Quality Score

What Is Quality Score and Why You're Paying More Than Competitors

Jakub Pytlik | May 3, 2026 | 5 min read

In short Quality Score is Google's 1–10 rating that says how relevant your ad is to a search. It affects what you pay per click (CPC) and ad position. Quality Score 8 vs 4 means a 30–50% difference in click cost. A competitor with a better Quality Score pays less and ranks higher — at the same bid. It is built from three things: ad click-through rate, ad-to-query relevance and the quality of the page you are sending people to. All three can be improved — usually in 3–6 weeks (on an active account with 100+ clicks per week you see results in 2–3 weeks; on low-traffic accounts it takes longer because Google needs more data).

What Quality Score is (in plain language)

Imagine Google has a few ad slots to sell on every search. Advertisers bid for those slots. But Google does not simply pick the highest bidder — it also wants to show users ads that are relevant. Because if it only shows irrelevant ads, people stop clicking and Google loses money long-term.

Quality Score is Google's relevance rating for your ad on a given query. Scale 1–10. The higher it is, the more Google "likes" your ad — and the less it charges you for it.

Three components of Quality Score

1. Expected CTR

Do people historically click your ad when they see it on a given query? If 1,000 impressions get 30 clicks (CTR 3%) and a competitor gets 80 (CTR 8%) — your Expected CTR is rated "Below Average". Google assumes your ad is less relevant and lowers your Quality Score.

2. Ad Relevance

Do the words in your ad match what someone is searching for? If a user types "auto body shop Warsaw" and your ad says "comprehensive automotive services" — Google sees the gap. Relevance "Below Average". An ad that directly answers the query ("Auto body shop Mokotów — repairs in 2 days") gets a high relevance rating.

3. Landing Page Experience

What happens after the click? Does the page load quickly? Does it answer what people were looking for? Does it deliver what the ad promised? Sending the query "auto body shop" to your homepage instead of a body-shop-specific page = low rating. A page that loads in 8 seconds = low rating. No mobile responsiveness = low rating.

How Quality Score affects your costs

A concrete example. Two companies bidding on the same keyword:

Advertiser	Max bid	Quality Score	Real CPC
Company A (better ad)	4 PLN	9 (above average)	~2.10 PLN
Company B (average)	4 PLN	5 (average)	~3.20 PLN
Company C (weak ad)	5 PLN	3 (below average)	~4.80 PLN

Concrete amounts depend on industry and competition — in e-commerce, CPC is around 2–5 PLN, in finance and insurance 20–60 PLN, in local services 1–6 PLN. What matters is the proportion between QS levels, not the absolute CPC.

Company A has a lower bid, but Quality Score does its job — Google charges it less for the same slot. Company C, despite the higher bid, pays the most. This is the mechanism Google praises as "rewarding quality".

What this means in practice If your Quality Score on the main keywords is 4–5, you are probably paying 30–60% more per click than a competitor with Quality Score 8–9. Concretely: for the same traffic that the competitor buys for ~3,100–3,800 PLN per month, you are spending 5,000 PLN. The difference is 1,200–1,900 PLN per month — that is 14,000–22,500 PLN per year that Google is taking from you on top, just because of a lower Quality Score. Exception: some campaign types (e.g. competitor conquesting) naturally have a low QS and that is not a problem — see the section below.

Where to check your Quality Score

Open Google Ads → Keywords.
Click the "Columns" icon (usually in the top-right above the table).
Add columns: Quality Score, Expected CTR, Ad Relevance, Landing Page Experience.
You will see a rating for each active keyword: a 1–10 value plus three component ratings (Below Average / Average / Above Average).

Look at the keywords driving the biggest spend. There, every Quality Score point equals real money.

