What Is Ad Quality Score in Google Ads and How to Improve It

What Is Quality Score and Why Does It Matter So Much?

Quality Score is Google’s 1 to 10 rating of the quality and relevance of your keywords, ads, and landing pages. It is not just a vanity metric. Quality Score directly determines how much you pay per click and where your ads appear on the page.

Here is the brutal truth: a competitor with a higher Quality Score can outrank you while paying less per click. Google rewards advertisers who provide a good experience for searchers. If your ads are relevant and your landing pages deliver what they promise, Google charges you less and shows your ads more often. If your ads are irrelevant and your landing pages are slow, Google punishes you with higher costs and lower visibility.

The difference between a Quality Score of 3 and a Quality Score of 8 can mean paying 50 to 60% less per click for the same keyword. Across a full Google Ads account, that translates to thousands of dollars saved or wasted every month. At Best Marketing, improving Quality Score is one of the first things we tackle in any account audit because the ROI impact is immediate and measurable.

For Singapore businesses competing in high-CPC industries like legal, medical, finance, and property, Quality Score is not just important. It is the difference between a profitable campaign and one that bleeds money. When your CPCs are $10 to $20, paying even 30% more per click adds up to tens of thousands in unnecessary spend per year.

What Are the Three Components of Quality Score?

Quality Score is built on three specific factors, and Google tells you how you are performing on each one. This transparency is a gift because it tells you exactly where to focus your improvement efforts.

• Expected Click-Through Rate (CTR). Google predicts how likely people are to click your ad when it appears for a given keyword. This is based on your historical CTR performance and the keyword’s overall click patterns. A rating of “Above Average” means you are doing well. “Below Average” means your ad copy is not compelling enough to attract clicks for this keyword.
• Ad Relevance. How closely does your ad copy match the intent behind the keyword? If someone searches “emergency plumber Singapore” and your ad headline says “Best Home Services”, the relevance is low. If your headline says “24/7 Emergency Plumber in Singapore”, the relevance is high. Google wants to show ads that directly answer what the searcher is looking for.
• Landing Page Experience. Does your landing page deliver on what the ad promised? Google evaluates page load speed, mobile-friendliness, content relevance to the ad, and how easy it is for visitors to find what they are looking for. A slow, confusing landing page tanks your Quality Score regardless of how good your ad copy is.

Each component is rated as “Above Average”, “Average”, or “Below Average”. You can see these ratings in your Google Ads account at the keyword level. This tells you exactly where to focus. If your Expected CTR is “Below Average” but your Ad Relevance is “Above Average”, you know the issue is your ad copy, not your keyword grouping.

How Does Quality Score Affect Your Ad Costs?

Google uses Quality Score as a multiplier in its ad auction. The formula that determines your ad position is:

Ad Rank = Max CPC Bid x Quality Score

This means an advertiser with a $3 bid and a Quality Score of 8 (Ad Rank = 24) will outrank an advertiser with a $5 bid and a Quality Score of 4 (Ad Rank = 20). The first advertiser pays less and ranks higher. That is the power of Quality Score.

The cost impact across different Quality Score levels is significant:

• Quality Score of 10: You may pay up to 50% less than the benchmark CPC
• Quality Score of 7: You pay roughly the benchmark CPC
• Quality Score of 5: You pay about 25% more than the benchmark
• Quality Score of 3: You pay about 67% more than the benchmark
• Quality Score of 1: You pay up to 400% more than the benchmark

Think about that. Two businesses bidding on the same keyword in Singapore, but one pays 4x more per click because their Quality Score is terrible. Over months of advertising, that difference runs into tens of thousands of dollars. We have seen Singapore businesses waste $3,000 to $5,000 per month purely because of low Quality Scores, money that could have generated 2 to 3 times more leads with proper optimisation.

How Do You Improve Expected Click-Through Rate?

