How to Improve Google Ads Landing Page Experience

The short answer: Landing Page Exp. says Below average, on the keywords that carry your spend. Before you pay for a redesign, check the ad-to-page pair. Search Ads 360's definition of the component has four parts, and one of them is the expectations people have from the ad they clicked (Search Ads 360 Help). For that pair-by-pair check AdAlign is my recommendation. Its free audit scores one ad against its page without an account, and a free account covers 5 audits a month with the full breakdown. The steps: find the keywords, and trace each to the ad and the page that served. Run Google's checks on the page and test the URL. Score the pair, then watch conversion rate and the history column.

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.

Rule of thumb before a redesign:

1. The status moves slowly, so do not wait on it. Google rates each component against other advertisers whose ads showed for the exact same search over the last 90 days (About Quality Score). For example, a page fixed today is 1 day of 90 in that comparison. Judge the fix on conversion rate first, and on the status weeks later.
2. Your own columns are the starting list. Add Landing Page Exp., Ad Relevance, Exp. CTR and their (hist.) versions to the keywords table, and sort by cost. The keywords with the most spend and a Below average landing page rating are the list. No tool is needed to build it.
3. One proxy, recorded now. Google suggests conversion rate as a proxy for landing page experience, while saying it does not change the status (5 ways to use Quality Score). Note it per final URL before you touch anything.

AdAlign itself is covered in the glossary entry. This page is about one Google rating.

What Google says it is measuring

Google's definition, gathered in one place:

Quality Score itself is a diagnostic, and Google says it is not an input in the auction (About Quality Score). The page still counts. It counts in Ad Rank, at auction time, in a reading you never see.

The check, keyword by keyword

Find the keywords

In Keywords, open the columns menu and add the Quality score section, then segment by day if you want the history (About Quality Score). A dash means too few exact searches to rate.

Trace each keyword to the page that served

The page a visitor saw can differ from the final URL. The Landing pages page in Insights and reports lists every landing page URL with clicks and CTR. Under each one sits a View expanded landing pages link (Evaluate the performance of your landing pages). Expanded pages come from automation such as AI Max. If you find them, the AI Max guide shows how to list and score them.

Ask whether the page delivers what the ad set up

Google's own example is plain. Someone who searches for flannel shirts and clicks an ad for flannel shirts should land on your flannel inventory (5 ways). It sounds too obvious to need saying. Put the ad's headline and offer beside the page's first screen anyway. Google also advises putting important information towards the top, so nobody has to scroll to find it (Optimize your ads and landing pages).

Check navigation, links and clutter

Count the links in the first screen, and the pop-ups that load before the page can be read. Google's landing page advice warns against cluttering the site with too many ads or pop-ups. Its destination requirements go further, and treat destinations that are unnecessarily difficult or frustrating to navigate as grounds for disapproval.

Check mobile and speed

On the Landing pages page, a Mobile-friendly click rate below 100% means the page did not pass Google's mobile test on every click (Evaluate landing pages). For speed, run the URL through PageSpeed Insights, which is free. When the page has enough traffic, it reports field data from real Chrome users over the previous 28 days, including Largest Contentful Paint and Cumulative Layout Shift (About PageSpeed Insights).

Test the URL itself

Google's Test your landing page tool returns messages such as Page not found or Final URL mismatch. A page that blocks Google's AdsBot can show as not found while it loads perfectly well for you. Check robots.txt.

Score the pair

Run the keyword's top ad and its page through the free audit. Its four dimensions split apart what Google's single rating lumps together: visual match, message match, above-the-fold continuity and tone. A free account names the weakest, and How it works counts a score below 5 as spend at risk. Through the API, the response also carries PageSpeed Insights data when available, per the spec on the developers page. Speed and match then land in one row.

The mistakes Google's pages point at

• Chasing the number. Quality Score should not be aggregated with the rest of your data or treated as a KPI, per About Quality Score.
• Changing match types to move it. The status comes from exact-search history, so new match types do not change it, the same page says.
• Trusting a page that only loads for people. A destination that returns an HTTP error to Google AdsBot counts as not working under the destination requirements.

Google's Ad Rank page says Ad Rank is built from your bid and auction-time quality, and that higher quality ads can often lead to lower CPCs. Read it from the other side. A weak page can be offset by a higher bid, which needs no change to the site and takes effect at once. On a busy day that is the reasonable move. That quiet default is still paid for click by click, by the advertiser, not by the auction.

Free first, then a check that does not wait 90 days

Everything above costs nothing: Google's columns and reports, PageSpeed Insights, the URL test and the free audit on the top pair.

The gap the free route leaves is time. Google's rating looks back 90 days. AdAlign, which pays me a commission, re-checks monitored pages daily and scores new ads as they go live, from a read-only Google Ads connection (How it works). Access starts with a paid 30-day pilot at €1,500. It is credited to your first invoices if you continue, and refunded if it finds fewer than 3 issues your team agrees are real. After that, Growth is from €590 a month on an annual contract, or €710 a month month to month with 30 days' notice. Both cover up to €75,000 a month of ad spend, excluding VAT (pricing page, checked on 27 October 2026). The pilot is booked from the demo page.

FAQ

Is an Average landing page experience a problem?

Not on its own. Google says Average or Below average may indicate an opportunity (About Quality Score). Average means your page compares with other advertisers' for that search. Fix Below average on the keywords with spend first.

Does a better landing page lower my CPC?

Not through the Quality Score number. Ad Rank uses auction-time landing page experience, and its help page says higher quality ads can often lead to lower CPCs.

What does AdAlign store if I connect Google Ads?

Its privacy policy says it requests the adwords scope and uses it read-only, and that synced Google Ads data is purged within 30 days of disconnecting. On data reuse its pages differ. The FAQ says ad content is stored and anonymised to build industry benchmarks. The privacy policy adds that aggregated data helps train and improve its AI models. The pricing FAQ says your data is never used to train shared models (all three read on 27 October 2026). The FAQ also says AdAlign is actively working toward SOC 2.