7 Ways to Improve Your Google Ads Quality Score

If you didn’t know this already then you should know that Google Ads can call out your rating quality score. Google uses a tool for finding how the ads can affect the overall user experience when they are measured against certain keywords. 

When digital marketers use quality scores, they can find which parts of their marketing campaign must be improved and hence how can the Google Ad Quality Score be improved. In addition, it also gives a better sense of how well an ad quality can be compared to other advertisers. 

A higher quality score means that an ad and a landing page are much more relevant and useful to search queries. There are useful methods by which the Google Ad quality score can be improved. In this blog, we will see 7 ways to improve the Google Ad quality score. 

If you are into digital marketing or the owner of a business and wish to learn more about improving your ad experience then keep reading to know more. Let us first begin with what is quality score and how is it calculated.

What is Google Ad Quality Score?

Quality score is essentially a diagnostic tool that is meant to give you a better sense of how an ad’s quality compares to other advertisers. This is a score that can be measured on a scale from 1-10 and is also available at the keyword level. 

A better quality score means that an ad and landing page are relevant and useful to someone who may be looking for a keyword as compared to other advertisers. The quality score diagnostic can be used for identifying where it can be beneficial to improve the ads, landing pages, and keyword selection.

It must be noted that the quality score is a key performance indicator and it should not be optimized or aggregated with the data. It is also not an input in the ad auction but a diagnostic tool for identifying how ads show certain keywords affecting the overall user experience.

What is the Importance of Google Ad Quality Score? 

To begin with, it is important to understand that the Quality Score must remain different from key performance metrics. You must not optimize the Quality Score but focus on using it for identifying the areas that require optimization. There are primarily two reasons why the Google Ad Quality Score matters so much. 

1. From the perspective of Google, the Quality Score is important because it explains to Google how relevant an ad can be. In case Google does not perceive the ad as relevant, the ad might not get served. In addition, Google uses Ads to ensure that they are relevant to the people searching. This is how Google can offer the best possible experience to searchers.
2. Secondly, if we see the perspective of the advertiser then the Quality Score is important because it determines the success of an account. It is used for finding Ad Rank along with the bid. The advertiser who has the highest Ad Rank will get the highest position. 

The bid and quality scores decide the rank of the ad. Often, the advertiser’s mistake having a high budget with the best ad position and visibility. This also explains why Google Search campaigns have a lower CPC compared to the usual search campaigns while achieving a high ad rank and position as well. 

One of the best moves that you can make is to bid on your brand name. Also, the competitors often struggle to achieve better relevance than you when you bid on the brand terms.

Related Read: Maximize Your PPC Ads ROI with Google Ads Performance Planner

How To Calculate Your Quality Score?

The quality score can be calculated on the combined performance of three components. They are mentioned below. 

• Expected Clickthrough Rate (CTR) – The likelihood that an ad will be clicked when it is shown.
• Ad Relevance: The way in which an ad matches the intent behind a user search.
• Landing Page Experience: How relevant and useful is a landing page to people who click on the ads.

All components are evaluated with statuses that belong to three categories – Average, Below Average, and Above Average. The status that an ad belongs will come under comparison with other advertisers whose ads are shown for a similar keyword over the last three months.

In case the ad belongs to Average or Below Average status then it may be time to make some improvements. There are some things to keep in mind when it comes to the Google ad Quality Score. They are:

1. The Quality Score is dependent on historical importance for searches of a keyword, therefore, changing the keyword match types will not impact the Quality Score.
2. In case you notice a “-” in the column of Quality Score then it means there are not enough searches that match the keywords for determining a keyword’s Quality Score.
3. There are factors related to your ad quality that may not be recorded by the Quality Score. These factors commonly include location, time, assets, and devices used in the search.
4. The information taken from Google’s various crawlers might be used for assessing ad quality which can then be reflected in the Quality Score. 

How Can You Check Your Quality Score?

There are some simple steps for checking the Google quality score. They are mentioned below. 

1. In the Google Ads account, click on the icon of the campaign. 
2. Once you have done this, click on the Audience, Keywords, and Content drop-down in the section menu.
3. Click on Search keywords.
4. On the upper right corner of the table, click on the “Columns” icon.
5. Below the “Modify Columns for Keywords”, you can open the Quality Score section. For seeing the current Quality Score and the component status, choose the options such as Quality Score, Landing Page Exp, Exp CTR, Ad Relevance, etc.
6. You can also see past the Quality Score stats for the reporting period that you may be looking at and choose any metrics from Quality Score, Landing Page Experience (Hist.), Ad Relevance (Hist.), and Exp. CTR. (Hist.).

7 Ways For Improving Google Ads Quality Score:

Quality Score is a valuable tool for identifying ways to improve ads, keywords, and landing pages. You can think of a Quality Score as an indicator of which areas should be focused on for improving the ad quality rather than a score that should be optimized. 

In this article, we will help you discover different ways to improve the Google Ad quality score.

