Fix Your Google Ads Score (Or Keep Wasting Money)

I'll be straight — this drives me up the wall. I see so many Ahmedabad businesses, from textile shops in the Old City to cool new cafes on SG Highway, just setting money on fire with Google Ads. They're obsessed with bids and budgets.

But they totally ignore the one thing Google actually cares about: Quality Score. It's like trying to win a race by revving your engine, but your tires are flat. Honestly, it's just dumb.

So, Google Ads Quality Score is just a diagnostic number, from 1 to 10. It’s Google’s guess at how good your ads, keywords, and landing pages are. It boils down to three main things: your expected click-through rate (CTR), how relevant your ad is, and the experience people have on your landing page. Getting a high Quality Score means you pay less for each click (CPC) and get better ad spots.

TL;DR

• Your Google Ads Quality Score is Google's grade on your ad's helpfulness. A high score means lower ad costs.

• It's based on 3 things: Expected Click-Through Rate (CTR), Ad Relevance, and Landing Page Experience.

• In 2026, Landing Page Experience is the most important factor. If your page is slow or confusing, you lose.

• Fixing your Quality Score isn't about chasing a 10/10. It's about fixing the underlying issues to save money.

• Small, targeted ad groups with hyper-relevant ads and landing pages are the key.

Quick Stats

• For every 1 point your Quality Score is above the average of 5, your cost-per-acquisition (CPA) drops by 16%. (Source: WordStream 2025 Data)

• Google confirmed in 2026 that landing page experience and mobile usability now carry nearly 40% of the weight for Quality Score.

• High Quality Score ads (8-10) can see up to a 50% discount on their CPC compared to average scores. (Source: Google Ads Data)

On this page

• What's a Google Ads Quality Score? (Hint: It's Not Your Report Card)
• The 3 Pillars of Quality Score in 2026: What's New?
• My Ahmedabad SMB Playbook to Boost Your Quality Score
• Comparing Low vs. High Quality Score Campaigns
• What Most Guides & Gurus Miss About Quality Score
• Real Implementation: Fixing a Bopal Real Estate Project's Ads
• Actionable Takeaways: Your QS Checklist for Today

What's a Google Ads Quality Score? (Hint: It's Not Your Report Card)

Look, a lot of people see that little 'x/10' next to a keyword and completely freak out. They think it's their final exam score. It's not. You should think of it more like the check engine light in your car. It doesn't tell you exactly what's wrong, but it tells you where you need to start looking.

A 4/10 isn't a failure, yaar. It's a signal. It’s Google tapping you on the shoulder and saying, "Hey, people searching this don't seem to love your ad, or your landing page is a bit of a mess. Maybe look into that?" It's a tool for diagnosis, not some KPI you should be putting in a client report.

The 3 Pillars of Quality Score in 2026: What's New?

Google's system is always getting smarter. It's not about just matching keywords anymore; it's about figuring out what the user really wants and if they have a good experience. Here at ClickMaking, our PPC team has seen a definite shift. Here's how it breaks down for 2026.

Pillar 1: Expected Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Think of this as a popularity contest. Google looks at the history of your ad and keyword and asks, "Based on past data, are people likely to click this ad when they search for this term?" A high expected CTR tells Google your ad is catching people's eye. It's not just about your CTR, but how you stack up against competitors in the same spot.

Pillar 2: Ad Relevance

Now this one's pretty straightforward. Does your ad copy actually make sense for the search? If someone in Ahmedabad searches "buy mens running shoes" and your ad just says "Best Shoe Store on CG Road," it isn't relevant enough. Your ad has to directly mirror what the person is looking for. It's simple, right? And yet, so many people mess this up.

Pillar 3: Landing Page Experience

Here it is. The big one for 2026. This is where the battle for a good Quality Score is usually won or lost. What happens after the click? Is your page fast? Is it easy to handle on a phone? Is the content actually helpful and related to the ad they just clicked?

A slow, confusing page will absolutely destroy your Quality Score, I don't care how great your ad is. A fast, well-made professional website is not optional anymore.

