You can now breathe a sigh if relief, because Google Ads Quality Score is still available within your account.

Is it still relevant today?

Google Ads’ Quality Score is one of the most difficult metrics to measure. With all the changes Google has made to automate more, we haven’t heard about this metric in a long time (and how you can control it manually). Does that mean the metric is no longer important?

I asked the PPC community this question and found out some surprising results. Read on to discover if Google Quality Score is still relevant in 2023. First, let’s do a quick refresher.

Table of Contents

• 
  What is the Quality Score?
  
• 
  What is the Quality Score?
  
• 
  Perspective #2: Google Ads quality score does not matter
  
• 
  Perspective # 2: Google Ads quality score still matters
  
• 
  How to improve the quality score of your Google Ads
  
• 
  Does Quality Score go away?
  
• 
  Does Quality Score still matter?
  

What is Google Ads quality score?

Let’s refresh on what makes up a good Quality Score. The Quality Score is assigned only at the keyword level in standard search campaigns.

• Ad Relevance: How closely your ad matches with the search query. Google will therefore be searching for keywords in the ad text. It is often considered the “first step” in improving your quality score because you have control over your copy.
• Expected Click-Through Rate (ECTR)Google’s estimation of the likelihood that your ad is clicked based on factors such as whether or not your query matches your ad, and your previous CTR data. This is the hardest part of Quality Score for me to improve, since Google will predict your chances of getting a click. There’s nothing you can do about it.
• Landing Page Experience:how relevant and user-friendly your landing page for the searcher is. Google will grade you on things like the speed of your page load, keywords, relevance and more. This could also be easy to improve, depending on your resources. You can make changes to your site copy.

Google uses these three factors to create a score from 1-10 (1 being the worst, and 10 the best). Google is a very strict company, so I consider any score of 7 or above to be absolutely fantastic, anything between 4-6 decent, and below 4 as having room for improvement.

What is the Quality Score?

Quality score has a significant impact on your performance, as it is used by Google to determine your Ad rank. The ad ranking is equal to your Max CPC bid. If you are aggressively bidding, but your absolute top impression rate, or loss of impression share due to rank metrics is off, then I bet that the Quality Score for your keyword is at fault.

Do quality scores matter? Two perspectives

We’ll go through both schools of thought in this article.

Google Ads quality score is not important

As a Consultant, I admit that I am personally against Quality Score. Here are some reasons:

1. You can’t do anything about it

Google’s algorithmic judgement is difficult to improve or control. Google does not give much information on why our ads or page are receiving a low rating.

2. This only applies to searches

The Quality Score is only applicable for standard search campaigns. Why is only the search keyword component of an account held accountable to this KPI. Google has developed over the years and search campaigns are just a small part of a sea of media heavy campaign types such as performance max, displays, or videos.

This indicates to me that there are some information gaps when it comes judging other types of campaigns by Google’s algorithm.

3. It’s not always related to performance

I’ve seen people get upset over a poor Quality Score, even though their account was otherwise doing well and meeting their goals. Who cares about a low quality score if your account is converting at the rate you desire? You don’t want to change something to satisfy your Quality Score column and lose the stellar performance.

Here are some examples of real life accounts to back up my arguments:

Missing data

In the screenshot, you’ll notice that all of these keywords have similar metrics. Quality Score data can be missing for some keywords. This means that you have to split hairs in order to determine the difference between a six and a seven.

Inconsistent scores

These next three keywords are all similar and lead to the same landing pages, but only one is flagged as with the “low quality score” status. The others have scores that are vastly different.

Mismatch between score and performance

The score for this account is average, despite the fact that it is one of the most popular keywords.

4. I’m not alone in my dislike of Quality Scores

Aaron Babaa is the Google Ads Manager for Above All PPC. He also does not want to waste any more time staring at a seemingly arbitrary metric. In his The Quality Score is Dead! article, he makes the following two points:

Bots are not perfect

Aaron writes: “Bots are driving relevancy and the landing page experience. We are completely dependent on Google bots to determine whether our ads are relevant or if they deliver a satisfactory experience. This system is flawed. “We know this because many ads have low quality ratings but perform well and vice versa.”

