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Quality Score

quality indicator · QS · ad quality

Quality Score - an assessment of the relevance of an ad from 1 to 10 in Google Ads and an analogue in Direct. Affects the price per click in the auction.

Quality Score (QS) is an internal rating of Google Ads that reflects the relevance of the ad, keyword and landing page to the user's request. Scale 1-10, with 10 being the maximum. In Yandex Direct, a similar metric is called “CTR forecast” and “relevance score,” although Yandex does not show a single number.

The CPC formula in the Google Ads auction is: Ad Rank = Max CPC × Quality Score. This means that an ad with QS = 8 and a bid of 50 ₽ beats a competitor with QS = 4 and a bid of 80 ₽. In projects I raised QS from 4 to 7 by dividing ad groups - and CPL fell by 35% without increasing the budget.

QS consists of three components: expected CTR, ad relevance (keyword and text matching), landing page quality (loading speed, content relevance, absence of redirects). The fastest lever is CTR, it is raised through the precise placement of the keyword in the ad title and a strong call to action.

What's annoying about QS: Google updates it slowly, with a delay of up to several days. Therefore, you should not make QS-based optimization decisions in the first 48 hours after the changes. Look at the real CPL, QS is just an auxiliary indicator.

Frequently asked questions about Quality Score

What is Quality Score?+
Quality Score is a relevance score from 1 to 10 in Google Ads, which reflects the relevance of the ad, keyword and landing page to the query. In Yandex Direct, the analogue is the CTR forecast and relevance assessment, although Yandex does not show a single number.
How does Quality Score affect the cost per click?+
Directly. Position in the auction is calculated as bid × Quality Score, so a high QS works like a discount: you can pay less than your competitor and stand higher. Increasing QS from 4 to 8 often reduces the effective cost per click by 30–40%.
How to increase Quality Score?+
Three levers: raise the expected CTR by placing the key in the title, increase the relevance of the ad text to the keyword and improve landing, that is, loading speed and compliance of the content with the request. The fastest lever is CTR.
Why doesn't Quality Score change immediately?+
Google recalculates it with a delay of up to several days. Therefore, you should not draw conclusions about QS optimization in the first 48 hours after the edits. Focus on real CPL, and consider QS as an auxiliary indicator.

Related terms

CPCBidAuctionPPCNegative words

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