# Google Ads Quality Score explained for service businesses > What Google Ads Quality Score is, its three components, how it affects what you pay per click, and practical ways a service business can improve it. URL: https://leadwisemarketing.com/blog/google-ads-quality-score/ Publisher: LeadWise Marketing (Cape Town, South Africa; serving the United States and Europe) Published: 2026-06-20 · Updated: 2026-09-24 · Reading time: 6 min ## The short version - Quality Score is a 1 to 10 rating Google gives each keyword, based on expected click-through rate, ad relevance and landing page experience. - It is a diagnostic tool. It is not used directly in the auction, but the factors behind it affect your ad rank and what you pay. - Improve it by grouping keywords by service, writing ads that match those searches, and sending people to a matching landing page. - Do not chase a high score on keywords that do not produce leads. Two plumbers bid on "blocked drain repair" in the same city. One regularly pays much more per click than the other and still shows lower on the page. Budget is part of the story. Relevance is another part, and Quality Score is how Google shows you where you stand. ## What Quality Score is Google describes [Quality Score](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6167118?hl=en) as a diagnostic tool that shows how your ad quality compares with other advertisers. It is reported per keyword on a scale of 1 to 10, and has three components: 1. **Expected click-through rate.** How likely your ad is to be clicked when shown for that keyword. 2. **Ad relevance.** How closely the ad matches the intent of the search. 3. **Landing page experience.** How relevant and useful the landing page is to people who click. Each is rated below average, average, or above average compared with other advertisers. ## Why it matters Google says the score itself is not an input in the ad auction. But the same factors feed into [Ad Rank](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/1722122?hl=en), which decides whether your ad shows, where it shows, and what you pay. In practice, relevant ads with good landing pages tend to cost less per click. ## How to improve each component **Expected click-through rate** - Put the service and location in the headline - Use ad assets such as call, sitelink and callout assets - Add proof: ratings, years in business, guarantees - Remove keywords that trigger your ad for unrelated searches, using [negative keywords](https://leadwisemarketing.com/blog/negative-keywords-service-business/) **Ad relevance** - Group keywords tightly by service, so each ad group has one clear theme - Write ads that speak to that theme, not general "we do everything" ads - Separate emergency searches from planned-work searches **Landing page experience** - Send each ad group to a page about that service - Make the page fast and easy to use on mobile - Confirm what the ad promised in the headline - Check it against the [landing page checklist](https://leadwisemarketing.com/blog/service-business-landing-page-checklist/) **Illustrative example:** These numbers are invented to show the idea. A roofing account has one ad group with 40 keywords, from "roof leak repair" to "metal roof installation", and one ad pointing to the homepage. Quality Scores average 4. Splitting into five service ad groups, each with its own ad and landing page, lifts average Quality Score to 7 over two months, and the average cost per click falls. ## When not to chase it - **Low-volume keywords** with few impressions can show unstable scores. - **Branded competitor keywords** will often have low scores. That can be fine if they produce leads at a good cost. - **A high score is not the goal.** A keyword with a score of 5 that produces jobs cheaply is better than a 9 that produces none. Judge keywords on cost per booked job first. Use Quality Score to find out why some are more expensive than they should be. ## Where to start Add the Quality Score columns to your keywords report and sort by spend. Look at the three component ratings for your top ten keywords and fix whichever is "below average". For structure, see [Google Ads for service businesses](https://leadwisemarketing.com/blog/google-ads-for-service-businesses/). We review Quality Score as part of our [Google Ads management](https://leadwisemarketing.com/services/google-ads/). [Request a free audit](https://leadwisemarketing.com/contact/) for a look at yours. ## Questions owners ask ### What is a good Quality Score? Scores of 7 and above are generally considered good. For most service businesses, getting important keywords from below average to average on each component is where the value is. ### Does Quality Score affect cost per click? Not directly, as Google says it is not used in the auction. The factors behind it do affect Ad Rank and so what you pay. ### Why is my Quality Score showing a dash? A dash appears when a keyword does not have enough impressions or clicks for Google to calculate a score. ### How is Quality Score calculated? Google rates three components for each keyword as above average, average or below average: expected click-through rate, ad relevance and landing page experience. Together they produce a score from 1 to 10. Google describes it as a diagnostic tool, not a direct input into the ad auction. ## Sources - [About Quality Score (Google Ads Help)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6167118?hl=en) - [About Ad Rank (Google Ads Help)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/1722122?hl=en)