Three independent signals that form your Google Ads grade
Your Google Ads quality score is a 1-10 grade calculated from three equally weighted components. Expected Click-Through Rate measures whether Google's models predict users will click your ad given its position. It's based on historical CTR for your ad and similar ads in similar auctions. Ad Relevance grades how tightly your ad copy matches the search query and the user's intent. It's purely a relevance signal, not a performance signal. Landing Page Experience grades the speed, mobile responsiveness, and relevance alignment between the ad promise and the page content.
Each of the three gets its own below-average, average, or above-average rating. Most quality scores of 5-6 have one or two components at below-average. You're not bad at all three; you're bad at one and mediocre at the others. This is important because it tells you exactly where to focus. If your expected CTR is below average but the other two are average, your problem is ad copy or creative relevance, not page speed or bid structure.
Multiplying efficiency by fixing one component at a time
A keyword with a 5/10 quality score pays roughly 15-20% more for equivalent position than one with 7/10. The difference compounds across thousands of keywords. If your account has 500 keywords averaging 5/10, lifting them to 7/10 means 15-20% lower CPC across the board, which is equivalent to a 15-20% budget increase in terms of clicks and conversions. But you're not increasing budget; you're increasing efficiency.
Attack one component per cycle. If CTR is below average, change your ad copy and creative. Pause for 2-3 weeks while the algorithm recalculates and assigns new signals. If ad relevance is below average, review your keyword list. You might have too many unrelated keywords in one ad group. Split them out and rewrite copy to tighten the match. If landing page experience is below average, audit page speed with Google's Page Speed Insights and mobile usability. Test removing content below the fold to lift the initial viewport experience. Fixing one component often bounces quality score 1-2 points, which is your 15% efficiency gain.