Framework breakdown — ClickMaking

My Ahmedabad SMB Playbook to Boost Your Quality Score

Okay, enough theory. How do you actually fix this thing? I've been running ClickMaking here in Ahmedabad for 8 years now, and we've rescued hundreds of failing ad accounts. Here's our playbook.

"Most Ahmedabad businesses focus on bids. They should be obsessed with Quality Score. It's the difference between burning cash on Sindhu Bhavan Road billboards and actually getting customers in the door." — Akshay Patel, Founder, ClickMaking

Step 1: Get Rid of Your Giant, Messy Ad Groups

I just saw this last month. A new client, a saree shop over in Maninagar, had one ad group named "Sarees" with 200 different keywords inside. Bandhani, Patola, Silk, Cotton... everything was just thrown together. This is a guaranteed way to get a 2/10 Quality Score. Why? Because it's impossible to write a single ad that's relevant for all those different searches.

What's the fix? Small, focused ad groups. We call them Single Theme Ad Groups (STAGs). You create one for "bandhani sarees," another for "patola sarees," and so on. This lets you write super-specific ads and send people to the exact right page. It's more work at the start but it pays off massively.

Step 2: Write Ads for Humans, Not Just Keywords

Your ad has to connect with the person searching. We use a dead-simple formula: Acknowledge their search, show your unique selling point (USP), and give a clear call to action (CTA). For a search like "best thali near me" in Ahmedabad, a bad ad says, "Gujarati Food Restaurant." A good ad says, "Craving an Authentic Thali?

Get Unlimited Servings at Gordhan Thal. Book Now!" See the difference?

Step 3: Your Landing Page MUST Be Fast. No, Faster.

Your potential customer in Bodakdev isn't going to sit around for 8 seconds while your page loads on their Jio 5G connection. They'll just hit the back button. We live and die by Google's PageSpeed Insights.

If your mobile speed score is under 70, you've got a huge problem. You have to compress your images, get better hosting, and clean up your code. Your landing page score hangs in the balance.

Comparing Low vs. High Quality Score Campaigns

Let's make this crystal clear. Here’s what the difference actually looks like in your account. These numbers are averages we've pulled from our clients across Gujarat.

Factor
Low Quality Score Ad (e.g., 3/10)
High Quality Score Ad (e.g., 8/10)

Avg. CPC
₹50-₹100 (Can be 50-100% higher)
₹20-₹40 (Eligible for discounts)

Ad Position
Often below top 3 or on page 2
Frequently in positions 1-3

Impression Share
Limited. Google shows your ad less often.
High. Google prefers to show your ad.

Cost Per Conversion
High. You pay more for every lead/sale.
Low. Your ROI is significantly better.

Landing Page
Slow, generic, not mobile-friendly.
Fast, specific to the ad, great on mobile.

Real implementation example — ClickMaking

What Most Guides & Gurus Miss About Quality Score

You can read the Moz Blog or Search Engine Journal all day, but they often leave out the stuff you only learn from being in the trenches. Here are a few truths we've learned the hard way at ClickMaking.

1. The Score Lags Behind. Chasing the number itself is a waste of time. Your Quality Score today reflects your performance from the recent past. You can't 'optimize for Quality Score.' You have to optimize your CTR, your ad relevance, and your landing page. The score just follows. So focus on the inputs, not the output.

2. Ad Extensions are a CTR Cheat Code. Sach mein, this is so underrated. Sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets — they make your ad physically bigger and way more clickable. A bigger ad pushes your competition down the page and just screams credibility.

Our team has a strict rule: no ad group goes live without at least 4 relevant sitelinks. It's a direct boost to your expected CTR.

3. Your Account Has a Ghost. If you're taking over an old, messy ad account that's been running for years with low Quality Scores, you're fighting an uphill battle. Google remembers everything. Sometimes, it's honestly better to pause the old junk, build a new, clean campaign structure from scratch, and start fresh.

We had to do this for a big electronics retailer in Ahmedabad, and their account health turned around in less than a month.

