Quality Score is Google's rating of how relevant your keyword, ad, and landing page are to a searcher's query. It is scored from 1 to 10 and directly affects how much you pay per click and where your ad appears in search results. A high Quality Score means you pay less for better positions; a low Quality Score means you pay more for worse positions. Understanding and improving Quality Score is one of the most effective ways to reduce Google Ads costs for an accounting firm.
How Quality Score affects your costs
Google's ad auction does not simply rank advertisers by bid. It multiplies your bid by your Quality Score to produce an Ad Rank. The advertiser with the highest Ad Rank wins the best position. In a simplified form: Ad Rank = Bid × Quality Score. This means a firm bidding £3 with a Quality Score of 8 can outrank a firm bidding £6 with a Quality Score of 3. The higher-Quality Score firm also pays less per click because Ad Rank determines the actual CPC; a high Quality Score compresses the cost you pay relative to your bid. In practical terms, improving Quality Score from 4 to 7 on a keyword can reduce your cost per click by 30 to 50%, making the same budget go significantly further.
The three components of Quality Score
Expected click-through rate
How likely Google predicts your ad is to be clicked when it appears for that keyword, based on your ad's historical performance relative to competitors. How to improve it: write compelling, specific ad copy that matches the keyword's intent. Include the keyword in headlines. Test ad variants and pause low-performing ones.
Ad relevance
How closely your ad copy matches the search intent of the keyword. If your keyword is "IR35 accountant London" but your ad talks about general accounting services, relevance is low. How to improve it: ensure your ad copy directly references the keyword theme. Use tightly themed ad groups so one ad can be highly relevant to all keywords in that group. Avoid mixing dissimilar keywords in one ad group.
Landing page experience
How relevant and useful Google considers your landing page to the searcher who clicked your ad. Factors include: content relevance to the keyword, page load speed, mobile usability, and transparency (clear business information). How to improve it: send ad clicks to a specific service page, not your homepage. The landing page should directly deliver what the ad promises. Ensure the page loads quickly on mobile. Include clear contact information and a prominent call to action.
How to check your Quality Score
In Google Ads, go to Keywords. Add the "Quality Score" column if it is not already visible (click the columns icon). You will see Quality Scores from 1 to 10 for each keyword. Google also provides three component scores (Expected CTR, Ad Relevance, Landing Page Experience) as Below Average, Average, or Above Average. Prioritise improving keywords with a Quality Score below 6, particularly those you are spending significant budget on.
Common Quality Score problems for accounting firms
Generic ad copy across multiple ad groups: if your ad headlines say "Professional Accounting Services" for every ad group, the ad relevance score will be low for most keywords. Write distinct ads for each service theme.
Sending all traffic to the homepage: a homepage covering all services has diluted relevance for any specific keyword. A searcher who clicks an ad for "IR35 accountant London" and lands on a page about everything your firm does will have a poor experience and a low landing page score. Build service-specific landing pages.
Slow mobile loading: Google measures landing page experience on mobile specifically. A website that loads slowly on mobile will be penalised in Quality Score. Test your landing page speed using Google's PageSpeed Insights and address any major issues.
Mismatched message between ad and landing page: if the ad promises "Free initial consultation" but the landing page has no reference to a free consultation, the message is mismatched. Everything the ad says the landing page should deliver.
Improving Quality Score systematically
- Audit your keyword list and identify keywords with Quality Scores below 6
- Check which component score is lowest (Expected CTR, Ad Relevance, or Landing Page)
- Address the lowest-scoring component first: low Expected CTR means rewriting ad headlines and including the keyword; low Ad Relevance means checking whether the keyword belongs in a more specifically themed ad group; low Landing Page means creating or improving a dedicated landing page
- Wait two to four weeks for the score to update before evaluating changes
Quality Score updates as Google accumulates data; changes to ads and landing pages take time to reflect in the score.
What Quality Score does not measure
Quality Score is a diagnostic tool, not a performance score. A Quality Score of 9 does not guarantee conversions; it only means your keyword, ad, and landing page are relevant to each other. Conversion rate depends on the quality of your offer, your landing page design, your follow-up process, and the competitiveness of your pricing. A high Quality Score with a poor landing page conversion rate still wastes money.
Key takeaways
- Quality Score (1–10) determines your cost per click and ad position; higher scores mean lower costs and better placement.
- Three components: Expected CTR (ad copy quality), Ad Relevance (keyword to ad match), and Landing Page Experience.
- The most common cause of low Quality Score for accounting firms is generic ads and sending traffic to the homepage.
- Build tightly themed ad groups with specific ads and dedicated landing pages per service to systematically improve scores.
- Quality Score improvement takes two to four weeks to reflect after changes; give the algorithm time to accumulate new data.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good Quality Score for an accounting firm's keywords?
Aim for 7 or above on your primary keywords. Scores of 8 to 10 are achievable for tightly themed ad groups with dedicated landing pages. Scores of 4 to 6 are common for loosely structured campaigns and indicate improvement opportunities. Scores of 1 to 3 suggest significant mismatch between keyword, ad, and landing page.
Can we improve Quality Score without changing our landing page?
Partially. Improving ad relevance and Expected CTR through better ad copy can raise the score somewhat. However, Landing Page Experience is one of the three components, and a poor landing page will cap how high the overall score can go. For significant improvement, landing page changes are usually necessary.
Does Quality Score affect all keyword types equally?
Quality Score applies to standard text ads with keywords. Exact match keywords often achieve higher scores because the match between query and keyword is precise. Phrase match and broad match keywords, where the triggered query may be more loosely related, typically have lower Quality Scores.
Should we pause low Quality Score keywords?
Not necessarily. A keyword with a low Quality Score that still converts at a good cost per acquisition may be worth keeping. Pause keywords that have both low Quality Score and no conversions. Use Quality Score as a diagnostic, not an automatic reason to pause.
Does the Quality Score I see in the interface reflect real-time performance?
The visible Quality Score is an estimate based on recent performance. It updates periodically, not in real time. The score used in the actual auction incorporates more signals than the visible score and is calculated individually for every auction.
For more on Quality Score and Google Ads optimisation, visit our Google Ads for accounting firms hub.