In the world of Google Ads, your Quality Score is the difference between a profitable campaign and a budget-draining disaster. For Australian small businesses, a high Quality Score acts as a discount on your clicks, allowing you to outrank competitors with much larger budgets by proving to Google that your ads are the most relevant match for a user's search.
Optimising a few keywords is easy, but as your account grows to hundreds or thousands of keywords, you need a systematic, scalable approach. This guide will show you how to audit and improve your Quality Score across your entire account to maximise your return on investment.
Prerequisites
Before you begin, ensure you have:- An active Google Ads account with at least 30 days of historical data.
- Conversion tracking properly installed (Google Tag Manager is recommended).
- Access to your website’s backend or CMS (like WordPress or Shopify) to make landing page adjustments.
- A spreadsheet tool (Google Sheets or Excel) for bulk data analysis.
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Step 1: Customise Your Columns for Visibility
You can’t fix what you can’t see. By default, Google Ads hides the granular metrics that make up your Quality Score. What you should see: Navigate to the 'Keywords' tab. Click the Columns icon > Modify columns. Scroll down to 'Quality Score'. Check the boxes for:- Quality Score
- Expected CTR
- Ad Relevance
- Landing Page Experience
- Quality Score (hist.) - this shows you how it has changed over time.
Step 2: Export and Segment Your Data
To optimise at scale, you need to identify patterns. Export your keyword report into a CSV file. Use a pivot table to group keywords by their Quality Score (1-10). Pro Tip: Focus your energy on keywords with high spend and low Quality Score (below 5). Improving a 3/10 score on a keyword that costs you $500 a month is far more valuable than fixing a 4/10 on a keyword that costs $5 a month.Step 3: Implement Single Theme Ad Groups (STAGs)
A common mistake in Australian accounts is grouping too many unrelated keywords into one ad group. This dilutes your relevance.Break your large ad groups into smaller, tightly-themed groups. For example, if you are a Brisbane plumber, don't put "blocked drains" and "hot water repair" in the same ad group. Create separate groups so your ad copy can be hyper-specific to the search term.
Step 4: Optimise for Expected Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Expected CTR is Google’s prediction of how likely someone is to click your ad. To improve this at scale, use Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI).By using the code {KeyWord:Default Text} in your headlines, Google will automatically insert the user's search query into your ad. This makes the ad look instantly more relevant, leading to higher CTRs across hundreds of variations.
Step 5: Master Ad Relevance with Responsive Search Ads (RSAs)
Ad Relevance measures how closely your ad matches the intent behind a user's search. To scale this, ensure every Responsive Search Ad has at least 5-8 headlines that include your primary keywords. Warning: Avoid "keyword stuffing." Ensure your ads still read naturally for an Australian audience. Use local terminology (e.g., use "tap" instead of "faucet") to increase local trust.Step 6: Audit Landing Page Experience for Speed
Google hates sending users to a slow website. Use the Google PageSpeed Insights tool to check your mobile performance.At scale, ensure your images are compressed and you are using a Content Delivery Network (CDN). For Australian businesses, ensure your hosting server is located in Australia (Sydney, Melbourne, or Brisbane) to reduce latency, which directly impacts your Landing Page Experience score.
Step 7: Match Landing Page Content to Ad Intent
If your ad promises "Emergency Roof Repairs," but the landing page is a general "About Us" page, your Quality Score will suffer.Use Final URL Suffixes or specific landing pages for each ad group. If you can't build 50 different pages, use a tool that allows for dynamic text replacement on your website. This changes the headline of your website to match the keyword the user clicked, significantly boosting relevance scores.
Step 8: Leverage All Relevant Ad Extensions
Extensions (now called Assets) don't directly change the 1-10 score, but they dramatically improve your CTR, which is a core component of Quality Score.Ensure you have at least four Sitelinks, two Callouts, and a Structured Snippet for every campaign. For local Brisbane businesses, always include a Location Extension linked to your Google Business Profile (ensure your ABN and address details match perfectly).
Step 9: Prune Low-Performing Keywords
Sometimes, a keyword simply won't perform. If you have keywords with a Quality Score of 1 or 2 that have had thousands of impressions but zero conversions, pause them. These "zombie keywords" drag down the overall health of your account and waste your budget.Step 10: Use Negative Keyword Lists at Scale
Irrelevant traffic kills your CTR. Use Account-Level Negative Keyword Lists to prevent your ads from showing for terms like "jobs," "free," or "course" (unless you offer those). By keeping your traffic "clean," your CTR remains high, protecting your Quality Score across the entire account.---
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Ignoring Mobile: Most Australian searches happen on mobile. If your landing page isn't mobile-responsive, your Landing Page Experience score will never reach 10/10.
- Over-reliance on Broad Match: Broad match can trigger your ads for irrelevant terms. Use Phrase Match or Exact Match for your high-volume keywords to maintain tighter control over relevance.
- Set and Forget: Quality Score is dynamic. A competitor could launch a better ad tomorrow, lowering your relative CTR. Review your scores at least once a month.
Troubleshooting
- Low Score despite high CTR: This usually indicates a Landing Page Experience issue. Check your bounce rate in Google Analytics. If people click but leave immediately, your page content likely doesn't match the ad's promise.
- Low Ad Relevance despite matching keywords: Check if your ad copy is too generic. Ensure the keyword appears in at least one headline and the display URL path.
- Quality Score is "—": This means there isn't enough recent data (impressions/clicks) for Google to calculate a score. Increase your bid temporarily or broaden your match type to gather data.
Next Steps
Now that you've optimised your Quality Score, your cost-per-click should begin to decrease. Your next step is to focus on Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) to ensure those cheaper clicks turn into paying customers.Need a professional audit of your Google Ads account? Our Brisbane-based team can help you identify wasted spend and scale your results. Contact us today for a strategy session.