How to Fix Low Quality Score in Google Ads With Simple Tweaks

One of the largest causes that make Google Ads costly, unpredictable, and unreliable is a low Quality Score. Once your score declines, your cost per click increases, your ad position declines, and your visibility declines, even with sufficient money being spent.
The good news?
A low Quality Score can be updated with easy, tactical adjustments that would make ads more specific and closer to the expectations of the users.
Understanding What Quality Score Really Means
The quality of your ad experience for users. Google rates 1-10, whereby 3 factors are considered:
- Expected Click-Through Rate
- Ad Relevance
- Landing Page Experience
As soon as any of these is lower than your competitors, your score is put down. To repair it, these specific aspects need to be improved, but in actually simple ways that can be carried out by anyone
Reason 1: Poor Keyword to Ad Relevance
A significant cause of low quality scores given to advertisers is due to the fact that their advertisements do not exactly reflect the intent of the searcher. When a person types in "best running shoes," and your advertisement is for sports accessories, Google does not see it as relevant.
You need to split your ad groups into narrow themes such that each ad will be related to the same keyword.
Try these simple tweaks:
- Single keyword ad groups (SKAGs) or very similar clusters of keywords should be used.
- Insert the literal search phrase in the headline.
- Correspond to the intent of the user (buying, learning, comparing).
This automatically notifies Google that your ad is very relevant, and your rating will be realized quickly.
Reason 2: Weak or Low CTR Ad Copies
Irrelevant, however, your ad may be; a boring or generic ad may end up with a low number of clicks. Google punishes low click-through rates since it presumes that the users are not finding your advertisement useful.
You can improve CTR without overthinking, as it does not require any fancy creativity; it only takes clarity and user-oriented messages.
Effective tweaks you can implement today:
- Use numbers, offers, or stats.
- Introduce emotional appeals like easy, fast, trusted, and guaranteed.
- Insert such power expressions as "Free Trial," "Limited Offer," and "Free Consultation."
- Point out your special feature, not generic features.
An improved CTR automatically increases the expected click-through rate, one of the largest items in quality score.
Reason 3: The Landing Page Not Matching the Ad Promise
Google is very keen on examining the relevance of the content of your landing page to that of the ad. When the page fails to deliver on the promise of the ad, users bounce fast, thus damaging your score.
Your home page needs to respond directly to whatever the user was searching for to fix the landing page alignment.
Simple tweaks that matter:
- Make use of the main keyword in the title of the landing page.
- Naturally, add 2-3 variables of keywords.
- Make sure it loads quickly on mobile.
- Make sure that the CTA is seen above the fold.
- Take advantage of third-party endorsements such as reviews, ratings, or certifications.
Google adores user-friendly, mobile-based, and clean landing pages.
Reason 4: Low Loading Speed and Poor Mobile Experience
When your landing page loads slowly, then your user experience is hurt. Google takes this as a bad omen and reduces your Quality Score—even when your adverts are flawless.
You do not need a complex backend to fix these optimisations to make it faster and mobile-friendly.
What you can tweak:
- Reduce the size of images without compromising the quality.
- Eliminate third-party scripts that are not necessary.
- Use fast hosting.
- Enable AMP versions.
- Make the design simple and clean.
Even A 1-second increase in the loading time can be effective in improving Quality Score in competitive industries.
Reason 5: Optimisation of Broad Keywords
Relevant searches may result when using broad match keywords. Your advertisements are displayed on invalid searches, and people do not click, which results in low CTR and low Quality Score.
How to correct keyword match issues
The remedy is taking greater precautions in selecting the keywords.
The following are some of the easy modifications:
- Use high-intent keywords (phrase match and exact match).
- Add negative keywords to remove irrelevant traffic.
- Keep track of the search terms every week.
- Eliminate keywords that have low CTR or relevancy.
This saves you on wasted impressions, and it improves your Quality Score automatically.
Reason 6: Failing to use ad extensions properly
Ad extensions enhance visibility and drive your CTR to extremes. Otherwise, Google regards your adverts as unfinished or not as valuable as those of your competitors.
Improving quality score extensions to ensure that the following extensions have been turned on:
- Sitelink extensions
- Callout extensions
- Structured snippets
- Call extensions
- Location extensions
- Price extensions
Full-extension ads tend to have higher CTR, which directly enhances Quality Score.
Reason 7: Low Ad Strength Score
The new algorithm of Google is the one that assesses your ad strength. When your ad strength is low or average, it implies that there are limited ad variations. What we shall improve-
Add multiple versions of:
- Headlines
- Descriptions
- CTAs
- Benefit statements
The more you change, the more Google changes and gets to know you, increasing your overall score.
Reason 8: Repeating the Same Ad Copy for All Keywords
When you use the one-size-fits-all advertisements, what you are saying turns out to be generic and unrelated.
Write a specific ad copy for every theme of keywords to simply fix this.
Example:
Keyword: "Pest Control Near Me"
Ad Headline: SAME-DAY Pest Control Near You | Quick Service.
Keyword: "Termite Treatment"
The headline of the advertisement is: Affordable Termite Treatment | Experts Check.
Minor modifications make massive contributions to the relevance of ads and CTR.
Reason 9: Not Using the Keyword Insertion Feature
Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI) is capable of boosting you at the touch of a button, inserting the exact search term into your advertisement.
It works because the same phrase that the user has searched is present in the headline, increasing the CTR and improving the score.
But use it carefully. Do not apply to very generic or risky keywords.
Reason 10: Not Testing Enough Variants
Google Ads is a matter of experimentation. When you are running the same advert for months, you are not maximizing performance.
- New headlines every 2 weeks
- A/B landing pages
- Different CTAs
- Price vs. benefit-led messaging.
Increased performance will lead to increased CTR, which will result in increased Quality Score.
Conclusion
A poor quality score can be easily fixed; it only takes a few clever adjustments that would enhance relevance, user experience, and engagement. Combining the steps mentioned above and optimising your keywords, ads, and landing pages, you can get low-cost clicks, better ad positions, and increased campaign ROI.
If you want expert-level optimisation, professional campaign structuring, and ongoing Quality Score improvements, STS Digital Solutions can help you achieve consistent, profitable Google Ads performance.