How to Fix a Low Quality Score in Google Ads (Step by Step)

A low Quality Score on a keyword is a symptom, not the problem. This guide gives you a repeatable process to find the keywords with a low Quality Score in Google Ads, work out which of the three components is dragging each one down, and fix that cause instead of guessing. You need Google Ads access with some search campaign data, plus permission to edit keywords, ad copy, and landing pages (or a developer or client who can edit the pages for you).

Step 1: Add Quality Score columns and find the low scorers

Quality Score isn't shown by default. In the Keywords view, open the columns menu and choose Modify columns, then open the Quality Score section. Add Quality Score, plus the three component columns: Landing page experience, Ad relevance, and Expected CTR. Menu labels shift now and then, so if yours look different as of 2026, check Google Ads Help for the current path. Save the column set so you don't rebuild it for every account.

Know what you're looking at. Google describes Quality Score as a 1 to 10 estimate of ad quality, reported at the keyword level. It's a diagnostic tool. It is not the same thing as Ad Rank, and Google's documentation says the number itself isn't an input in each auction. There's no account-level score either, so don't go looking for one. Don't repeat claims about exact auction weighting, because Google doesn't publish them.

Decide which keywords deserve your time

Sort the keyword list by cost or impressions, descending. A keyword scoring 3 with 40 impressions a month isn't worth an hour of your attention. A keyword scoring 4 that eats a fifth of your budget is. Build a short list of the low scorers that actually spend.

Keep in mind that new keywords, or ones with very little traffic, may show no score at all (usually a dash). That means there isn't enough data yet, not that something is broken.

The most common mistake here is treating the 1 to 10 number as the target. The number is a summary. The useful information is in the three status ratings: Below average, Average, or Above average. Those tell you where to look, and the next step uses them.

Step 2: Diagnose which component is the problem

For each keyword on your short list, look at the three component columns and find the ones marked Below average. Here's what each one means in plain terms, based on how Google Ads Help describes them:

• Expected CTR: how likely your ad is to get clicked when shown for that keyword. Google evaluates this independent of ad position, so a low rating isn't just "my ad sits too low." Confirm that wording in Google Ads Help before you quote it to a client.
• Ad relevance: how closely your ad matches the intent behind the keyword.
• Landing page experience: how relevant and useful your landing page is to people who click the ad.

Here's an illustrative decision guide:

1. Expected CTR below average: look at the traffic the keyword attracts, the keyword's intent, and how compelling your ad is. Steps 3 and 5 cover most of this.
2. Ad relevance below average: the keyword and the ad are talking about different things. Steps 4 and 5.
3. Landing page experience below average: the page is the issue. Step 6.

Then look for patterns. If every keyword in one ad group is weak on the same component, suspect the structure of the group. If a single keyword stands out while its neighbors look fine, suspect that keyword's intent, since it may be vaguer or broader than the rest.

Write down one primary component per keyword or ad group, in a sheet or a note. Fixing one cause at a time is slower on paper and faster in practice, because you can actually tell what worked.

Step 3: Clean up the traffic with the Search Terms Report

Start with cleanup because it's quick and it makes every later measurement more reliable. Irrelevant search terms matching your keywords generate impressions without clicks, which pulls your click-through rate down. That's a likely contributor to a weak Expected CTR, though not a guaranteed cause.

A keyword is what you bid on. A search term is what someone actually typed. The two often differ, and the gap is where the junk lives.

1. Open the Search Terms Report for the campaign or ad group you're working on.
2. Sort by impressions, descending.
3. Flag search terms with high impressions and few or zero clicks, or with clearly wrong intent. For example, imagine a paid-service advertiser seeing queries containing "free," "jobs," or "DIY."
4. Add those as negative keywords, which tell Google not to show your ads for matching searches.

Choose the match type and level deliberately. A negative can live at the ad group level, the campaign level, or in a shared negative keyword list that applies across campaigns. Use the narrowest level that solves the problem. A term that's junk for one campaign might be perfectly good in another.

The pitfall is overblocking. Before excluding a term, check whether it has conversions. A search term that looks odd but converts is good traffic. Also remember that negative keywords don't match as loosely as positive ones, so add the variations you need.

If you do this often, Keywordme can speed it up. It's a Chrome extension that works inside the Search Terms Report, so you can remove junk terms and apply negative match types without exporting to a spreadsheet. You still choose what gets excluded. It doesn't change your Quality Score by itself; it just makes the cleanup faster.

Step 4: Tighten ad group structure and keyword intent

Ad relevance problems usually start here. If one ad group covers several themes, no single ad can match every keyword in it. Google gives no magic number of keywords per group, so don't chase one. Aim for keywords that are tightly related, meaning one ad and one landing page could honestly serve all of them.

Take an illustrative case: an ad group containing both "running shoes" and "trail running shoes." Those searchers want different things, and the better ad and page for each are different too. Split them into two ad groups, each with its own ads and its own landing page.

