Glossary
What is ad quality in Google Ads?
Melvin Salas1 min readVerified 15 October 2026
Short answer
Ad quality is Google's estimate of the experience that users have when they see your search ads and once they reach your landing page. Google summarises its assessment in your Quality Score, and notes that ad quality varies with the context of every search.
Google lists what ad quality can affect: whether your ad can show, where on the search results page it appears, whether assets show, how much you pay per click and how your ads perform. On cost, it says higher quality ads typically cost less per click than lower quality ads, and that when your ads do show you'll never be charged more than your maximum CPC for a click (unless you use automated bidding).
It also lists what does not impact it: the amount you bid, moving an ad group with the same ads and keywords to another campaign or account, how often your ads show, and the conversions you report.
The reported score is not what the auction reads. Google says the Quality Score diagnostic scores are not inputs in the ad auction. Its best practices guide adds that the real-time evaluations of the three components are used in the Google Ads ad auction, while your Quality Score itself is not. Our reading: work on the component that reads Below average, and treat the 1 to 10 number as a gauge rather than a goal.
Reading these columns is daily work for us
Riibon watches every campaign daily and holds a baseline for each metric, so a move in impression share or Quality Score is judged against what is normal for that account, not against a rule of thumb, before anyone acts on it.
Ask the Riibon app whether your campaigns are losing to budget or to rank. Access starts with a short call: we look at your ads together, then run them for you or set the app up with you.