It usually happens on a Tuesday morning. I’ll open my inbox to find a frantic email from a client:
“Dirk, the dashboard is red! Google says our Ad Strength is down to ‘Average’! Is something broken? Should we pause everything?”
If you manage Google Ads, you know this panic well. It is the anxiety induced by the Google Notifications bell—a feature seemingly designed to make business owners question their sanity.
Here is the controversial truth I share with every single one of those clients: I am perfectly happy with your "Average" Ad Strength score.
In fact, if you are in the business of Lead Generation, chasing an "Excellent" rating might actually be sabotaging your profitability. Here is why you need to stop pleasing the Google bot and start looking at the metrics that actually pay the bills.
The "Algorithm Appeal" Trap
To understand why this metric causes so much grief, we have to look at what Ad Strength actually is.
Google’s AI is hungry. It wants data. It wants options. When you look at the Ad Strength indicator, you aren’t looking at a prediction of human behaviour; you are looking at a checklist of machine requirements.
What goes into the Ad Strength soup?
- Asset Quantity: Are you using all 15 headlines and 4 descriptions?
- Keyword Insertion: Are your keywords pasted directly into those headlines?
- Asset Diversity: Are your headlines distinct enough from one another?
- Sitelinks: Are you using enough? (You often need 6 sitelinks just to get the checkmark!) 5.
Google wants you to max these out so it can mix and match thousands of combinations to serve your ad in as many inventory slots as possible.
The Conflict: Lead Quality vs. Broad Reach
Here is where the friction occurs for Lead Gen.
To grant an "Excellent" score, Google often subtly nudges you to remove restrictions. It dislikes when you "Pin" headlines (forcing specific text to appear in position 1). It lowers your score if your headlines are too similar.
But in Lead Gen, specificity is our weapon.
Let’s say you sell high-end enterprise software. You need your first headline to say: "Enterprise Solutions for 500+ Users."
If you don’t pin that headline, Google might mix and match your assets to show an ad that simply says "ERP Systems" to a small company looking for a budget tool.
- The Result: Google gives you an "Excellent" score because your ad is eligible for thousands of auctions.
- The Reality: You burn your budget on clicks from small businesses that will never buy from you.
By pinning that headline to qualify your traffic, your Ad Strength might drop to "Average" or "Poor" because you’ve restricted the algorithm’s playground. But your conversion rate goes up, and your cost-per-lead goes down.
What to Consider vs. What to Ignore
So, should you ignore the metric entirely? Not quite. Use it as a hygiene check, not a bible.
What to Consider:
- The "Incomplete" Warning: If your Ad Strength is low because you only wrote three headlines, fix it. You need to give the system enough ammunition to work with. Add headlines that sensibly cover your Keywords, USPs, and Call-to-Actions.
- Keyword Gaps: If the indicator says you aren’t using your keywords, check your relevance. If your ad doesn't match the search intent, your Quality Score (a much more important metric) will suffer.
What to Ignore:
- The "Add More Headlines" Nag: If you have 10 solid, high-quality headlines, don't add 5 rubbish ones just to fill the slots.
- The Unpinning Nudge: If you have a regulatory requirement or a strict unique value proposition that must be seen, keep it pinned. Ignore the bot’s complaints.
The Bottom Line: ROAS Over Ego
Google’s "Ad Strength" measures eligibility, not effectiveness.
I have performed audits where ads marked "Average" are generating quality leads at a €25 CPA, while the "Excellent" ads are bloating the account with irrelevant traffic at €80 CPA.
You shouldn’t care if Google thinks your ads are "Excellent." Care about your Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) or your Cost per Acquisition (CPA).
So, the next time that notification bell rings and tells you your ads are "Poor," take a deep breath. Check your CPA first. Check your conversion volume. If those numbers are green, you can safely leave this notification ignored.