Google Ads Optimization Score: What It Is, How It Works, and How to Improve It

The Google Ads Optimization Score is a real-time metric that tells you how well your campaigns align with Google’s best practices. Displayed as a percentage (0–100%), it reflects how optimized your account setup, targeting, bidding, and creatives are—along with whether you’re leveraging Google’s recommendations.

You can find the Optimization Score directly in your campaign dashboard, with suggestions categorized by bidding, keywords, ads, extensions, targeting, and more. Each action item shows its potential score impact, helping you prioritize what to fix first.

How it's calculated:

• Click-through rate (CTR)
  

• Conversion tracking setup
  

• Campaign settings and bidding strategies
  

• Keyword relevance and ad copy
  

• Ad extensions (like sitelinks or callouts)
  

• Landing page experience
  

Accepting or dismissing Google’s recommendations will cause the score to update immediately. While the score doesn’t guarantee better ROI, it often correlates with improved performance when used with key metrics like Quality Score, ROAS, and CPA.

To improve your score:

• Enable Smart Bidding (e.g., Target CPA, ROAS)
  

• Use Responsive Search Ads and strong CTAs
  

• Apply all relevant ad extensions
  

• Add high-performing keywords and remove duplicates
  

• Optimize your landing pages for speed and mobile
  

It's essential to remember that the Optimization Score should be used as a guide—not the only performance metric. Combined with Quality Score, CTR, and actual business results, it becomes a helpful tool in keeping campaigns sharp, competitive, and ROI-focused.