Understanding how Quality Score works in Google Ads is one of those things that pays dividends across every campaign you run. A higher Quality Score means lower CPCs and better ad positions — which for tour operators competing against well-funded OTAs on high-value travel keywords, can make a significant difference to your return on ad spend. Here’s a clear breakdown of how it works and how to improve it.
Quality Score Factors
Google measures Quality Score on a scale of 1–10 — 10 being the best. It’s based on the relevance and quality of your ad, your keywords, and your landing page. The higher your score, the better Google rates the user experience your ad is likely to deliver. In practice, this means Google will show your ads more often, in better positions, and at a lower cost than competitors with lower scores bidding on the same terms.
Various relevancy factors
Quality Score is influenced by three main components: expected click-through rate (how likely your ad is to be clicked when shown), ad relevance (how closely your ad matches the intent behind the search query), and landing page experience (how relevant and useful your landing page is for users who click). For travel campaigns, ad relevance is particularly important — a user searching “escorted tours Italy 2025” should see an ad that specifically references Italy tours, not a generic “holidays abroad” message.
Ad Auction
Every time someone searches a relevant query, Google runs a real-time auction to determine which ads to show and in what order. The auction happens in milliseconds and considers every advertiser bidding on that search. Your Quality Score is one of the two key inputs into this process — the other being your maximum bid. What we’ve found is that travel advertisers who invest in Quality Score improvement often see their ad positions improve without needing to increase bids, which is a meaningful competitive advantage on expensive travel keywords.
How does it work?
Google assesses Quality Score based on historical performance data for your ads and keywords, as well as the expected user experience. For new campaigns without historical data, Google makes initial estimates based on similar accounts and industry benchmarks. Quality Score is recalculated continuously as your campaigns accumulate data — which means it improves over time if you’re actively optimising.
Ad Rank
Ad Rank is the score that determines your position on the SERP. It’s calculated by multiplying your Quality Score by your maximum bid, with additional adjustments for ad extensions and context. A higher Ad Rank earns you a better position. In our experience, tour operators who focus on Quality Score improvement often achieve comparable or better positions to competitors who are simply bidding higher — particularly on branded and destination-specific terms where strong ad relevance is achievable.
CPC
Your actual cost-per-click is determined partly by your Quality Score. A higher QS means you can achieve the same Ad Rank at a lower bid — effectively paying less for the same position than a competitor with a lower Quality Score. The formula means that improving Quality Score from 5 to 8 can reduce your effective CPC significantly on the same keyword, which on competitive travel terms where CPCs can run to several pounds, is a real saving.
Why does Google use Quality Score?
Google’s business depends on users finding ads useful and clicking them. If travel ads were consistently irrelevant or sent users to poor landing pages, users would stop clicking ads — which would damage Google’s revenue. Quality Score is Google’s mechanism for maintaining ad standards: it rewards advertisers who provide genuinely relevant, high-quality ad experiences and penalises those who don’t. For travel advertisers, this means the work you put into ad copy relevance and landing page quality isn’t just good practice — it’s directly rewarded in your campaign economics.
How is it calculated & how can you increase it?
Quality Score is an aggregated metric — you see a single 1–10 score per keyword, but it reflects performance across all three components. Google provides indicators for each component (below average, average, above average) in the keyword tab, which is where to start when diagnosing a low score. The three levers are: expected CTR (improve through better ad copy and more targeted match types), ad relevance (improve by tightening the relationship between keywords, ads and landing pages), and landing page experience (improve through page relevance, load speed, and clarity of message).
We’ve listed them below to help you narrow down the main areas for improvement:
Expected click-through rate: Compare your CTR to Google’s expectations for your market. For travel, CTR on branded terms should be high — if it isn’t, your ad copy may need refreshing. Ad relevance: If this is rated below average, the mismatch is usually between your keyword and your ad text. For tour operators, this often means overly broad ad groups where one ad is trying to serve too many different search intents. Landing page experience: The most common issue we see with travel landing pages is a mismatch between the specific query and the page content. A search for “small group tours Spain” should land on a Spain-specific page, not a general European tours overview. Fixing that alignment is often the quickest route to a Quality Score improvement.
How will your brand benefit from an improved Quality Score?
Lower CPCs, better ad positions, and improved conversion rates from more relevant landing page experiences are the direct benefits. For tour operators with limited PPC budgets who need to compete effectively against OTAs on high-value search terms, Quality Score improvement is one of the most cost-efficient optimisations available. Clients often ask us how to get more from their Google Ads budget without increasing spend — Quality Score is almost always part of the answer.
Get in Touch
If you’d like to discuss your Google Ads Quality Score or PPC strategy for your travel business, get in touch with the Summon team. We work exclusively with tour operators, ferry companies, airlines and activity providers.