Ad Strength is not a “major factor” that stops a keyword from going to auction, despite what some advertisers may believe. That’s according to Google Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin.
Ad Strength. Responding to a post on X from an advertiser who said “Ad Strength is a major factor in stopping a keyword from going to auction due to Ad Rank,” Marvin wrote:
Why we care. Ad Strength scores don’t always correlate with performance. Many are seeing that ads with bad Ad Strength scores are performing well. Others who believe Ad Strength doesn’t matter may not be looking at this issue from the correct lens.
Ad Rank vs. Ad Strength. Why the confusion?
PPC influencer Sarah Stemen suggested it’s an issue of what we can see vs what we can’t.
Agency owner Menachem Ani said the confusion stems from the lack of understanding of how each can affect the campaign performance.
Google Ads Coach Jyll Saskin Gales blames it on Google making things complicated:
Google vs. advertiser opinions. The industry has many opinions about how important Ad Strength is. Some of them were shared in our “Google explains why Ad Strength is ‘so important’ as it addresses industry concerns” article.
Some advertisers dismiss the importance of Ad Strength. Some advertisers believe it’s not worth our concern, while others label it a complete time-waster.
But Brendon Kraham, Google’s Vice President of Search & Commerce, told Search Engine Land that Ad Strength is “very important” and “is at the centre of what we’re trying to do is because creative is going to be incredibly important, and Ad Strength is going to be the mechanism which we use to evaluate that both in Performance Max and channels like search.”