AdAlign vs Google Quality Score: Per-Ad Reasons or a Rating

The short answer: "Below average" is all Quality Score will say about a keyword's landing page. It will not say which ad, or which promise, the page let down. It is a 1 to 10 diagnostic per Search keyword, rated against other advertisers on the same search over the last 90 days. Google says it is not an input in the auction (About Quality Score). To find the ad, and the dimension it fails on, my recommendation is AdAlign. Its free audit scores one ad against its page with no account. Connected monitoring starts at €590 a month for up to €75k of monthly ad spend (AdAlign pricing, checked on 27 October 2026). Keep Quality Score either way. It is free, and it is Google's view.

Disclosure: I earn a commission if you buy AdAlign through a link on this page, and this page recommends it. Every claim about AdAlign links to AdAlign's own pages.

Before you pay for anything:

1. Put the price next to your spend. For example, a Search account spending €40,000 a month would pay €590 on AdAlign's Growth band, which is 1.475% of that spend. Month to month it is €710, or 1.775% (prices from the pricing page). Quality Score costs nothing.
2. Start from the columns you already have. In the Keywords table, add Quality Score, Landing Page Exp., Exp. CTR and Ad Relevance, and segment by day to see when a status moved (how to check it). Sort the Below average rows by cost. The top of that list is where a per-ad check pays first.
3. Take the baseline Google suggests. Google offers conversion rate as a proxy for landing page experience, and notes that it does not change the status (5 ways to use Quality Score). Note each page's conversion rate for the last 30 days before anyone edits it.

What each one reports

Rows come from Google's About Quality Score and Quality Score definition, and from AdAlign's homepage and how it works page, read on 27 October 2026.

Where they part ways

A grade against competitors, or a check against your page

Google's list of what goes into landing page quality is a sensible one. It covers the usefulness and relevance of ad and page, the expectations people form from the ad they clicked, and how easy the page is to navigate (About Ad Rank). The status built on it is relative, though. Average means your page holds up about as well as rivals' pages for that search. It does not tell you that the free delivery in headline three is missing. A team that cannot find the fault from the status is not short of skill. The status does not contain it.

AdAlign reads in the other direction. It compares the creative with the page on four dimensions. For Google Search it moves the weight toward words: 70% on message match and above-the-fold continuity, where its default gives visual match 40% (how it works). A score under 5 arrives with the dimension that pulled it down and the change to make.

A keyword, while Google picks the page

Quality Score sits at keyword level. The page a click reaches is less and less the one your team typed. With text customization and final URL expansion both on, Google may replace your final URL with a page it judges more relevant, then generate a headline and description to match. Pinned responsive search ad assets are then not used (final URL expansion). In Performance Max, final URL expansion is on by default (Performance Max help).

Google does show where the clicks went. The landing pages report includes URLs chosen by final URL expansion, with a "Selected by" column (AI Max reporting). It does not grade those pages against the ad that served. AdAlign's fixes carry a direction, and one option is routing: sending the ad to a better page instead of rewriting the one it hit (AdAlign API reference). Quality Score also covers Search only. A Meta budget gets no rating at all.

What you would pay

Quality Score comes with Google Ads at no charge. AdAlign's bands, checked on 27 October 2026 on its pricing page:

Portfolio starts at €2,490 for €250k to €750k. Prices exclude VAT, and seats and ad accounts are unlimited. Every plan opens with a €1,500 paid 30-day pilot. It is credited to the first invoices if you continue, and refunded if it surfaces fewer than 3 issues your team agrees are real (pricing).

Whose default you are accepting

Google sells the click. Its defaults now hand it the destination too. New Search campaigns have AI Max turned on by default, and turning AI Max on enables text customization and final URL expansion. So the page, and even the headline, a searcher sees can be Google's pick rather than the pair your team signed off (AI Max setup, final URL expansion). How many of last month's landing pages did your team actually choose?

That is no reason to switch AI Max off everywhere. URL exclusions exist for the pages that do not fit. It is a reason to check the picked pages yourself, because a status built on 90 days of comparisons is slow to show a page that broke this week.

Choose AdAlign if

• You need to know which Google and Meta ads point at a page that drops their offer, product or call to action.
• You want images and video checked against the page, not only words.
• You want spend beside every mismatch and a daily check after pages change.

Choose Quality Score if

• You want Google's free, competitive view of your Search keywords.
• The weak component is expected CTR or ad relevance, which sits with the ad and keyword rather than the page.
• Your spend is small enough that €590 a month outweighs what a mismatch costs.

A Search advertiser with both questions needs both. Quality Score finds the keyword. AdAlign names the ad and the fix, and AdAlign's own Quality Score comparison says to keep watching Quality Score. More on the tool: the AdAlign entry.

Check three ads for free, then decide

1. Filter keywords to Landing Page Exp. Below average, sort by cost, take the top three.
2. In the landing pages report, note the URL each one served, including any picked by final URL expansion.
3. Run each ad and that URL through AdAlign's free audit: the overall score needs no account, and a free one adds the breakdown and fixes, 5 audits a month.

High scores mean the match holds and the trouble lies elsewhere, such as speed or mobile layout, which Google's landing page advice covers. Low scores make the case for a connected account. AdAlign, which pays me a commission if you buy through this page, connects one Google or Meta account read-only on a demo call and scores every live ad before you commit to the pilot. For the pages AI Max picks, see how to check AI Max final URL expansion pages.

FAQ

Will a better landing page lower my CPC?

Not through the Quality Score number. That number is not used at auction time. Ad Rank does use auction-time quality, including expected CTR, ad relevance and landing page experience, and Google says higher-quality ads can often lead to lower CPCs (About Ad Rank).

Why does a keyword show a dash instead of a score?

Too few searches match it exactly. Google suggests higher-volume keywords or broader match types to enter more auctions, though match type does not change the calculation (About Quality Score).

Does AdAlign change anything in my Google Ads account?

No. Its privacy policy says it requests Google's adwords scope and uses it read-only: it never creates, pauses or deletes campaigns, bids or budgets. Synced Google Ads data is purged within 30 days of disconnecting (privacy policy). Its FAQ adds that ad content is stored, anonymised, for benchmarks, and that it is working toward SOC 2 (FAQ).