Five ways to improve Quality Score

Match the ad to the keyword. Instead of one generic ad covering 50 phrases — create separate ad groups for similar intents. "Auto body shop" → an ad about body work. "Tire change" → an ad about tires.
Write ads with the keyword in the headline. If someone searches "online English course", an ad that starts with "Online English Course" has higher Ad Relevance than "The Best Language Courses — Check It Out".
Send traffic to the right subpage, not the homepage. An ad about body work → the body-work subpage. This is one of the fastest Landing Page Experience boosters.
Speed up the page. Check PageSpeed Insights. If mobile scores under 50, you have a problem. Compressing images and disabling unnecessary scripts (chat widgets, popups, trackers) usually does the trick.
Test new headlines every 2–3 weeks. In Google Ads (Responsive Search Ads, RSA) you have up to 15 headline slots — Google labels each as "Best", "Good" or "Low" performance. Every 2–3 weeks, swap the 1–2 weakest for new versions with a different angle (price, delivery time, guarantee, location). CTR rises steadily, and Google looks at the trend, not at one-off results.

Exception: when a low Quality Score is not the problem

Quality Score is not always a metric to chase. Three situations where a low QS is natural and should not discourage you:

Competitor conquesting campaigns. You are targeting "Competitor X" as a keyword. Your ad cannot contain the competitor's name (trademark issues), and the landing page does not directly answer the query. QS will be 3–5 and that is it. These campaigns often work anyway — you catch people actively comparing offers. CPC is higher than on your generic phrases, but the customer acquired through conquesting is usually worth more than the extra click cost.
The first 2–4 weeks of a new campaign. Without history, Google has no way to estimate Expected CTR. Quality Score starts at 5–6 (average) and grows as data flows in. Do not panic if every keyword on a freshly launched account has QS 6 — that is normal; give it 2–4 weeks before you judge.
"Discovery" campaigns — testing new markets. You are checking whether people are even searching for a given product category or a new foreign market. QS is secondary — what matters is whether demand exists and how conversions look. Once you confirm the market, you move it into a separate campaign and only then optimize for QS.

In these three cases the question "is my QS low?" is simply the wrong question. A better one: "are these campaigns profitable despite the higher CPC?". If yes — a low QS is a cost worth paying.

What I see after 11 years

Local service — Quality Score 4 on the main keyword, CPC 7.80 PLN. We aligned the ads with the subpage and added the keyword in the headline. After 3 weeks, QS 8, CPC dropped to 4.60 PLN — same traffic, 41% cheaper.
Cosmetics e-commerce — the "face creams" category had Quality Score 5. The landing page was a generic listing of all creams. We built a subpage specifically for queries like "face cream [brand X]". QS jumped to 9, customer acquisition cost dropped 28%.
B2B SaaS — Quality Score 3 on niche queries. Problem: the page loaded in 6.5 seconds on mobile (heavy hero video, 14 trackers). After optimization (3.2 s) QS jumped to 7. Cost per lead dropped 35%.

Summary Quality Score is Google's reward for ad relevance. Higher QS = lower price for the same slot. Three components (click-through rate, relevance, page) — each one improvable, usually in 3–6 weeks (depending on traffic). Start with matching ads to subpages and speeding up the page — those two changes usually deliver the biggest QS jump and cut costs by 20–40%.

I will check your Quality Score — for free Just send me your domain and 2–3 main keywords you are advertising on. I will check the publicly visible signals (page load speed, ad-to-page match, landing page structure) and reply with which Quality Score components are most likely weak on your side and what to change first. If you want a full audit with exact QS numbers, I will need view access to the account. No contract, no commitment. Email me at jakub.pytlik@jp-ads.pl or use the contact form.

About the sources: Article based on observations from 11 years of running Google Ads campaigns at JP Ads + Google Ads documentation on Quality Score and Ad Rank. Percentage figures (30–60% CPC difference, 35–41% drop after optimization) come from my own practice — distinguish them from Google's own numbers, since Google does not publish exact multipliers. The CPC table in the "How Quality Score affects your costs" section shows model values — proportions between QS levels are realistic, but absolute amounts depend on industry and competition.

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