What Is Quality Score? Anyone who is familiar with Google Ads has surely heard the term “Quality Score.” To refresh your memories, the Quality Score (QS) is a number that Google assigns to your ads based on the quality of the keywords, ad copy, and landing page in the context of the search queries that trigger the ad. This number is on a scale of 1-10. Ad Rank, where your ad shows in the results, is Bid * Quality Score. Meaning, higher quality scores can result in a higher position for the same bid, the same position for a lower bid, or some combo of the two. A lower QS will result in the inverse. Although this is quite a straightforward concept, some may not know that there are key differences between how the QS is calculated for display ads and for search ads. How Is Display Ad Quality Score Different From Search Ad Quality Score? For ads on the Google Search Network, Google looks at number of factors, including from the quality of your ads and ad copy, keywords used, expected click-through-rate, and the overall landing page experience. Google takes this score, and uses it to determine other things like your Ad Rank. Simply having a higher bid won’t be enough to rank above your competitor’s ads. However, your bid combined with a high- Quality Score could be enough to secure the #1 ad position. On the other hand, calculating the Quality Score for Display Network isn’t quite as straight forward because Google first looks at what bidding option you’re using. For example, if you choose a CPM model, referring to advertising bought on the basis of impressions, the Quality Score will be calculated in regards to the quality of your landing page. However, if your campaign uses a cost per click (CPC) bidding model, the Quality Score is based on the click-through rate (CTR) of the ad as well as the quality of the landing page. For this particular bidding model, both factors are equally important when calculating the Quality Score. Another thing to keep in mind with Display Network Quality Scores is that it isn’t viewable separately in your Google Ads account. How To Improve Display Ad Quality Score So, how can you ensure a high-Quality Score for your Display ads? No matter what bidding option you choose, Google is going to be looking at the relevance of your landing page. There are both automated systems and real people evaluating your landing page every time your keywords are searched. Some of the top things they look for are original and unique content, sufficient information to be considered trustworthy, easy navigation, fast landing page load time, and if the landing page allows the Google bot to easily crawl the text. Making sure these factors are all optimized, as well as including some of your keywords on your landing page to show relevance, will help to provide your display ads with a 10/10 Quality Score!