Google will soon report null Quality Scores for new & low-activity keywords

Beginning the week of September 12, new keywords and keywords that haven’t received any recent clicks and impressions will have a reported Quality Score in AdWords of null, represented by dashes (“–“).

By default, any keywords with null Quality Scores will be excluded from reports and automated rules that have Quality Score filters unless you check a new box that will appear with this change to include them. Google recommends reviewing any reports, filters, rules and scripts that include Quality Score before September 12 to be sure they will function properly.

This change is an update from July 2015, when Google decided to assign new keywords a default reported Quality Score of 6. At the time, Google said assigning a single default Quality Score for new keywords would “simplify some of our core systems.” The default Quality Score updates after new keywords receive sufficient impression data.

Before that shift, Google used to assign a new keyword a Quality Score that was calculated based on the keyword’s performance across the entire system and the individual account’s historical performance.

The switch from a default reported score of 6 to null won’t affect the ad auction or the way ads are served. For users, null is a clearer placeholder for reported Quality Score than a default of 6.

About The Author

Ginny Marvin

Ginny Marvin is Third Door Media's Editor-in-Chief, managing day-to-day editorial operations across all of our publications. Ginny writes about paid online marketing topics including paid search, paid social, display and retargeting for Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, she has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.