Expected CTR is influenced by your ad copy’s ability to attract clicks from searchers. Here is how to improve it based on what we have tested across thousands of ad variations:

• Include the keyword in your headline. When searchers see their exact query reflected in your ad headline, they are more likely to click. Use keyword insertion or write specific headlines for your top-performing keyword groups. For a Singapore audience, include location qualifiers like “in Singapore” or “SG” where natural.
• Write compelling ad copy that differentiates. If every competitor says “quality service” and “experienced team”, you need to stand out. Use specific numbers like “$33M+ in client revenue”, unique benefits, and strong calls-to-action that give people a reason to click your ad over the others.
• Use all available ad extensions. Sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, call extensions, and location extensions make your ad larger and more informative. Larger ads occupy more screen real estate and get more clicks, directly improving your CTR.
• Test multiple ad variations. Run at least 3 responsive search ad variations per ad group and let Google identify the top performer. Small wording changes can dramatically impact CTR. Test different emotional angles, proof points, and calls-to-action.

One practical tip: look at your Search Terms report to see what people actually type before clicking your ads. Write ad copy that directly addresses those specific queries, not just the broad keywords you are targeting. The gap between what you think people search and what they actually search is often surprising.

Your bidding strategy also plays a role here. If your bids are too low, your ads may appear in lower positions where CTR is naturally lower, which drags down your Expected CTR rating over time.

How Do You Improve Ad Relevance?

Ad relevance measures how well your ad matches the searcher’s intent. Improving it requires tighter alignment between keywords, ads, and what the user is actually trying to accomplish.

• Structure your ad groups tightly. The biggest ad relevance killer is stuffing too many keywords into one ad group. If you have 50 keywords in one ad group, your ad cannot be relevant to all of them. Split keywords into tight, themed groups of 5 to 15 closely related terms. For example, “plumber Singapore” and “plumbing services Singapore” belong together, but “plumber Singapore” and “pipe installation” should be separate ad groups.
• Write ads specific to each ad group. Each ad group should have ads written specifically for the keywords in that group. Generic ads that try to cover everything end up being relevant to nothing. This takes more time to set up, but the Quality Score improvement is worth every minute.
• Match keyword intent to ad messaging. Informational keywords need educational ad copy. Commercial keywords need sales-oriented copy. Transactional keywords need urgency and clear CTAs. Do not use the same messaging for all intent types. A person searching “what is SEO” needs a different ad from someone searching “SEO agency Singapore”.
• Use responsive search ads effectively. Provide 10 to 15 unique headlines and 4 descriptions that cover different angles, benefits, and keywords. Google will mix and match them to find the most relevant combination for each search. Pin your most critical headlines to ensure they always appear.

Singapore businesses with bilingual audiences should also consider creating separate ad groups for English and Mandarin keyword variations. The ad copy that resonates with an English searcher may not resonate with a Mandarin searcher, and mixed-language ad groups almost always have lower Ad Relevance scores.

How Do You Improve Landing Page Experience?

Landing page experience is where many Singapore businesses lose the most Quality Score points. Your landing page needs to satisfy both Google’s technical requirements and the visitor’s expectations simultaneously.

• Page speed is critical. Your landing page must load in under 3 seconds on mobile. Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights to test and identify specific issues. Compress images, minimise JavaScript, enable browser caching, and use fast hosting with a Singapore-based or Asia-Pacific CDN edge server.
• Mobile-first design. Google evaluates your landing page primarily from a mobile perspective. If it is not fully responsive and easy to use on a phone, your Quality Score suffers. Over 70% of Google searches in Singapore happen on mobile, so this is not a nice-to-have. It is essential.
• Content relevance. The landing page content must directly relate to the keyword and ad. If your ad promotes “SEO services Singapore”, the landing page should be about SEO services, not a generic homepage. Create dedicated landing pages for your highest-spend keyword groups.
• Clear and trustworthy. Include your business name, contact information, privacy policy, and transparent pricing or service descriptions. Google rewards pages that build trust. For Singapore businesses, including your UEN, office address, and client testimonials adds credibility signals.
• Easy navigation. Visitors should be able to find what they need immediately. A clear headline, logical content structure, and prominent call-to-action are essential. Do not bury your phone number or contact form below three screens of scrolling.

Improving landing page experience has a double benefit: it raises your Quality Score and it increases your conversion rate. You pay less per click and get more conversions from those clicks. That is a compounding improvement that transforms campaign profitability.

