“Poor” in the Ad Strength column sits on a responsive search ad and scores the relevance, quality and diversity of headlines, descriptions and other assets against Google’s best practices. It is not a keyword status, not a policy review, and not an order to stop serving.
You see it on the ads table, not on the keywords table. Before you rewrite copy to “fix the grade”, read how responsive search ads work: the rating lives on those ads, and Google mixes their assets into what people see.
What it means
Google Ads Help on Ad Strength describes it as a measure of the relevance, quality and diversity of ad assets. Four ratings: “Poor”, “Average”, “Good”, “Excellent”. The rating updates when you create or edit an ad and comes with suggestions for what to add: headlines, descriptions, more varied wording.
Google says a higher rating will help you maximize the ad’s performance. That wording is about a checklist, not a click forecast. Keyword Quality Score is a different column: it lives on the keyword, runs from 1 to 10, and combines expected CTR, ad relevance and landing page experience. How to read it is in the article on Quality Score in Google Ads.
In my practice with small businesses this rating often appears after someone else’s edits: a contractor trimmed headlines, dropped descriptions, or stuffed near-duplicate synonyms. First step: open change history for the week.
What is at stake
An ad rated “Poor” can keep serving. Budget is charged if people click. The row does not disapprove the ad or pause the campaign. The risk is that the owner or contractor rewrites a working ad to push the rating to “Excellent” and breaks copy that was bringing leads.
Across 116,785 ads in 30 accounts from September 2024 to February 2025 (about $111 million in spend), “Poor” ads had a spend-weighted CTR of 9.73%, ads still pending a rating 9.15%, “Excellent” 2.93% and “Good” 2.63%. At account level the direction is not always the same, and the aggregate reversal is partly explained by sample composition. In 20 accounts with at least 10 “Excellent” and 10 “Average” responsive ads, “Excellent” won on CTR in only 11 of 20 (55%), close to a coin flip. That within-account comparison does not control for campaign level. The rating measures asset diversity, not clicks.
| Rating | What it measures | Stops serving? |
|---|---|---|
| “Poor” | Little asset diversity vs Google’s checklist | No |
| “Average” | Assets are in place, but wording lacks variety | No |
| “Good” or “Excellent” | Diversity checklist filled more fully | No, and not a higher CTR ticket |
What to do
- Confirm the column. Open Campaigns, then Ads, and check the Ad Strength column. It should be a responsive search ad, not a Performance Max asset group and not Quality Score on keywords.
- Open change history for the week. See who changed headlines, descriptions or the landing page. In my practice the owner often learns about the rating from an email, and the change is already in someone else’s edit.
- Read the suggestions next to the rating. Google tells you what to add: headlines, descriptions, more variety. An asset checklist, not a profit diagnosis.
- Compare this ad with others in the group on CTR and leads, not on the color of the rating. If clicks and leads already come in, leave the rating alone.
- Add different wording only when it matches your offer and queries, not the same line with a synonym.
- If the ad is getting impressions but no clicks or leads, fix relevance and the landing page. “Add more headlines” will not rescue a page that does not answer the query.
What not to do
- Do not rewrite the ad only to raise the rating. Working copy matters more than “Excellent”.
- Do not treat “Excellent” as a click forecast. In the sample above, spend-weighted CTR for “Excellent” was lower than for “Poor”, and within an account the comparison with “Average” is close to a coin flip.
- Do not confuse this rating with keyword Quality Score, and do not “fix” a keyword with random headlines.
- Do not create a new ad to reset “Poor”. The new ad gets its own rating, and the old one stays.
When this does not apply
These steps are not for Performance Max: there the rating sits on the asset group, and “Incomplete” means the group lacks the minimum assets to serve. “Poor” in Performance Max means a narrow set of assets and serving on only some inventory, a different case from a responsive search ad. The row is not a policy disapproval and not “the ad is not showing”: if there are no impressions, look at ad status or keyword status, not the color of the rating.
If after these steps the rating does not change and you still cannot tell whether to touch the ad, we can go through the account together: the copy, change history, and whether anyone is chasing the rating instead of leads.
My e-book “19 Google Ads Secrets”: how to get the most out of Google Ads without draining your budget, drawn from real campaigns and tests.
See the book →Questions and answers
Does an ad rated “Poor” still serve?
Yes. This is not “Disapproved” and not “Under review”. The rating does not grant or remove permission to show. No impressions means look at ad status, keyword status, budget or a policy check.
Do you have to push the rating to “Excellent”?
No. Look at this ad’s CTR and leads. If those already look acceptable, chasing “Excellent” wastes edits.
How is Ad Strength different from Quality Score?
Ad Strength sits on a responsive search ad and measures the relevance, quality and diversity of assets. Quality Score sits on a keyword, from 1 to 10, and shows how the ad and landing page compare with other advertisers. Two columns, two tables. Google’s description is in a separate Help article.