Imagine two businesses bidding on the same keyword in Google Ads. They both bid the same amount — DKK 10 per click. But one of them actually pays DKK 5 per click, while the other pays DKK 20. What explains the difference? The answer is Quality Score.
Quality Score is Google's internal assessment of your ad's quality and relevance — on a scale from 1 to 10. It is not just an abstract number. It is a discount or a surcharge that directly affects your actual CPC (cost per click) in every ad auction. A high Quality Score means you pay less for the same positions than competitors with lower quality. A low Quality Score means the opposite: you pay a significant premium to compete.
Most advertisers ignore Quality Score, or glance at it occasionally and shrug. That is a mistake that costs them thousands of kroner every month. At Gezar, optimising Quality Score is a fixed part of every Google Ads strategy — it is simply too much money to leave on the table.
In this guide we cover what Quality Score is, the three factors that determine it, how it concretely affects your prices — and eight actionable tips you can implement today to raise your score and lower your costs.
1. What is Quality Score?
Quality Score is Google's estimate of the quality of your ads, your keywords, and your landing pages. The score is displayed on a scale from 1 to 10 per keyword, where 10 is the best possible result and 1 is the worst.
Quality Score is not a static grade you receive once — it is a dynamic estimate that is updated continuously based on the latest auction data. Google actually calculates a Quality Score at every single auction, even though the number you see in your account is a historical average that updates gradually over time.
The important thing to understand is what Quality Score is used for: it feeds directly into the calculation of your Ad Rank — the position your ad achieves in search results. Ad Rank is calculated as your bid multiplied by Quality Score plus an assessment of the ad's expected impact. The simplified formula is:
Ad Rank = Max. bid × Quality Score + Expected ad extensions impact
This means that an ad with half the bid but twice the Quality Score can beat a more expensive competitor. Quality can win over budget — that is the whole point of the system.
Google introduced Quality Score to ensure that users see relevant ads, not just the ones that pay the most. It is a win-win setup: users see better ads, Google earns more because better ads have higher CTR, and advertisers with high quality are rewarded with lower prices. Advertisers with low quality are penalised with higher prices — that is the market's way of saying "do better".
2. The 3 components of Quality Score
Quality Score is made up of three sub-components. Each component is rated with one of three statuses: "Below average", "Average", or "Above average". These are the three factors you need to optimise to raise your overall score.
Google's estimate of the probability that users will click your ad when it appears for a given keyword — compared to the average for all ads bidding on the same keyword. Expected CTR is based on historical click data for your keyword and ad text, and it carries the most weight in the Quality Score calculation.
The degree to which your ad text matches the searcher's intent and keyword. Do you use the keyword naturally in your headline? Does the ad's message match what the searcher expects to find? Low ad relevance is most often a sign of broad ad groups with too many keywords — and ad copy that tries to fit all of them at once.
An assessment of your landing page's relevance and user experience in relation to the searcher's intent. Is the page fast? Is the content relevant to the keyword? Is it clear what the user should do? A high bounce rate and low time on page are typical signals of a weak landing page experience.
In Google Ads you can add columns for the three sub-components separately under the Keywords view. This gives you a precise readout of which factor is pulling your overall score down — and therefore what you should prioritise fixing. It is far more actionable than staring at a single combined number.
It is important to understand that the three components are not weighted equally. Expected click-through rate carries the most weight and has the greatest influence on your overall Quality Score. Ad relevance and landing page experience follow closely, but CTR is the primary signal Google uses to measure whether users actually find your ad relevant.
3. How Quality Score affects your CPC
Now for the part that really hits your wallet: Quality Score translates directly into a CPC adjustment in every auction. Google calls it a "Quality Score discount/premium" — and it is effectively either a discount or a penalty on top of your actual bid price.
Below is an overview of the actual CPC adjustments documented by Quality Score level — with a concrete price example for a keyword with a baseline CPC of DKK 10:
| Quality Score | Status | CPC adjustment | Example (baseline: DKK 10) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Excellent | −50% | DKK 5.00 |
| 9 | Excellent | −33% | DKK 6.70 |
| 8 | Good | −25% | DKK 7.50 |
| 7 | Baseline | 0% | DKK 10.00 |
| 6 | Average | +17% | DKK 11.70 |
| 5 | Below average | +25% | DKK 12.50 |
| 3 | Below average | +67% | DKK 16.70 |
| 1 | Very poor | +400% | DKK 50.00 |
The maths in practice: You and your competitor both bid DKK 10 per click on "Google Ads agency Aarhus". You have Quality Score 9 — you actually pay DKK 6.70. Your competitor has Quality Score 4 — he actually pays DKK 13.30. With 500 clicks per month, you pay DKK 3,350, he pays DKK 6,650. Over a year that is the difference between DKK 40,200 and DKK 79,800. For the exact same clicks.