Score-performance mismatches

Aaron, like me, has seen many campaigns that have received high quality scores but low ratings.

“Optimizing Quality Score is often a fruitless endeavor. We’ve seen accounts that have incredibly high CTRs, relevant ads and gorgeous, keyword-optimized pages… but poor Quality Scores. Even branded keyword, which is simply the name of a company with no other information, can show a quality score of 3.

“The system is clearly flawed.”

One last point, which may seem insignificant: Google Ads doesn’t have a column for Quality Score by default.

Perspective #2: Does matter for Google Ads quality score?

As a PPC consultant, I have learned that it is important to not take things personally. When I asked Mark Irvine, PPC expert and Director for Paid Media of SearchLab about his opinion on the subject, he was strongly pro-Quality Score. He started by saying:

“Is Quality Score dead? No, it is not.

This is why he believes that quality score still matters.

1. Its impact remains unchanged

Mark begins by noting that the Quality Score remains unchanged.

“It is still a factor that determines ad ranking and it still matters to get at the top (or even at all) of the SERP. You’ll still be hurt by a low Quality Score when compared to the competition. You’ll do better if you have a high Quality Score! The math is still valid as it was in 2013, when WordStream sang it.”

2. The meaning of the word “intent” has been redefined

Mark continues to say that, while the Quality Score hasn’t changed since 2013, all other aspects have:

It used to be easy (in 90 characters) to write a low-quality, bad ad. The Quality Score is a simple way to determine how good an ad is. It’s also a useful tool to ensure that advertisers are thinking about how to match their ads to the searcher.

Since 2013, Google tripled its ad size and introduced customizable ad extension, new formats and responsive ads, which will help with testing at scale.

The question is no longer “Does the ad match this searcher’s intention using just one keyword?” it is now “Does the ad meet the particular searcher’s intent by analyzing thousands or signals including keywords, device, operating systems, time of day and demographics?”

3. The bar has been raised for “quality”.

Mark continues, “In the past, there were many advertisers who wrote bad ads. It was not difficult to create an ad that had a great Quality Score and beat them all.” Google has made it easier for advertisers now to create good ads (or at the very least, not bad ones).

This is great for novice advertisers and searchers, but it also raises the bar on everyone else to write a great ad that has a much higher Quality Score. The Quality Score is still important, but it’s not the magic bullet that it once was.

How to improve your Quality Score

We can all agree that the best way to improve Quality Score is by implementing it.

Mark’s final point is similar to mine regarding Google’s lack specificity in what you should do to improve your quality score.

Quality Score remains important, and tactics to improve it will continue yielding incremental results. It’s exciting to see that advertisers are now more interested in PPC strategies than tactics. “Improving your quality score might improve your PPC results 10%, but improving PPC strategy could 10x those results.”

WordStream Holly Niemiec, Associate Director of Managed Services at LocaliQ, explains this concept well:

“I have always seen Quality Score more as a ‘check-engine light’ for campaigns. It can have an impact on a campaign, but it’s not the be-all and end-all. Low Quality Score Keywords can perform as well or even better than keywords with higher Quality Scores. Competitor keywords will have a lower Quality Score, but still convert well.

“I think it’s more important to make sure that your ad text and keywords are relevant, and that your landing page loads quickly than to focus on increasing your Quality Score.

Google Quality Score is going away?

Please repeat: No! Mark’s argument and mine both confirm that the math and existence of Quality Score are the same.

This post was not written in response to information Google released (indeed, Google’s absence of news on this metric for the past decade makes me wonder…but digress…), but because I know I’m not alone in wondering about the Quality Score and its future.

Is Google Ads Quality Score Still Relevant?

You now have two sides of the story to choose from. It’s up to you whether you want to focus on Quality Score. Increasing your Quality Score can help you if you are struggling to have your ads appear on the SERP. If you are comfortable with your account, you can leave your Quality Score as it is.

We saw recently at Google Marketing Live 2019 how the search advertising space is changing rapidly. There are many ways that advertisers can market their businesses on Google, beyond the standard search campaigns. Your account’s needs will determine how you use Google Quality Score. However, you can also embrace other advertising strategies like AI-powered advertisements to maximize your success.