Real Implementation: Fixing a Bopal Real Estate Project's Ads

Quick story. We got a call from a developer, Mehulbhai. He had a new luxury apartment project in Bopal, Ahmedabad. His agency was burning through ₹1 Lakh a month, and the leads were awful. His cost per click was a whopping ₹250 for searches like "4 bhk flats in bopal." We popped the hood. His average Quality Score was a pathetic 3/10.

The Problem: He had one campaign, one ad group, and one generic landing page for everything from 3BHKs to penthouses. Ad relevance was in the gutter, and the landing page was just a slow-loading link to download a PDF brochure. A complete disaster.

Our 4-Week Plan:

• Week 1: Restructure. We immediately split his campaign into five new ad groups: '3 BHK Flats Bopal,' '4 BHK Flats Bopal,' 'Luxury Apartments Bopal,' 'Penthouses Bopal,' and one targeting his competitors by name.
• Week 2: New Landing Pages. We quickly built four simple, lightning-fast landing pages. Each one was dedicated to a specific flat type, showing floor plans, virtual tours, and a clear contact form. This was a key piece of our digital marketing strategy for him.
• Week 3: Write Killer Ads. Using some of our internal tools, we generated 15 different ads for each ad group.

We A/B tested headlines that spoke directly to what buyers wanted — luxury, location, and lifestyle. This is a small example of the smart automation we use.

• Week 4: Launch & Watch. We launched the new structure and just watched the data roll in.

"For Mehulbhai's campaign, we didn't just write new ads. We used Sprout Social Insights to understand what language high-net-worth individuals were using on social media and incorporated that into the ad copy. It's about speaking their language." — Akshay Patel, Founder, ClickMaking

The Result: After just six weeks, his average Google Ads Quality Score jumped from 3/10 to a solid 7/10. His CPC dropped from ₹250 to around ₹90. Best of all, qualified site visits went up by 210%. He was spending less and getting way more. That's the real power of focusing on quality.

Actionable Takeaways: Your QS Checklist for Today

Feeling hyped? Good. Here are five things you can get up and do right now to start fixing your Quality Score.

• Check Your Mobile Page Speed: Go to Google's PageSpeed Insights. Test your site. If that mobile score is red or orange, that's your #1 job. Stop everything and fix it.

• Review Your Top 5 Keywords: Find your 5 biggest-spending keywords. Are their Quality Scores below 6? Click on them and see what's rated "Below Average." Is it CTR, Relevance, or Landing Page? That's where you start.

• Add Negative Keywords: Are you showing up for junk searches? Add those terms as negative keywords now. It's the quickest way to improve your CTR. Our guide on Local SEO specifically for Ahmedabad has some good ideas for local negatives.

• Audit Your Ad Extensions: Does every single campaign have at least 4 Sitelinks, a Callout, and a Structured Snippet? If not, that's a 15-minute fix with a huge impact. Do it.

• Read Your Own Ads Aloud: Do they sound like a robot wrote them? Or do they actually sound like an answer to a person's question? If they're bland, rewrite them.

• Create One Specific Landing Page: Just one. Take your highest-traffic ad group and build a dedicated landing page just for it. Stop sending good traffic to your generic homepage. It's lazy marketing.

This isn't rocket science, I promise. But it does take real work. The top-tier publications like Forbes Digital Marketing and Social Media Examiner are all saying the same thing: user experience is the future of advertising.

Getting this right is the difference between an ad account that hemorrhages money and one that becomes a reliable growth machine for your company. It is a fundamental piece of the digital marketing services we offer, because without a good Quality Score, everything else we do is less effective. And yeah, that's the truth.

It's a lot, I get it. Honestly, this is why agencies like mine exist. If you're a business owner in Ahmedabad (or anywhere in Gujarat) and you'd rather have a team of pros just handle it, that's what we do at ClickMaking.

You can learn more about who we are and reach out anytime. No hard sell, I promise. Just a real conversation about your business.

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Originally published at clickmaking.com — ClickMaking is a digital marketing agency in Ahmedabad helping Indian businesses rank on Google.