Work through the group like this:

• Move keywords that don't fit the theme into their own ad group, or into a better existing one.
• Pause keywords whose intent is vague or off-target and that you can't write a specific ad for.
• Check match types. If broad match is pulling in loosely related queries (you'll have seen this in Step 3), consider phrase or exact match for the keywords that matter most. The trade-off is reach: tighter match types show your ads for fewer searches, so watch impression volume after the change.

Be careful when restructuring. Moving keywords between ad groups can reset their history, so don't reshuffle a high-converting keyword just to tidy things up. Apply this to the keywords that are actually underperforming.

If you're building new, more focused groups, Keywordme can help assemble high-intent keyword lists from your search terms and apply match types in the same screen. Check its current documentation for how clustering works before you build a process around it.

Step 5: Rewrite ads to match the keywords

With the groups tight, the ads can be specific. In a responsive search ad, work the core theme of the ad group's keywords into the headlines and descriptions, in natural language. Forced keyword insertion that reads awkwardly may match the words but loses the click.

Match the offer and the call to action to what the searcher wants. An illustrative before and after for a keyword like "emergency plumber":

• Before: "Quality Home Services You Can Trust"
• After: "Emergency Plumber, Available Today"

The second tells the searcher immediately that you do what they typed.

Pinning, Ad strength, and assets

Pin headlines sparingly. Pinning restricts how Google can combine your assets, and over-pinning can limit performance. Use it only where you must (a legal disclaimer, say).

Ad strength is the indicator shown while you build a responsive search ad. It's a hint about variety and relevance of your assets. It is not Quality Score, and an "Excellent" rating doesn't guarantee a higher score.

Assets such as sitelinks and callouts add information and take up more space on the results page. Check Google Ads Help before telling anyone they raise CTR by a specific amount, since I haven't seen a figure you can safely quote.

Last, don't promise anything the landing page won't deliver. A headline that says "50% off" over a page with no discount might win the click, but it hurts the experience and the conversion rate. That mismatch is exactly what the next step addresses.

Step 6: Fix the landing page experience

If Landing page experience is the weak component, no ad edit will fix it. Based on Google's guidance (verify the current wording in Google Ads Help), a good landing page has:

• Relevant content that matches the ad and the keyword
• Clear, easy navigation
• Transparent information about your business, including how to contact you
• A mobile-friendly design that loads quickly

Start by checking where each ad group sends people. The homepage is rarely the best answer. Send each ad group to the most specific page that fits its theme: the trail running shoes ad group goes to the trail running shoes category, not the main shoe page.

For speed and mobile usability, use PageSpeed Insights or the reports in Google Search Console, and fix what they flag. Rely on the tool's own guidance rather than a threshold you picked up somewhere.

Then take the quick wins:

1. Put a headline on the page that echoes the promise in the ad.
2. Make the main call to action visible without scrolling.
3. Remove intrusive popups that cover content as soon as someone arrives.
4. Make sure the page actually delivers the offer the ad mentions.

Be patient after publishing changes. Landing page updates can take a while to be reflected in your ratings, because Google has to reassess the page. Don't keep changing it every day while you wait; you'll never know which edit mattered.

Step 7: Track changes and know when to stop tweaking

Keep a simple log: the date, what you changed, and which keywords or ad groups it affected. A note or spreadsheet works, and so does the account's change history. The point is being able to tie a shift in a rating to a specific edit.

After a change, wait for fresh data before re-evaluating. Google doesn't publish an exact number of days for ratings to update, so I won't invent one. A reasonable approach is to let the keyword gather meaningful impressions and clicks first, and the more volume it has, the sooner you'll see something real.

Judge your work by outcomes, not just the score. Look at:

• Click-through rate
• Conversion rate
• Cost per conversion

Quality Score is a diagnostic, not a business KPI. A keyword at 6 that converts profitably beats a 9 that doesn't, and chasing 10 out of 10 on every keyword wastes time.

Finally, know when to quit on a keyword. If it keeps a low score after you've fixed the ads, structure, and page, and it brings no conversions, it may simply be wrong for your offer. Pause it and put the budget where the intent fits.

Keep the loop running after the first round of fixes

Once fresh data has come in, recheck your Quality Score columns, repeat the diagnosis on any remaining low scorers, and fix the next component on the list. Make search term cleanup a regular habit, not a one-off project, because new junk queries show up all the time.

That cleanup is the part you'll repeat most, and it's where Keywordme earns its keep. Optimize Google Ads Campaigns 10X Faster. Without Leaving Your Account. Keywordme lets you remove junk search terms, build high-intent keyword lists, and apply match types instantly, right inside Google Ads. No spreadsheets, no switching tabs, just quick, seamless optimization. Start your free 7-day trial (then just $12/month) and take your Google Ads game to the next level.