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Writing ads for your audience is more important and will drive greater results than writing for Google's Ad Strength.
I've been asked the question of Google ad rank vs. ad strength, and have seen campaigns fail because of the misconception between Google's Ad Rank vs. Ad Strength. So, I want to help break down these two, and explain what really matters.
Ad Strength and Ad Rank are NOT the same thing.
Ad Strength is a tool for optimizing your ad assets, and will not help drive lead growth or reduce your costs, and likely will not be what drives greater revenue. Yet, so many teams I have worked with, both in-house and on the agency side use it to determine ad effectiveness.
On the flip side, Ad Rank uses several variables to determine whether your ads are eligible to show at auction. This is critically important and improves with a focus on the end user—their needs, pain points, and what motivates them to take action. Why?
When you create ads that speak directly to your audience, you do three things:
Naturally improve the factors that matter most for Ad Rank—relevance, quality, and engagement.
Let your audience know you understand them, and you have solutions to help solve their needs, wants, and problems.
Create a reaction that drives user engagement, qualified leads, and if done right, can support revenue growth.
When you stop focusing on what Google wants and create ad copy and landing page experiences focused on your audience's needs, wants & pain points, your campaign performance will improve. In fact, some of the most effective ads I’ve run over the years held a 'Poor' ad strength but generated CTRs over 15%, high quality leads, and revenue growth.
In this blog, I will share the differences between Ad Rank and Ad Strength, what you can do to help improve your ad copy, and why prioritizing your audience is the smartest way to improve your campaign performance.
What Is Google Ad Rank?
Ad Rank is the metric that determines where your ad appears on the search results page—or if it appears at all. In simple terms, it’s a critical factor in your campaign’s visibility and success. But here’s the key: Ad Rank isn’t just about how much you’re willing to pay per click (your bid); it’s the overall value and experience your ads, message & landing pages provide to your user.
How Is Google Ad Rank Calculated?
Google uses a combination of three main factors to determine your Ad Rank:
Your Bid:
This is the maximum amount you’re willing to pay for a click. While bids matter, throwing money at your campaign isn’t the answer. If your ad isn’t relevant or helpful, no amount of bidding will save it.
Quality Score:
This is where focusing on the user makes a huge difference. Quality Score is based on:
Expected CTR (Click-Through Rate): How likely users are to click on your ad.
Ad Relevance: How well your ad matches the user’s search intent.
Landing Page Experience: Does your landing page provide value and align with the ad?
Ad Extensions & Formats:
Sitelinks, callouts, call, structured snippets, or any extensions can help enhance your ad, improve visibility and drive engagement. Google does consider the impact of these extensions when calculating Ad Rank - so be sure to leverage extensions if you are not.
Why Is Google Ad Rank So Important?
As mentioned, Ad rank directly impacts where your ad appears in Search Results. So naturally, with a focus on your end user, you should be able to help improve ad rank. I've found that this focus comes with several benefits including: resulting in:
Greater Visibility: Higher the ad rank, can mean greater visibility over competition
Greater Cost Efficiency: A high Ad Rank often reduces your CPCs, saving you money.
Improved Relevance: Google prioritizes highly relevant ads to the user search query, by optimizing with a focus on your user, you can improve your ad rank.
By focusing on the user—crafting relevant ads, improving Quality Score, and leveraging extensions—you’ll naturally improve your Ad Rank, ensuring your ad reaches the right audience at the right time with the right message.
What Is Google Ad Strength?
Ad Strength is Google’s way of evaluating how well your ad assets—headlines, descriptions, and other creative elements—are optimized. However, it has NO bearing on ad rank. When you write your ad copy , you will see your ad strength score as one of the following:
Incomplete
Poor
Average
Good
Excellent
How Is Google's Ad Strength Evaluated?
Google considers several factors when determining your Ad Strength score:
Diversity: The more unique headlines and descriptions you provide, the better your score. Google thrives on options, so it can test different combinations to find what performs best.
Relevance: Your ad copy should align with the user’s search intent. This includes using keywords and messaging that address their needs.
Clarity and Quality Avoid vague or repetitive language. Each asset should communicate value to the user.
Why Google Ad Strength Is Not What You Should Focus On
While Ad Strength can be a useful guide, focusing solely on improving it can distract you from what truly matters—your audience. Instead of addressing real problems or offering clear solutions, the ads are laser-focused on cramming keywords into every headline and description to achieve a higher Ad Strength score.
The results? CTRs below 3%, quality scores below 5, little to no sales-qualified opportunities, and teams left scratching their heads wondering why their pipeline is dry. Meanwhile, they take comfort in their Ad Strength scores being “Excellent.”
But here’s the reality: a perfect Ad Strength score doesn’t generate revenue—showing your audience you can help them will.
Creative Strategies To Create Ad Copy For Users
Your headlines and descriptions should work together, making it clear to your audience that you understand their problem and have a solution. Things you can consider include:
Nail their problem (Hook): Identify the pain point or challenge the end user faces.
Be direct and empathetic.
Agitate the problem (Emotion): Amplify the discomfort by highlighting the stakes or consequences of not addressing the problem.
This creates urgency.
Offer the solution (Value Proposition): Present your product, service, or offer as a clear and compelling solution.
Use benefits over features and include a strong call to action.
Characters are limited, so you must be creative in your ad copy. If your ads don’t make sense or fail to connect with your audience, you’ll lose their attention—with it, the opportunity to grow engagement and leads.
With that formula above, here are tactics that may result in a 'Poor' ad strength, but have been shown to help better connect with audiences to support ad rank and drive performance and customer leads while reducing cost per lead:
Do not stuff your headlines with keywords; rather speak to your audience.
Pin a headline such as a problem, solution, or call to action at position two.
Use Dynamic Insertion to improve ad relevance or to create a sense of urgency.
Go through the various combinations of headlines & descriptions, do they flow and make sense?
Prioritize Your Audience When Writing Ad Copy
Marketing is about understanding who your audience is, what they need, and communicating why your product or service should be their solution. It involves speaking to your audience, not at. This applies to writing ad copy. Writing for ad strength is not going to capture the minds and revenue of your audience, but writing to your audience so they feel understood will.
Below is an example of what happened when we wrote copy for our audience, not for Google.
When you understand your audience and write your ad copy for them, your Ad Rank improves, acquisition costs decrease, and leads grow.
Don't be afraid to test and see what works best for you, and don't be afraid to leverage AI or LLMs to help create ad copy for your users.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do Ad Rank & Ad Strength Differ?
Ad Rank determines where your ad appears on the search results page and is influenced by factors like bid, Quality Score, and ad extensions. Ad Strength evaluates how optimized your ad assets are based on diversity, relevance, and clarity.
Can I improve the Ad Rank without increasing my bid?
What’s more important: Ad Rank or Ad Strength?
How does pinning headlines or using dynamic keyword insertion impact performance?
Why is user-focused ad copy so effective?
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