How To Raise Google Ads Quality Score & Lower Your Costs

Quality Score is critical for a successful Google Ads campaign.

Unfortunately, many marketers don’t fully understand the concept of Quality Score or how to improve it.

While a simple metric like Quality Score may seem irrelevant, it is an incredibly important indicator of success that can go a long way in improving your Google Ads campaigns.

The way Google measures the relevance of your ads is what we call the Quality Score. This metric is far from new and concerns only a small part of your PPC campaign, but it is a crucial element that all Google Ads advertisers should understand and know.

What Is The Google Ads Quality Score And Why Is It Important?

What Is The Google Ads Quality Score And Why Is It Important

Quality Score is an estimate of the quality of your ads, keywords and landing page. Higher quality ads can lead to lower prices and better ad positions. Rated on a scale of 1 to 10 for each keyword in the account, the quality score gives an overall idea of ​​the quality of your Google ads.

If the score is between:

But how does Quality Score affect campaign performance?

Optimizing your quality score will give you many advantages such as:

How Is Google Ads Quality Score Calculated?

How Is Google Ads Quality Score Calculated

The AdWords Quality Score formula is quite complex and not all the factors that influence it have been disclosed. However, the main elements that determine it are:

The other elements that determine the quality score are:

These elements are recalculated each time the keyword matches the search for a user and after its calculation, the AdWords Discounter reduces the CPC paid by the advertiser to the minimum quota necessary to maintain the same positioning above the next lower advertiser.

How To Improve The Google Ads Quality Score?

At Keyword Level –

Keyword Optimization

1. Choose relevant and targeted keywords

The keywords selected should match those typed by your target audience and be consistent with your business, the theme of your ad group, and the content of your landing page. A good study of your targets is therefore essential.

In addition, favor targeted and long-tail keywords (containing two or three more precise words) which obtain a higher click rate than generic keywords (composed of a single word) which in turn generates a lot of impressions but a low CTR.

2. Define the keywords to exclude

It is essential to define the keywords on which you do not want your ads to appear. By excluding certain keywords, it will be more likely that you’ll see your ads appear on the right queries and thus your clickthrough rate will be better.

3. Insert keywords in your ads

You must place your keywords, both in the title and in the description, so that users find their search terms in the text of your ad.

At Ad And Campaign Level –

Ad Campaign Optimization

4. Improve the targeting of your ads

Showing your ads only in the geographic places (country, region or city) where your target audience is located allows you to focus on the right audience and thus boost your CTR.

5. Add ad extensions

Ad extensions will be very useful for improving your quality score, for two important reasons:

6. Test multiple ads

Performing A/B tests by first creating two different advertisements (or as recommended by Google) will allow you to see which one obtains the best CTR. It’s all a matter of regularly monitoring the performance of your ads.

7. Increase your bids

Raising your keyword bids allows your ads to be better positioned. So, by being more visible your Google ads get more clicks.

8. Create segmented ad groups

The goal is to create very precise ad groups focused on a single product or service so that they contain similar keywords.

Thanks to very specialized ad groups, you will be able to create consistency between your keywords, your ad and your landing page.

9. Write an attractive ad copy

Adding your competitive advantages (“Free delivery and return”, “150 brands”, “more than 30,000 models” “20% reduction until xx/xx”) in the ad copy will make your ads attractive to Internet users.

To encourage your targets to click on your ad, you can also entice them with an effective call to action, using action verbs such as “Order now”, “Get a quote”, “Try for free”, etc.

At The Landing Page Level –

Landing Page Optimization

10. Propose a relevant, original and useful landing page

After clicking on your ad, users land on a landing page that must be relevant and consistent with your ad and your keywords.

Providing interesting, useful and original content also increases the relevance of the landing page.

Thus, it is common to see companies creating specific landing pages and optimized for Adwords campaigns in order to improve the quality score and conversion rate.

11. Encourage the transparency and reliability of your site

It is important to be transparent with Internet users by having an “About” page presenting your company, a “Contact” page with your contact details, and a “Privacy policy” page indicating how you treat visitor data.

In addition, on your landing page it is necessary to present your offer and its benefits before asking Internet users to fill out your form. Do not forget to indicate the reason for the request for personal information and the use you intend to make of it.

12. Optimize the loading time of your landing page

The quality of your landing page also depends on its speed of loading both on desktop and mobile device.

If your page takes a long time to load, it’s a safe bet that the Internet users who clicked on your ad leave your site as quickly as they arrived.

On the contrary, a reduced loading rate leads to a low bounce rate; which will improve the quality of the ad and also the conversion rate.

13. Facilitate easy navigation on desktop and mobile

In order to provide good user experience, it is essential that – the organization and structure of your page are clear, the navigation is smooth, important content is above the fold, the conversion is done quickly & easily, the landing page is optimized for mobile and pop-ups or banners do not disturb users during their visit.

14. Test multiple landing pages

It is essential to perform an A/B testing of landing pages in order to see which landing page performs the best. A/B testing will let you compare multiple landing pages and see which one has the best CTR, conversion rate and bounce rate.

At Account Level –

Create a brand campaign

15. Create a brand campaign

If you study closely the criteria that Google uses to calculate your quality score, you’ll see that Google relies, among other things, on your account history. In other words, if you have campaigns with poor click-through rates, this will have a negative impact on all of your campaigns.

This is the reason why we’ll advise you to create a campaign in your brand name, with keywords referring to the name of your company or brand only.

These campaigns are interesting because they record a very high CTR, which will have a positive influence on your entire account.

Final Thoughts

Even though it takes a lot of trial & error and time, enhancing your Quality Score is well worth it.

A good Google Ads quality score can result in better conversion rates, lower CPCs and better ROI. If you have a bad-quality score, your ad will not run or you will have to spend more for it to run.

With a high-quality score, you are more likely to appear on the top of the results and even benefit from CPC at a reduced price.

Vaibhav Lall

With more than 12 years of experience in digital marketing and consulting, Vaibhav is passionate about helping businesses grow through the strategic use of digital marketing best practices. When he's not busy advising startups, Vaibhav takes delight in listening to Jazz or John Mayer and Coldplay songs. He is also an avid proponent of the practice of mindfulness and starts his day with a calming meditation session. In his free time, Vaibhav can be found in quite corner, reading a Simon Sinek or Ben Horowitz book.