by Jelica Domanovic 

TL;DR 

Quality Score is Google’s diagnostic measure of ad quality and relevance — and it directly influences how much you pay per click and where your ads appear. Two businesses bidding on the same keyword can pay vastly different amounts depending on their Quality Score. Frequently confused with Ad Strength and Optimization Score, Quality Score actually measures formatting compliance and recommendation adoption rather than real auction performance. Improving Quality Score comes down to three factors: ad relevance, landing page experience, and expected click-through rate. For pet care businesses, tightly structured campaigns, strong landing pages, and differentiated messaging consistently outperform higher bids with weaker quality signals. 

A pet care business launches a Google Ads Search campaign for dog boarding. The search volume is there. The demand is there. But costs keep climbing. 

Meanwhile, a competitor across town appears above them in search results almost every time — despite spending less. 

In the words of Timon from “The Lion King”: “What’s goin’ on here?!!!” 

Most business owners assume Google Search Ads is a bidding war: whoever spends the most wins the top spot.  

That’s not really how Google works.  

Google Ads runs on a system called Ad Rank, and Ad Rank is influenced by two things — how much you bid, and how good Google believes your ads are. That second piece is where Quality Score enters the conversation. 

For businesses running Google Ads in competitive local markets like pet care, understanding Quality Score can materially impact cost per click, visibility, lead quality, and overall campaign efficiency. The challenge is that it’s also one of the platform’s most misunderstood metrics. 

The Auction Isn’t Just About Money 

Google has a strong financial incentive to reward advertisers for creating good search experiences.  

Let’s say someone searches “overnight dog boarding with webcams,” and Google serves an ad for a generic kennel that says nothing about webcams. The user clicks, doesn’t find what they need, and returns to their search frustrated. That’s bad for the user, bad for the advertiser, and bad for Google — whose business depends on users continuing to trust search results.  

Quality Score exists to reduce that mismatch. 

Why Quality Score Matters Financially 

This is where the economics become important — and where many pet care businesses are leaving money on the table without realizing it. 

Consider two dog boarding facilities in the same city, bidding on the same keyword: 

• Facility A bids $8 per click with a Quality Score of 9 
• Facility B bids $14 per click with a Quality Score of 4 

Despite bidding less, Facility A may still appear higher in search results — while paying significantly less per click. Facility B, meanwhile, is paying a premium for a worse position. 

Same market. Same keyword. Wildly different economics. 

That’s why Quality Score matters. Google rewards advertisers that create relevant ads, strong user experiences, and higher click-through behavior. The better your Quality Score, the more efficient your campaigns become over time. 

Understanding the Metrics — and Avoiding Common Confusion 

One reason Quality Score becomes so confusing is that Google displays several different scores inside the platform. And not all are equally meaningful. 

• Quality Score is the one that matters most. It’s a 1–10 diagnostic rating assigned at the keyword level, reflecting how Google evaluates your ad quality based on relevance, expected click-through rate, and landing page experience. Importantly, the visible 1–10 score is not the literal score used in every auction. Google recalculates ad quality dynamically in real time for every search. The 1–10 score is best understood as a diagnostic proxy: a directional indicator that helps advertisers monitor performance quality over time. 
• Ad Strength is different. This is Google’s pre-launch rating for Responsive Search Ads, evaluating things like headline quantity, description variety, and use of Google’s recommended formatting. It does not measure actual auction performance. A dog training business could receive an “Excellent” Ad Strength score simply because they used 15 headlines and 4 descriptions — but if those headlines are generic (“Dog Training Services,” “Local Experts,” “Call Today”), the keyword Quality Score will still be low because real searchers aren’t clicking. Ad Strength rewards quantity. Quality Score rewards results. 
• Optimization Score may be the most misunderstood metric in the entire platform. It measures how closely your account aligns with Google’s recommendations — which sounds useful, but many of those recommendations are designed to encourage broader automation and increased spend. Google might recommend that a daycare account expand its reach by switching all keywords to broad match. Accepting that recommendation could boost your Optimization Score to 100% while simultaneously matching ads to searches like “daycare for toddlers” or “dog walker hiring.” High score, dead budget. A business could theoretically achieve a perfect Optimization Score while significantly and simultaneously decreasing lead quality. 

The Three Pillars of Quality Score 

Quality Score is primarily influenced by three core components. 

