How-to · Updated October 11, 2026
Fix "Poor" ad strength, and know when to ignore it
Updated October 11, 2026
30 minutes, then several weeks of data
To fix Poor ad strength, click the rating in the Ad strength column and work through its action items: up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions, lines that differ, your top keywords inside headlines, and 6 or more sitelinks. Ad strength rates that mix, not your offer or landing page, so judge the ad on its conversions.
Before you start
- Standard or Admin access to the Google Ads account. Editing an ad or adding sitelinks is a campaign edit, which Read-only access cannot make.
- The ad group's keywords, with the few that get the most traffic marked.
- Six pages on your site worth linking to, such as pricing, hours and contact, for sitelinks.
Read what the rating is asking for
Ad strength scores the mix you give Google: how many headlines and descriptions, how different they are, whether your keywords appear in them, and how many sitelinks the ad can use.
- In Google Ads, open the Campaigns menu, then Campaigns, and select Ads. If there is no Ad strength column, click the Columns icon, open Attributes, check Ad strength and click Apply.
- Click Poor next to the ad to see the action items.
- If it says Incomplete, Google names three common causes: no final URL, no ad group, or no keywords in the ad group. Google says the ad will not serve without keywords.
- The rating can move without an ad edit: it recalculates when keywords, assets or account structure change, and where Text customization is on, it counts Google-generated text equally with yours.
Fix the gaps it names
Each action item has a direct fix.
- Too few headlines or descriptions: hover over the ad, select the edit icon, then Edit, and fill up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions (the headlines how-to below covers writing them).
- Keyword relevance: put each top keyword whole into one headline. Google says a keyword split across two headlines does not count, and one longer than 30 characters belongs in a description.
- Sitelinks: Google asks for at least 6 across the account, campaign and ad group, and counts dynamic sitelinks. Open the Campaigns menu, select Assets, click the plus button, then Sitelink. Choose the level under Add to, select Create new, fill Sitelink text, Description line and URL, and click Save.
- Pinning: Google says pinning limits the combinations it can test and can lower ad strength. Keep a required line pinned; the pinning how-to linked below covers the rest.
- Select Save on the ad. Google notes that editing headlines or descriptions can change the ads that are serving.
Decide when the rating stops mattering
Once the action items are cleared, judge the ad on its results: Google says ad strength is not used to calculate Ad Rank or Quality Score and does not measure your landing page or offer.
- Do not make the ad worse to gain a level: no keyword in every headline, no unbacked suggested claim, no unpinned legal line. Google's own ad copy page says its ratings are not as important as your business metrics.
- An ad can rate Excellent with generic lines sent to a home page, since the rating does not read the page or judge the offer.
- After several weeks, click View asset details under the ad and compare Impressions, Clicks and Conversions per headline. Google suggests considering a replacement for an asset with zero impressions after several weeks.
- Treat per-headline click-through rate and cost per conversion as direction only. Google says those ratios depend on the assets shown alongside, and suggests judging performance at the campaign level rather than per asset.
Check it worked
After saving, the Ad strength column should read Average, Good or Excellent, with fewer action items. Google recommends at least 2 responsive search ads per ad group rated Good or Excellent.
Later, compare the ad group's conversions and cost per conversion for equal periods before and after. A higher rating with no change in conversions points to the offer or the landing page, which the rating does not measure.
What Google's 15% more conversions figure means
Google's Ad Strength page reports that advertisers who improve ad strength, with sitelinks, from Poor to Excellent see 15% more conversions on average, from six days of its internal data in August 2025. Google's ad copy page gives 12% for the same change. Either way it is an average across advertisers, not a promise for one ad. Once the measured gaps are closed, judge by the ad's own conversions.
Some help pages still say to replace headlines labelled Low
Google's ad copy page still says to replace Low headlines with ones based on your Best headlines. Google's asset report page says the Performance label column has been deprecated because full performance statistics are now available, for dates on or after June 5, 2025. Use Impressions and Conversions in View asset details instead.