It is also worth noting that Quality Score does not just affect the price — it affects whether your ad appears at all. With a very low Quality Score your ad can be excluded from auctions entirely, even if your bid is high enough. Google prioritises quality, and a Quality Score below 3 is a signal that Google considers your ad to be low-relevance for the search query.
Want to understand the full cost picture of Google Ads? Read our complete guide to what Google Ads costs in 2026 — and see how Quality Score fits into the overall budget picture.
4. 8 concrete tips to improve your Quality Score
Now you know what Quality Score is and what it costs you to have a low score. The question is: what do you do about it? Here are eight actionable tips ranked by impact and speed of implementation.
Tip 1: Structure campaigns into tight ad groups (SKAG/STAG)
The structural mistake that is almost always the root cause of low ad relevance: broad ad groups with dozens of keywords crammed into the same ad. The solution is tight ad groups — either SKAG (Single Keyword Ad Groups) or STAG (Single Theme Ad Groups). When each ad group contains only closely related keywords, your ad copy can match searchers' precise intent far more effectively. The result is higher ad relevance, higher expected CTR — and a higher Quality Score.
Tip 2: Use the keyword in your ad headline
Google bolds the keyword in your ad when it matches the search query — that is not a coincidence, it is a visual signal to the user that your ad is relevant. Use the primary keyword naturally in your first or second headline. Not as keyword-stuffing, but as a clear and direct message: "Google Ads Agency in Aarhus" is far more relevant to a search for "google ads agency aarhus" than "Professional Digital Marketing for Growing Businesses".
Tip 3: Write relevant ad extensions
Ad extensions — callouts, sitelinks, structured snippets, lead forms — significantly increase your ad visibility and CTR. Google uses the expected impact from extensions as part of the Ad Rank calculation. An ad without extensions is leaving visibility on the table and missing a signal that positively affects Quality Score over time. Extensions that are relevant and specific to your offering are a quick win. Add at least 4 sitelinks, 2–4 callouts, and a structured snippet.
Tip 4: Optimise your landing page for search intent
Your landing page must match the searcher's intent — not just contain the keyword once. If someone searches "buy red Nike Air Max 90", they should land on a page that shows red Nike Air Max 90 shoes for sale — not your generic homepage. Match the content, headline, and CTA to the search intent. The more precise the match, the lower the bounce rate, the better the landing page score in the Quality Score calculation.
Tip 5: Improve page speed
Landing page experience includes load time — and Google is not patient. A page that takes more than 3 seconds to load on mobile loses a large proportion of visitors before they have even seen the content. Check your Core Web Vitals score on PageSpeed Insights. Compress images, reduce JavaScript, use lazy loading. Technical SEO and Google Ads performance are more connected than many advertisers realise — see our guide to technical SEO for concrete improvements that also benefit your Quality Score.
Tip 6: Use negative keywords aggressively
Negative keywords are the cheapest and fastest way to improve your expected CTR. Keywords that trigger your ad but are not relevant (and are therefore almost never clicked) drag down your historical CTR — and therefore your Quality Score. Review the search terms report weekly in the beginning. Add negative keywords at campaign and ad group level. An ad group with a 20% CTR is far better than one with 2% — and the difference is often just a handful of negative keywords away.
Tip 7: A/B test ads continuously
Most advertisers write one ad per ad group and let it run. That is a missed opportunity. With responsive search ads (RSA) you can add up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions — Google automatically tests combinations. But you still need to monitor which combinations perform best and refine continuously. A better CTR over time is the strongest signal you can give Google that your ad is relevant. Test different value propositions, calls-to-action, and phrasings.
Tip 8: Review the Quality Score report regularly
It sounds obvious, but most advertisers rarely look at Quality Score per keyword. Set a regular cadence: review Quality Score for all active keywords at least once a month. Prioritise keywords with a score below 5 and high spend. Add the columns for the three sub-components to see exactly what is pulling the score down. A keyword with Quality Score 3 and DKK 500 in monthly spend is a concrete optimisation project that can deliver 30–50% lower CPC on that keyword alone.
At Gezar, Quality Score optimisation is a fixed part of monthly Google Ads maintenance. We systematically review all low-scoring keywords and identify whether the problem lies in the ad copy, the ad group structure, or the landing page — and implement fixes that typically improve Quality Score by 2–3 points within a month. That is the kind of ongoing optimisation that compounds into significantly lower CPC over time. See our Google Ads service here.
Frequently Asked Questions about Quality Score
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