Ad Relevance — The Match Factor 

This measures how closely your ad matches the user’s search intent. One of the most common mistakes businesses make is grouping too many unrelated services into the same campaign or ad group.  

Don’t put “dog boarding,” “dog daycare,” “puppy training,” and “dog grooming” into a single campaign or, even worse, one ad group called “Dog Services.” Each of those searchers wants something different, and a single set of ad copy can’t serve all of them well. 

The fix is tightly themed campaigns/ad groups: 

• Boarding keywords with boarding-specific headlines “Overnight Dog Boarding in [City]” 
• Daycare keywords with daycare-specific copy “Doggy Daycare — Open 6am to 7pm” 
• Training keywords with training-specific messaging “Puppy Training Classes Starting Weekly” 

Same client, separate campaigns or ad groups, separate Quality Scores — all of them higher than one bloated group could ever achieve. 

Landing Page Experience — The User Factor 

Google evaluates what happens after the click. Let’s say someone clicks an ad for “board-and-train programs” and lands on a homepage that discusses boarding, daycare, training, and grooming all at once. Now they have to hunt for the information they came for. A pet parent shouldn’t have to scroll past your grooming menu to find out how long their dog will be staying with you. 

Strong landing pages share a few non-negotiables: 

• Fast-loading — ideally under 2.5 seconds 
• Mobile-friendly and easy to navigate 
• Tightly aligned with the original search intent 
• Clear Call to Action (CTA) visible without excessive scrolling 

The solution? Send board-and-train traffic to a dedicated page that opens with program length, price range, what’s included, and a booking CTA.  

An important note: Google also pays attention to dwell time — how long users stay before bouncing back to search. Over time, that behavior feeds back into Quality Scores. 

Expected CTR — The Competition Factor 

Expected click-through rate measures how likely Google believes users are to click your ad compared to competitors in similar auctions.  

If every daycare facility in a market runs ads that announce, “Trusted Doggy Daycare” and “Loving Care for Your Pup,” they blur together. But a competitor that mentions live webcams, outdoor play yards, certified staff, or a “First Day Free” offer stands out — and gets clicked more. 

This is where competitive research matters. Two tools worth using regularly: 

• Auction Insights — shows how often competitors appear alongside your ads and at what position 
• Google Ads Transparency Center — reveals what messaging competitors are actually running 

The bottom line? “Watch Your Dog All Day via Live Webcam” will get clicked more than “Trusted Doggy Daycare” every single time. 

Advanced Insights and Expert Strategies 

Understanding the basics gets you in the game. These are the insights that change how you play it. 

The Quality Flywheel 

One of the less discussed aspects of Quality Score is how strong performance compounds over time. Higher-quality ads become eligible for more ad assets — sitelinks, images, callouts, structured snippets. When those assets appear, ads occupy significantly more space on the page and typically generate higher click-through rates. 

Consider a boarding facility with strong Quality Scores that starts qualifying for image assets. Google pulls in photos of their play yard and sleeping suites. Sitelinks now show “Tour the Facility,” “Boarding Rates,” “Book a Meet & Greet,” and “Vaccination Requirements” below the main ad. That ad now takes up three times the real estate of a competitor running a basic text ad. CTR jumps. Expected CTR rises. CPC drops. The flywheel keeps turning — and it becomes increasingly difficult for lower-quality competitors to displace them. 

The Rule of 5 

One of the biggest misconceptions about Quality Score is that every keyword needs to reach a 10. In practice, there are significant diminishing returns past a certain threshold. Moving a keyword from a 3 to a 5 often produces a dramatic improvement in cost-per-click — sometimes cutting it in half. Moving from a 7 to a 9 matters far less. 

In our experience, once keywords consistently reach five or six — and stay there — it’s often more productive to focus on actual click-through rate, conversion quality, and booking performance rather than chasing perfect diagnostic scores.  

If “puppy training [city]” is sitting at a 3, that’s a fire that needs to be fixed immediately, if not sooner.  

If “dog boarding [city]” is at a 7, don’t lose sleep trying to push it to 9. Spend that energy on the keyword stuck at 4. 

Match Type and Quality Score 

Google states that match type doesn’t directly affect Quality Score. In practice, however, keywords in tightly-themed ad groups with specific search intent tend to score higher. Why? Because you can write much more specific and relevant ad copy for them.  

