If you have ever pulled up your keyword diagnostics and seen that little red label that says Below average next to Ad relevance, you already know the sting. It is one of three components that make up Quality Score, and a low rating there means Google thinks your ad does not closely match what the user searched for.
The result? Higher CPCs, lower ad rank, and fewer impressions. For lead gen campaigns, that translates directly into fewer conversions for the same spend.
The good news is that ad relevance is one of the most fixable Quality Score components. You do not need a complete account rebuild. You just need to know where to look and what to change.
What Ad Relevance Actually Measures
Before diagnosing anything, it helps to understand what Google is actually evaluating. Ad relevance is a measure of how closely your ad copy matches the intent and language of the keywords in that ad group.
It is not about your landing page (that is Landing Page Experience). It is purely about the relationship between your keywords and the words inside your ads. If someone searches emergency plumber near me and your ad headline says Professional Home Services Since 1999, that is a relevance mismatch.
Google rates it as Above average, Average, or Below average. Below average is a signal worth taking seriously.
Where to Find the Ad Relevance Score
You can find ad relevance scores at the keyword level inside your Google Ads account. Here is the simplest path to get there.
- Go to your campaign and click into an ad group
- Click the Keywords tab in the left menu
- Click the speech bubble icon next to any keyword
- A small popup will show you Quality Score, Ad Relevance, Expected CTR, and Landing Page Experience
You can also add Ad Relevance as a column in your Keywords view if you want to scan the whole account at once. Just click the columns icon, search for Quality Score components, and add them to your table.
The Most Common Cause: Ad Groups That Are Too Broad
This is responsible for the majority of below average ad relevance issues. When an ad group contains a wide mix of keywords, the ad copy cannot possibly speak to all of them well.
Imagine an ad group with these keywords: new construction homes, custom home builder, affordable housing communities, and move-in ready homes for sale. Each of those has a different intent. One ad cannot nail all four.
The solution is to break these into tightly themed ad groups, sometimes called SKAGs (single keyword ad groups) or simply tighter thematic groups. Each group should contain keywords that are so similar that one set of ads can speak to all of them naturally.
How to Rewrite Ads for Better Keyword Alignment
Once your ad groups are tighter, the fix is straightforward. Your headlines need to reflect the language of the search query as closely as possible.
If your keyword is new construction homes in [city], your first headline should say something close to that. Not your brand tagline. Not a generic benefit statement. The actual search term or something that mirrors it.
Here are a few practical rules to follow when rewriting:
- Put your primary keyword phrase in at least one headline, ideally Headline 1 or 2
- Use the description to expand on the benefit or add urgency
- Avoid filler phrases like We are here to help or Contact us today in your primary headlines
- Match the tone of the search intent – informational queries need different copy than transactional ones
If you are running Responsive Search Ads, Google will test combinations automatically. But it can only work with what you give it. Weak asset variety leads to weak combinations.
Using Keyword Insertion and Pinning Carefully
Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI) can help with ad relevance in some cases, but it is not a cure-all. DKI automatically swaps in the search query as a headline, which sounds great for relevance but can look awkward if your keywords are long or grammatically odd.
Use DKI only when your keywords are clean, short phrases that read naturally in a headline. Something like {KeyWord: Custom Home Builder} works fine for a tight group of similar keywords. It falls apart when your group has a dozen variations.
Pinning specific headlines in RSAs is worth considering when you have a headline that must appear in every version of the ad. Just be cautious – over-pinning limits Google’s ability to optimize combinations and can hurt performance in other ways.
Check Your Search Terms Report for Mismatches
Sometimes the issue is not your ad copy at all – it is that your ads are being triggered by searches that are not a great match for them. This is a keyword match type and negative keyword problem disguised as an ad relevance problem.
Pull your Search Terms report and look for queries that are significantly different from your intended keywords. If your ad is showing up for unrelated searches, add those terms as negatives. Tighten your match types if broad match is pulling in irrelevant traffic.
A cleaner match between what people actually type and what your ad says is the most direct path to better relevance scores. If you are running campaigns that are struggling with conversions beyond just ad relevance, this post on why your PPC campaigns are not converting covers the broader picture.
How Long Does It Take for Scores to Update?
Quality Score components including ad relevance are updated continuously, but you typically need enough data for a meaningful change to register. In practice, after making changes to your ad copy or restructuring an ad group, give it one to two weeks before evaluating.
If a keyword has very low impression volume, the score may not update quickly at all. In that case, focus your energy on the keywords that are actually driving traffic and spend.
Do not obsessively refresh the scores daily. Make the changes, document what you did, and check back after enough data has accumulated.
When to Leave a Score Alone
Not every Below average rating is worth fixing immediately. If a keyword has almost no impressions, low spend, and sits in a campaign that is not a priority, it may not be worth restructuring an entire ad group over it.
Prioritize by impact. A keyword spending $500 a month with Below average ad relevance is absolutely worth your time. A keyword that has gotten 11 impressions in three months is not urgent.
Good account management is about knowing where effort produces results, not chasing perfect scores across every corner of the account.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does ad relevance directly affect my ad rank?
Yes. Ad relevance is a component of Quality Score, and Quality Score feeds into Ad Rank. A below average score means you are paying more per click and potentially showing in lower positions than competitors with better relevance ratings.
Can I improve ad relevance without restructuring my ad groups?
Sometimes. If your ad copy is the main issue, rewriting headlines to include keyword language can help. But if the ad group itself contains too many unrelated keywords, restructuring is usually the more permanent fix.
How many keywords should be in a single ad group?
There is no universal rule, but tighter is better for ad relevance. Most experienced advertisers keep ad groups to five to fifteen closely related keywords. If your keywords span multiple distinct intents, split them.
Will adding more RSA headlines help my ad relevance?
Only if those headlines include the keyword language. Adding generic headlines does not help. Adding headlines that directly reference the core search terms in the ad group does.