What to Do When Your Google Ads Quality Score Is Low? A Step-by-Step Improvement Guide

Google Ads uses a Quality Score system rated from 1 to 10. This score is a diagnostic tool that measures how well your ads are performing and directly affects what you pay per click. When your score drops below 3, you may pay more than double compared to an average score of 5 just to hold the same position. On the flip side, pushing your score to 8 or 9 means significantly more clicks for the same budget.

Know Where to Look First: The Diagnostic Step

Quality Score is not a single number; it is the combination of three distinct components. Open the Keywords tab in Google Ads and add these three columns: Expected Click-Through Rate, Ad Relevance, and Landing Page Experience. Each component is labeled as Below Average, Average, or Above Average. Focus on whichever component shows a problem first; trying to fix all three simultaneously splits your attention and makes it harder to understand what is actually working.

Component 1: If Your Expected Click-Through Rate Is Low

• Open your ad headlines with a concrete benefit that sets you apart from competitors. Not 'quality service' but something clear like 'Same-Day Shipping' or '30-Day Return Guarantee'.
• Question-format headlines can noticeably boost click-through rates. A headline like 'Is your roof leaking?' creates an ad the reader immediately identifies with.
• Avoid showing up in irrelevant searches. Keeping your negative keyword list tidy cuts unnecessary impressions and automatically lifts your click-through rate. Google raised the negative keyword limit to 10,000 in 2025 — use that flexibility.
• Do not leave ad extensions empty. Site links, price extensions, call buttons — ads with extensions look larger and get clicked more.

Component 2: If Your Ad Relevance Is Low

If you cram keywords with very different intents into a single ad group, your ad tries to speak to all of them with the same message and lands squarely with none. The fix: split ad groups into narrower themes. For example, 'paint' and 'paint price' can stay in the same group, but 'paint' and 'wallpaper' should be in separate groups. Also, make sure your Responsive Search Ad (RSA) includes your most important keyword in at least three or four headlines. You are essentially telling Google clearly: 'this is what this ad is about.'

Component 3: If Your Landing Page Experience Is Low

• The offer in your ad should appear word-for-word on the first screen of your landing page. If the ad says 'Free Site Survey' but the page does not mention it, users get confused and Google reflects that as a lower score.
• Page speed is now more critical than ever. According to the Core Web Vitals standards updated in 2025, your page's main content should load in under 2.5 seconds. You can test your page for free with Google PageSpeed Insights; compressing images, switching to modern formats like WebP, and cleaning up unnecessary code often makes a significant difference.
• Do not neglect mobile. The majority of visitors click your ads from their phones. Even small loading delays noticeably reduce conversions.
• In 2025, Google rolled out a new model: it can now assign an 'Below Average' label based solely on page structure and content signals, before any traffic even arrives. This means aligning your page content with your ad topic is more important than ever.

How Long Should You Wait After Making Changes?

Do not expect the score to change immediately after making an improvement. Quality scores typically take between 10 and 15 days to update. Do not pause your campaign during this period; continuing to collect data helps you interpret results accurately. Make it a habit to review the component labels for the last 90 days every quarter — the ad environment keeps changing, and a score of 8 today may be in a different place six months from now.