A rating (used prominently in Google Ads) assessing the relevance and expected performance of a keyword, ad, and landing page combination, which directly affects both the cost of a bid and an ad's eligibility to show in auctions.
Why it matters
A higher quality score can mean paying less for the same ad position, or winning placements a lower-quality, higher-bidding competitor doesn't get — making quality score a genuine cost-efficiency lever, not just a vanity metric, since it directly affects CPC.
In a sentence
"Improving landing page relevance raised our quality score enough that we were winning better ad positions at a lower effective CPC than before."
Related terms
- Often confused with: Ad rank (quality score is one specific input into the broader ad rank calculation that determines an ad's actual position in an auction; ad rank also factors in the bid amount itself and other signals).