An exact match keyword for “overnight dog boarding” can have an ad written specifically around overnight stays, pricing per night, and pickup hours. A broad match keyword for “dog services” matches hundreds of unrelated searches and forces the ad copy to remain vague, which causes relevance to tank. This is one of the practical reasons campaign structure tends to produce better Quality Score over time. 

Don’t Overreact to a Dash 

If a keyword shows a dash instead of a score, it simply means Google doesn’t yet have enough data to calculate one. A newly launched “board-and-train” service keyword might show a dash for the first few weeks. Don’t panic. Don’t pause it. Let it gather data. 

The Conversion Lag Trap 

This is especially relevant in pet care. Boarding and training purchases often involve research windows before conversion occurs — someone searching in May for “summer dog boarding” may not book until June. That creates delayed conversion reporting. If you evaluate campaign performance too quickly, it can look artificially weak because costs register immediately while conversions arrive later. Before making drastic optimization decisions, always factor in conversion lag, attribution windows, and typical booking timelines. 

What Quality Score Does Not Do 

Quality Score influences CPC efficiency, positioning, and auction competitiveness. But it does not directly determine conversion rate, lead quality, or revenue performance. A high score on a weak offer will still struggle to generate bookings. 

It’s also worth noting that Quality Score exists at the keyword level, not the account level. A pet resort might have a 9 for “doggy daycare” and a 3 for “dog boarding.” Those scores operate independently — which means there’s almost always something worth improving, and almost always a place to start. 

When to Actually Check Quality Score 

For most advertisers, monthly review is sufficient. Sort keywords by spend, then Quality Score. Any keyword spending meaningful budget while sitting at a 5 or below deserves investigation. 

Beyond monthly review, a closer look is warranted when: 

• CPCs spike unexpectedly 
• Landing pages change or are redesigned 
• Mobile performance declines 
• New services launch 
• A campaign has been running for 30+ days with no score on key keywords 

These are the moments when quality signals shift — and catching them early prevents compounding inefficiency. 

It All Comes Back to Relevance  

Quality Score matters because Google rewards relevance. But relevance isn’t created through shortcuts, automation scores, or chasing perfect diagnostics. It comes from aligning search intent, ad messaging, landing page experience, and user expectations — consistently, across every campaign. 

Businesses that understand that relationship typically pay less, rank better, and generate stronger engagement over time. Not because Google “likes” them more. Because they create better experiences for the people actually searching. 

Not Sure Whether Quality Score Is Holding Your Campaigns Back? 

Low Quality Scores, weak landing pages, and mismatched search intent can quietly erode campaign performance — driving up costs and reducing visibility without an obvious explanation. 

IMPACT can help you evaluate campaign structure, conversion performance, and ad relevance to identify where efficiency and booked revenue may be slipping. Let’s talk. 

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FAQ 

What is Quality Score in Google Ads?  

Quality Score is a 1–10 diagnostic rating Google assigns to keywords based on ad relevance, expected click-through rate, and landing page experience. It helps determine Ad Rank, which influences ad position and cost-per-click. 

Does Quality Score actually matter?  

Yes — significantly. A higher Quality Score of keywords can improve ad position while lowering cost-per-click, meaning businesses with better Quality Scores in their Google Ads campaigns often pay less than competitors bidding more. 

Is Quality Score the same as Ad Strength?  

No. Ad Strength measures how closely ads follow Google’s formatting recommendations before they run. Quality Score reflects actual auction performance and real user engagement signals. A high Ad Strength score does not guarantee a high Quality Score. 

What is considered a good Quality Score?  

Scores above 5–6 are generally considered healthy. Improving low scores typically matters more than pushing already strong scores toward 10 — the performance gains from a 3 to a 5 are usually far greater than from a 7 to a 9. 

Why does Google care about Quality Score?  

Google’s business depends on users trusting search results. Relevant ads help users find what they need faster, which keeps people using Google and keeps advertisers getting value from their spend. Quality Score is the mechanism that aligns those incentives. 

Why does my keyword show a dash instead of a Quality Score?  

It means Google doesn’t yet have enough performance data to calculate a score. This is common with newly launched keywords or low-volume terms. Don’t pause the keyword — let it gather data. 

Does match type affect Quality Score?  

According to Google, not directly. But in practice, tightly-themed ad groups with exact or phrase match types tend to produce higher scores because they allow for more relevant, targeted ad copy. Broad match keywords that serve a wide range of searches often struggle to maintain strong relevance signals.