See If Google's 'Ad Strength' Really Matters, A Reality Check from the SERP

Ever find yourself refreshing your Google Ads dashboard, desperately trying to nudge that Ad Strength from "Good" to "Excellent"? You're not alone. Thousands of ecommerce advertisers are obsessing over this little metric, convinced it's the secret sauce to PPC success.

Here's the thing: you're probably wasting your time.

Let's do a proper reality check by looking at what actually shows up on Google's search results, rather than getting lost in the metrics maze of your ads dashboard.

What Google's Ad Strength Actually Measures (Spoiler: It's Not Performance)

Ad Strength is Google's way of rating your responsive search ads on a scale from "Poor" to "Excellent". It's essentially a report card that judges four main things:

• Variety of headlines and descriptions (Google wants 8-15 headlines and 2-4 descriptions)

• Uniqueness of messaging across different ad components

• How much you're pinning content (Google hates when you pin everything)

• Keyword relevance in your ad copy

Sounds important, right? Well, here's the kicker: Ad Strength has absolutely zero impact on whether your ads actually show up or how much you pay for clicks.

Google's own Product Liaison confirmed this. Ad Strength isn't used in the auction process. It's not factored into your Quality Score. It doesn't influence your cost-per-click or impression share. It's basically Google's suggestion box, not a performance predictor.

The SERP Reality Check: What Actually Shows Up vs What Google Recommends

Want to know if Ad Strength matters? Stop staring at your dashboard and start Googling your own products.

Open an incognito window and search for the products you're advertising. What do you see?

The ads that actually appear often tell a completely different story from what Google's Ad Strength metric would suggest. We've seen "Average" rated ads outperforming "Excellent" ones in real auctions. We've watched ads with pinned headlines dominate SERPs, despite Google's warnings about pinning reducing Ad Strength.

Here's a quick test you can do right now:

1. Search for one of your main product keywords

2. Look at the ads that show up (including yours)

3. Ask yourself: "Do these ads look like they followed Google's Ad Strength guidelines?"

Chances are, the answer is no. The ads that actually win on the SERP often prioritise clear messaging and strong value propositions over variety and technical compliance.

Why Ecommerce Brands Get This Wrong

The problem isn't that Ad Strength is completely useless. It's that ecommerce advertisers treat it like a crystal ball when it's really just a checklist.

What Ad Strength Actually Does:

• Guides you during ad creation

• Ensures you're giving Google's machine learning enough options

• Helps avoid basic structural mistakes

• Encourages keyword relevance

What It Doesn't Do:

• Predict which ads will perform better

• Influence your auction competitiveness

• Guarantee higher click-through rates

• Improve your return on ad spend

The obsession with hitting "Excellent" Ad Strength has led many ecommerce brands down rabbit holes of over-optimisation. They'll stuff ads with unnecessary headlines just to tick Google's boxes, often diluting their core message in the process.

The Real Performance Indicators You Should Be Watching

Instead of fixating on Ad Strength, here's what actually matters for your ecommerce PPC campaigns:

Search Term Reports Over Ad Strength Scores Your search term reports show exactly what triggers your ads. If you're showing up for irrelevant searches, no amount of "Excellent" Ad Strength will save your budget. Focus on negative keywords and match type optimisation instead.

Impression Share in Target Locations Are your ads actually showing when your customers search? Geographic performance data tells you more about ad effectiveness than any internal Google metric ever will.

Device and Time-of-Day Performance Your customers aren't searching at random. They have patterns, preferences, and behaviours that Ad Strength completely ignores. Dig into when and how they're finding you.

Actual Conversion Paths Google Analytics and your CRM data show the real customer journey. Some of your "Poor" rated ads might be brilliant at capturing bottom-funnel traffic, while your "Excellent" ads flounder with irrelevant clicks.

How to Do a Proper Ad Performance Audit (Without Obsessing Over Ad Strength)

Here's a practical approach that actually works for ecommerce businesses:

Step 1: SERP Competitive Analysis Search your main product terms and competitor brand names. Screenshot the ads that show up consistently. These are the ads that are actually winning, regardless of their internal Ad Strength scores.

Step 2: Cross-Reference with Performance Data Look at your highest-performing ads over the past 30 days. Check their Ad Strength scores. You'll likely find a mix of ratings, proving the metric doesn't correlate with success.

Step 3: Message Testing Over Metric Chasing Instead of adding more headlines to boost Ad Strength, test different value propositions. Try price-focused vs benefit-focused messaging. Test urgency vs authority positioning.

Step 4: Focus on the Fundamentals Ensure your ads are highly relevant to search intent, your landing pages match your ad messaging, and you're targeting the right audiences. These basics matter infinitely more than achieving perfect Ad Strength.

When Ad Strength Actually Helps (The Few Times It Matters)

Don't throw Ad Strength completely out the window. It can be useful in specific situations:

For New Account Builds If you're starting from scratch, Ad Strength can guide you towards creating enough ad variations for effective testing. Think of it as training wheels, not the destination.

For Agencies Managing Multiple Accounts It provides a quick quality check across different campaigns and clients. It's faster than manually reviewing every ad for basic best practices.

For Large-Scale Campaign Audits When reviewing hundreds of ad groups, Ad Strength can help identify obviously under-optimised areas that need attention.

But even in these scenarios, treat it as a starting point for investigation, not an end goal.

The Bottom Line: Performance Beats Perfection

The harsh reality is that many ecommerce advertisers spend more time optimising for Google's internal metrics than for actual customer behaviour. They chase Ad Strength scores while their competitors focus on message relevance, audience targeting, and conversion optimisation.

Your customers don't care about your Ad Strength rating. They care about whether your ad answers their question, solves their problem, or offers them something valuable. Google's auction system rewards ads that get clicks and conversions, not ads that follow internal guidelines perfectly.

The most successful ecommerce PPC accounts we've seen prioritise customer intent over Google's suggestions. They test relentlessly based on real performance data, not artificial strength scores.

Ready to stop chasing vanity metrics and start focusing on what actually drives ecommerce growth? At JudeLuxe, we help businesses build PPC campaigns that prioritise performance over perfection. Get in touch to see how we can audit your current approach and identify the real opportunities hiding in your data.