Audit and reset. Pull search term report, add 50 to 200 negatives. Identify the bottom 20 percent of keywords by Quality Score. Decide which to fix and which to pause.

Days 15 to 30 — Restructure. Break wide ad groups into tight thematic ones. Rewrite ad copy per group to mirror keyword intent. Pin the strongest headline to position 1.

Days 31 to 60 — Landing pages. Build dedicated landing pages for the top 3 spending campaigns. Compress images, fix Core Web Vitals, simplify the form.

Days 61 to 90 — Measure and iterate. Track Quality Score weekly. Expand what works, kill what does not. Add Enhanced Conversions if not already done. Run two new ad variants per ad group.

Expected outcome on a typical account: average Quality Score moves from 5.2 to 7.4, CPC drops 25 to 40 percent, and CPL falls 20 to 35 percent. Numbers come from accounts like our Lyon medical practice case study.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to improve Google Ads Quality Score?

Plan for 4 to 6 weeks before the score visibly moves. Significant improvement on the full account takes around 90 days because new ad and keyword data needs time to accumulate.

Does Quality Score affect Performance Max campaigns?

Not directly. Performance Max uses different quality signals based on asset performance, audience signals, and conversion data. The principles — relevance, page experience, intent match — still apply.

Can I see Quality Score history over time?

Yes. Add the columns "Qual. Score (hist.)", "Exp. CTR (hist.)", "Ad relevance (hist.)" and "Landing page exper. (hist.)" to the Keywords view. They show daily snapshots you can chart.

Why is my Quality Score "null" on some keywords?

Null usually means the keyword has not received enough impressions for Google to calculate a reliable score. Once the keyword passes a few hundred impressions, the score appears.

Is a Quality Score of 7 good enough?

For most commercial keywords, 7 is healthy. Scores of 8 to 10 are excellent. Below 5 means there is real money on the table — that is where to focus your time.

Should I delete keywords with low Quality Score?

Not always. First try restructuring the ad group, rewriting the ad, or improving the landing page. Only delete a keyword if it is genuinely off-strategy. Deleting wipes its history.

Get a personalised audit

If you want a no-fluff audit of your account, we can pull your Quality Score distribution, the CPC waste it generates, and a 90-day action plan in 48 hours.

Book a free 30-minute audit — we look at your account live, screen-share, and walk you through what we would do in your place. No commitment.

You can also explore our Google Ads service for the full system we deploy on client accounts.