Doctrine
Quality Score is a diagnostic, not a KPI and not a direct auction input. The useful part is the three component ratings: expected click-through rate, ad relevance, and landing-page experience. Diagnose the component, weigh it against real business performance, and test the smallest credible fix. Do not chase a prettier 1-to-10 number at the expense of conversions.
When to use
- When valuable keywords show below-average Quality Score components or weak Search performance.
- Use a connected Google Ads MCP, or paste keyword metrics, component ratings, triggered queries, current ads, and landing-page copy.
- Bring the primary conversion, target CPA or ROAS, conversion delay, and downstream quality where available.
Run it
Run a READ-ONLY Quality Score diagnosis. Use live Google Ads data if connected; otherwise use what I paste. Change nothing.
- Confirm the date range, primary conversion, target, and keyword-level spend, clicks, conversions, value, Quality Score, expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing-page experience.
- Prioritize commercially important keywords with below-average components. Do not rank work by the 1-to-10 score alone.
- For each diagnosis show: weak component, business importance, observed evidence, competing evidence, root-cause hypothesis, confidence, smallest useful test, and success measure.
- Use triggered queries, current ad assets, and page copy to test message match before proposing a rewrite.
- Keep fixes component-specific:
- expected CTR: query fit and distinct, credible ad assets;
- ad relevance: tighter alignment among query, keyword, ad group, and ad promise;
- landing-page experience: message match, usefulness, usability, speed evidence, and one clear next step.
- Measure both the component rating and business results after enough data and conversion delay. A component can improve while CPA gets worse.
- If asked for savings, say they cannot be estimated from Quality Score alone. Only calculate a scenario from user-supplied CPC, traffic, conversion, and validated assumptions, labeled as a scenario rather than a forecast.
Do not change bids, keywords, ads, or pages. Do not promise a future score, rank, CPC reduction, or savings. End with "No changes were made."
## Guardrails
- Quality Score helps diagnose user experience. It is not a business outcome and the displayed score is not a direct auction input.
- Never pause a profitable or strategically valuable keyword only because its score is low.
- A below-average component points to where to investigate, not the exact root cause.
- Do not claim that moving from one score to another cuts CPC by a fixed percentage.
- Fix message and experience problems before treating a higher bid as the answer.
## Good output looks like
A short list of component-level diagnoses tied to valuable keywords, each with evidence, one test, and an honest success measure. No fake savings forecast and no bid change.