google-ads-quality-score

name	google-ads-quality-score
description	Diagnose and improve Google Ads Quality Score — Expected CTR, Ad Relevance, and Landing Page Experience — to cut CPCs and lift Ad Rank. Use when CPCs look high for the vertical, impression share is capped by rank, or keywords sit at QS 5 and below.

Google Ads Quality Score

Quality Score is a keyword-level 1-10 diagnostic built from three rated components: Expected CTR, Ad Relevance, and Landing Page Experience. Low QS means you pay more per click for the same position — fixing the weakest component is the cheapest CPC reduction available.

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1. Pull QS with spend context

Use run_gaql_query against keyword_view selecting ad_group_criterion.quality_info.quality_score, search_predicted_ctr, creative_quality_score (Ad Relevance), post_click_quality_score (Landing Page), plus impressions, cost, and conversions over LAST_30_DAYS. Filter to enabled keywords with meaningful impressions.

Rank the fix list by cost, not by QS: a QS 3 keyword spending $4K/month matters more than twenty QS 4 keywords spending nothing. Pull the below-average components on the highest-spend keywords first.

2. Read the components

• Expected CTR below average: your ad gets clicked less than competitors' for the same query. Ad copy problem.
• Ad Relevance below average: the ad text does not match the keyword's intent. Structure problem.
• Landing Page below average: slow, thin, or mismatched page. Post-click problem.

Rough mechanics worth knowing: Ad Rank scales with bid times quality, and actual CPC is the ad rank of the advertiser below you divided by your quality. Moving a keyword from QS 4-5 to QS 7 typically cuts its CPC on the order of 25-30% — quantify the monthly savings before recommending work.

3. Fix Expected CTR

Rewrite the RSAs: keyword in 2-3 headlines, concrete numbers and differentiators in the rest, distinct headlines with no near-duplicates. Fill every relevant asset type — sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, images — since assets lift CTR directly. Generate variants with generate_text_ad and check what is live with get_ad_readback. Expect 2-4 weeks for the rating to move.

4. Fix Ad Relevance

Restructure to tightly themed ad groups: if no headline in the ad group contains the keyword or a close synonym, the keyword is in the wrong ad group. Split mixed-intent groups (one theme per group), then write ads that name the theme. Keyword insertion helps only when the group is already tight. Expect 1-2 weeks after restructuring. Query bleed between groups is a negatives problem — see negative-keywords.

5. Fix Landing Page Experience

• Speed: LCP under 2.5s, mobile-usable, no intrusive interstitials.
• Message match: page headline mirrors the ad promise; ad-group keywords appear in the page copy above the fold.
• Trust: HTTPS, visible contact info, clear pricing and policies.

If the page needs replacing, build one with create_landing_page and ship it with publish_landing_page. This component is slowest to update — Google re-crawls on its own schedule, so allow 4-8 weeks.

6. Track it over time

Google keeps no QS history, so snapshot weekly with the same GAQL query and track impression-weighted average QS, percent of spend on QS 7+ keywords, and percent of keywords at QS 3 and below. Report movement against those, not single-keyword anecdotes.

Rules

• Prioritize by wasted spend, not by score. Fix the expensive keywords first.
• Competitor-brand keywords naturally sit at QS 3-5; judge them on CPA, not QS.
• One component per ad group per cycle, then wait for the rating to update before layering more changes.
• QS is a diagnostic, not an auction input — never chase 10/10 on keywords that already hit CPA targets. Bid moves belong to bid-optimization.