What Is Quality Score?

Quality Score: Quality Score is Google's 1-to-10 rating of how relevant an ad, its keywords, and its landing page are to a search, and it directly affects both ad rank and cost per click.

In Plain Terms

Quality Score is Google's rating, on a scale of 1 to 10, of how relevant a keyword, its ad, and the landing page it points to are to each other and to the person searching. It's calculated from three main factors: expected click-through rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience.

A higher Quality Score generally means a lower cost per click and better ad placement for the same bid, because Google rewards ads it believes will genuinely satisfy the person searching. A low score means paying more for worse placement, even with an identical bid to a competitor with a higher score.

The most common mistake that tanks Quality Score is sending ad traffic to a generic page — like a homepage — instead of a landing page that matches exactly what the ad promised. Google can tell when an ad and its destination don't line up.

Example

An industrial equipment distributor was running an ad for "hydraulic pump repair" that sent every click to its general homepage. Quality Score sat low, and cost per click stayed high. Building a dedicated landing page specifically about hydraulic pump repair — matching the ad's exact promise — raised the Quality Score and lowered cost per click on the same keyword within weeks.

Why It Matters for Manufacturers

Quality Score directly affects how far an ad budget goes. Two competitors bidding the same amount on the same keyword can end up paying very different amounts per click, purely based on how relevant their ad and landing page are — a fixable problem, not a fixed cost of competing.

How MFG Web Design Handles Quality Score

Campaigns under Industrial PPC Management are built with matching ad copy and dedicated landing pages from the start, specifically to keep Quality Score — and cost per click — under control.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where can I check my Quality Score?

Inside the Google Ads dashboard, at the keyword level — it's not shown by default and needs to be added as a column in the keyword view. Google shows the current score along with the three component ratings that make it up.

Does a low Quality Score mean an ad won't show at all?

Not necessarily, but it makes showing up much more expensive. A low score can be offset with a higher bid, but that's a costlier way to compete than simply improving relevance between the ad, keyword, and landing page.