Common Quality Score Mistakes Singapore Advertisers Make

After auditing hundreds of Google Ads accounts for Singapore businesses, these are the mistakes we see most frequently:

• Using one ad group for everything. Cramming dozens of loosely related keywords into a single ad group makes it impossible to write relevant ads for all of them. This is the number one Quality Score killer and the easiest to fix.
• Sending all traffic to the homepage. Your homepage is designed to serve many purposes. It cannot be specifically relevant to every keyword you target. Create dedicated landing pages for your top keyword groups, even simple ones, and watch your Quality Scores climb.
• Ignoring mobile page speed. Testing your landing page speed on your office Wi-Fi does not reflect how it loads on a customer’s mobile device. Test on actual mobile devices and on 4G connections. What loads in 1 second on fibre might take 5 seconds on mobile data.
• Never testing ad copy. Running the same ad copy for months means your CTR gradually declines as the same audience sees the same message repeatedly. Fresh ad copy revives CTR and improves your Expected CTR component.
• Setting it and forgetting it. Quality Score is not a one-time optimisation. It requires ongoing monitoring and adjustment. Your competitors are constantly improving their ads and landing pages. Standing still means falling behind.

If you want a professional audit of your Quality Scores and a plan to improve them, book a free strategy session with our team. We will identify exactly where your account is losing money and show you how to fix it.

A Step-by-Step Plan to Improve Your Quality Score This Month

Here is the exact process we follow when optimising Quality Score for our clients. You can start implementing this today:

• Week 1: Audit. Export your keyword report with Quality Score columns. Sort by impressions (highest first) and identify every keyword with a Quality Score below 6. These are your priority targets because they get the most traffic and therefore the most wasted spend.
• Week 2: Restructure. Break oversized ad groups into tightly themed groups of 5 to 15 keywords. Create new responsive search ads for each group with headlines that include the core keyword naturally. Ensure each ad group has at least 3 ad variations.
• Week 3: Landing pages. Create or optimise dedicated landing pages for your top 5 keyword groups. Ensure each page loads in under 3 seconds, is fully mobile-responsive, and directly addresses the searcher’s intent with relevant content above the fold.
• Week 4: Monitor and refine. Check your Quality Score changes. Focus on any keywords still rated “Below Average” in any component and address the specific issue. Test new ad copy variations and continue refining landing page content.

Most of our clients see Quality Score improvements within 2 to 4 weeks of implementing these changes. The cost savings follow immediately because Google begins rewarding you with lower CPCs and better ad positions as soon as your Quality Score improves.

Pair this Quality Score improvement plan with the right bidding strategy and you will see a dramatic improvement in your Google Ads ROI within a single quarter.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a good Quality Score in Google Ads?

A Quality Score of 7 or above is considered good. Scores of 8 to 10 are excellent and will significantly reduce your cost per click. Scores of 5 to 6 are average and leave room for improvement. Anything below 5 is costing you significantly more per click and should be addressed urgently as a priority.

Can Quality Score affect whether my ads show at all?

Yes. If your Quality Score is very low, your Ad Rank may fall below Google’s minimum threshold for showing ads. This means your ad will not appear at all for certain searches, regardless of how high your bid is. Improving Quality Score can increase your impression share and ensure your ads are eligible to show for the keywords you are targeting.

How often does Quality Score update?

Quality Score is recalculated each time your keyword matches a search query. However, the visible Quality Score in your account updates periodically, not in real time. Improvements to CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience may take days or weeks to reflect in your reported Quality Score. Be patient and keep optimising.

Does Quality Score apply to all campaign types?

Quality Score as a visible metric applies primarily to Search campaigns at the keyword level. Display, Video, and Shopping campaigns use different quality and relevance signals. However, the principles behind Quality Score, namely relevance, user experience, and expected engagement, apply across all campaign types and should guide your optimisation efforts everywhere.

Can I see Quality Score for individual keywords?

Yes. In your Google Ads account, navigate to the Keywords tab and add the Quality Score columns (Quality Score, Expected CTR, Ad Relevance, and Landing Page Experience) to your report view. This gives you keyword-level detail on where each keyword stands and which component needs improvement.