1. Review the Quality Score Components

For insights on where you can make improvements, you must go deeper into the three components of the Quality Score. These components are the Expected Clickthrough Rate, Ad Relevance, and Landing Page experience.

Looking into these components can be useful for seeing whether you should update the ad text, keyword selection, or landing page content. In addition, you will also be able to see the status that the ad might belong to (Above Average, Average, or Below Average) for all components to give a better sense of all areas that need improvement.

Optimize Clicks, Relevance, Page. Enhance ad, keywords, and UX. Prioritize user needs for performance. The focus must be on the long-term performance goals and the way in which they can be reached so that eventually the user experience can be improved as a diagnostic tool. 

2. Make Ads Relevant to Keywords

The ad relevance may show how relevant your ad can be to the keywords that are being targeted. If the ad relevance has a status of being Below Average or Average then you should try the best practices such as matching the language of ad text directly to user search terms. 

You can look for ad groups with different types of keywords that can be easily addressed by the same ad and even split the ad groups that match the searches made by the user. You can also try grouping the keywords into themes to increase overall relevance. 

The themes can be based on products, services, and other different categories. For instance, if you offer Software Development services then you can have a group of keywords for “Software development services”, “Software development”, etc.

3. Improve Your Clickthrough Rate (CTR)

The expected clickthrough rate shows how likely people are to click on your ad. In case the expected click-through rate does have a status of being below average or average then there are some practices that you can follow. 

You can edit your text to make an offer more compelling to a specific audience. Make sure that the details in the ad match the intent of the keywords. Go ahead and highlight the benefits of a product or a service that you are offering. 

It can also help to experiment with different call-to-action buttons that can connect closely with a landing page. Create a compelling call to action button with words such as “Buy, Sell, Browse, Find, Sign Up, Get a Quote.” Make sure that you are specific in the ad text. 

There can be times when a specific ad leads to lower CTRs but sometimes higher conversion rates. Your attempt should be to maintain a balance that leads to the best performance for all your goals. 

4. Update the Landing Page

You can bring people to a site and offer them a great experience on the website. In case the landing page has a status of average or below average then you can try to update the landing page. 

Try to give people what they may be looking for. In case someone looks up “Zoho CRM Consultation” and also clicks the ad for “Zoho CRM Consultation” the landing page must feature the benefits of this consultation.

You must keep messaging consistently from ads to landing pages. Also, make sure that the page follows through on the ad’s offer or call to action button. Even if you have no control over the site, you can still experiment to look for useful existing pages.

You can use conversion rates to ensure a good landing page experience. This does not impact the landing page status but it ensures that the landing page gets measured and optimised. Your effort should be to make a website mobile-friendly because ease of navigation is something that users value more. 

There is a Mobile Friendly Test by Google that helps in seeing the landing page working on mobile devices. You can also be focused on improving the loading speed as that decides the difference between someone buying something or just bouncing off the page.

5. Use Other Metrics

Make an effort to look at other metrics in the account such as conversion rate, site engagement, and clickthrough rate. They can be connected to the performance and also help as you keep looking for areas that must be improved.

When you see your performance, you can also use the Quality Score as a filter for understanding where your efforts must be focused. You can look through high-performing keywords and also use Quality Score to identify which ones might do better with changes to ads and landing pages. 

You can use low-quality scores and component status to find weaker trends for ad relevance, landing page experience, and a clickthrough rate that may exist on an account, and set long-term plans for improvements.

6. Write Good Ad Copy

You should have relevant ad copy that includes the best-performing keywords in an ad group in the headline, description, and URL. It is necessary that the ad does not look robotic and actually sounds compelling. 

It is best to follow the previous step and write a relevant ad copy that includes some of the best-performing keywords in the ad group. Create a tailored ad copy for all of the products to increase the ad relevance. On the better side of things, there are tools that can be useful for reaching your goals.

The ad creation builder helps in combining product information and adding static text to the combination. The advertiser uses product name, brand, and product price to build a universal ad pattern.

7. Add Ad Extensions

Even though ad extensions don’t necessarily affect the Quality Score, they have always helped in increasing the CTR. Ad extensions are an effective way of expanding an ad. They can increase the amount of space that an ad uses in search engine and gives additional information about a business. 

The CTR and expected click-through rate benefit from including many relevant ad extensions. Site links, callouts, and structured extensions are important to all businesses and must be included. Addition ad extensions are extremely relevant where they are about price, promotion, or location. 

Related Read: 8 Ways Google Ads Can Improve Your SEO Results

Embark on the Journey

The above-mentioned ways are effective for increasing the Google Ad Quality Score and also impact overall results. You can actually improve the ad experience, and landing page experience and also achieve a higher CTR that helps in seeing an increase in Ad Rank.

In case you need any more assistance in the implementation of these methods with our expert Digital Consultants who have a firm knowledge of all ways that can improve Google Ad Quality Score.