Quality Ranking Explained: What Meta's Ad Quality Scores Mean

Your ad set shows "Quality Ranking: Below Average." You check your CPM—40% higher than similar campaigns. Meta is penalizing you for poor ad quality, but the diagnosis feels vague. What exactly is Meta measuring, and how do you fix a score you barely understand?

Quality ranking is one of three ad relevance diagnostics Meta provides, alongside engagement rate ranking and conversion rate ranking. Together, these scores determine how competitively your ad performs in auctions. But most advertisers misunderstand what they measure and how to improve them.

What Quality Ranking Actually Measures

Quality ranking reflects the perceived quality of your ad compared to ads competing for the same audience. It's based on feedback signals and quality assessments, not performance metrics like clicks or conversions.

Feedback Signals

Meta collects explicit feedback from users: hiding ads, reporting ads as misleading, or marking them as irrelevant. High hide rates and negative feedback tank your quality ranking. The algorithm learns that people who see your ad don't want to see it.

Quality Assessments

Beyond user feedback, Meta evaluates ad quality through automated review. This includes assessing whether your ad uses low-quality creative (blurry images, excessive text overlay), employs engagement bait, or links to low-quality landing pages.

Comparative Scoring

Quality ranking is relative, not absolute. Your ad is compared to other ads targeting the same audience. "Below average" means your ad is in the bottom 35% of comparable ads. "Average" means middle 35%. "Above average" means top 35%.

This relativity matters. In highly competitive audiences, even decent ads might rank below average because the competition is fierce. In less competitive spaces, mediocre ads might rank above average simply because the bar is lower.

The Three Ad Relevance Diagnostics

Quality ranking doesn't exist in isolation. Meta provides three interconnected diagnostics that together explain your ad's auction competitiveness.

Quality Ranking

Measures perceived ad quality based on feedback and assessments. Low quality ranking means users find your ad irrelevant, annoying, or misleading. The fix is creative and targeting refinement.

Engagement Rate Ranking

Measures expected engagement (clicks, likes, comments, shares) compared to competing ads. Low engagement ranking means your ad doesn't capture attention. The fix is stronger hooks, better creative, and clearer value propositions.

Conversion Rate Ranking

Measures expected conversion rate compared to competing ads with the same optimization goal. Low conversion ranking means people who click don't convert. The fix is landing page optimization, offer refinement, or audience adjustment.

How They Interact

These rankings interact in complex ways. High engagement but low quality might mean your ad is clickbait—it gets attention but generates negative feedback. High quality but low engagement might mean your ad is inoffensive but forgettable. The ideal is high marks across all three.

Why Quality Ranking Matters for CPM

Meta's auction isn't purely bid-based. Your ad's total value score determines auction outcomes, calculated roughly as:

Total Value = Bid x Estimated Action Rate x Ad Quality

Low quality ranking directly reduces your ad quality component, lowering your total value score. To win auctions with lower total value, you must bid higher—which means higher CPM for the same results.

The CPM Penalty Math

If your quality ranking drops from "above average" to "below average," you might need to bid 30-50% more to win the same auctions. On a $50 CPM campaign, that's an extra $15-25 per thousand impressions. Scale that across millions of impressions and low quality ranking costs thousands in unnecessary spend.

Compounding Effects

It gets worse. Higher CPM means your budget buys fewer impressions. Fewer impressions mean less data for optimization. Less optimization data means worse targeting. Worse targeting means more irrelevant impressions. More irrelevant impressions generate more negative feedback. More negative feedback lowers quality ranking further.

This negative spiral can tank campaigns that start with small quality issues. The fix isn't just improving the ad—it's breaking the cycle before it compounds.

Common Causes of Low Quality Ranking

Misleading or Sensationalized Content

Ads that exaggerate claims, use clickbait headlines, or misrepresent the product generate negative feedback. "You won't BELIEVE what happened next" works on tabloid sites. On Facebook, it triggers hide buttons.

Poor Creative Quality

Blurry images, excessive text overlay (the old 20% rule is gone but text-heavy ads still underperform), jarring color schemes, and amateur design all signal low quality to both users and Meta's automated systems.

Irrelevant Targeting

Showing your ad to people who don't care generates indifference at best, negative feedback at worst. If you're selling enterprise software to college students, expect quality ranking to suffer—even if your ad is objectively well-made.

Landing Page Issues

Meta evaluates landing page quality as part of ad quality scoring. Slow load times, intrusive pop-ups, thin content, or misalignment between ad promise and landing page reality all hurt your score.

Frequency Fatigue

Showing the same ad repeatedly to the same people generates negative feedback. After the fifth or sixth exposure, users start hiding ads they've already seen too many times. High frequency kills quality ranking.

Inappropriate for Audience

Ads that are too aggressive, too informal, or tonally wrong for their audience generate negative reactions. What works for 18-24 year olds might alienate 45-54 year olds, and vice versa.

How to Diagnose Quality Ranking Issues

Step 1: Check Ad Relevance Diagnostics

In Ads Manager, view your ad set performance and add the three relevance diagnostic columns. Look for patterns: is quality ranking consistently below average across ad sets? That signals a systemic creative or targeting problem.

Step 2: Review Negative Feedback

Add the "Negative Feedback (Ad)" column to your reports. High negative feedback correlates directly with low quality ranking. If you're above 0.5% negative feedback rate, you have a problem.

Step 3: Analyze by Audience Segment

Break down quality ranking by demographic, placement, and device. You might have above-average quality with 25-34 year olds but below-average with 45-54. This indicates audience-creative mismatch, not universally bad creative.

Step 4: Compare to Historical Benchmarks

Pull your historical data. If quality ranking has declined over time for the same audiences and similar creative, something changed—either the competitive landscape shifted or your creative fatigued.

Step 5: Landing Page Audit

Use Google PageSpeed Insights and Meta's own landing page tools to check load times, mobile experience, and content quality. Slow, clunky landing pages hurt quality ranking even if your ad creative is strong.

How to Improve Quality Ranking

Fix 1: Eliminate Misleading Elements

Audit your ad copy for exaggeration, unrealistic promises, or clickbait patterns. Replace "You'll never believe..." with direct value propositions. If your product is good, you don't need sensationalism to sell it.

Fix 2: Upgrade Creative Quality

Invest in professional-looking creative. This doesn't mean expensive production—clean design, clear imagery, and readable text matter more than polish. But blurry screenshots and clip art signal amateur hour.

Fix 3: Tighten Targeting

Show your ad to people who actually want to see it. Review your audience overlap, exclude irrelevant segments, and consider narrowing targeting to core customers before expanding. Relevant ads to relevant audiences generate positive signals.

Fix 4: Optimize Landing Pages

Speed up load times (target under 3 seconds), remove intrusive pop-ups, and ensure content matches ad promise. If your ad offers a "free guide," the landing page should immediately deliver that guide, not a sales pitch.

Fix 5: Manage Frequency

Keep frequency under control by expanding audiences, refreshing creative, or using frequency caps. If the same people see your ad seven times and start hiding it, your quality ranking suffers.

Fix 6: Test Creative Variations

Run A/B tests with different creative approaches and measure quality ranking alongside performance metrics. Sometimes a minor copy change dramatically improves perceived quality.

Fix 7: Match Tone to Audience

If targeting multiple demographics, consider separate ad sets with tailored creative. The casual tone that resonates with younger audiences might read as unprofessional to older ones.

Quality Ranking vs Performance: When They Conflict

Sometimes an ad with below-average quality ranking still performs well. This creates a dilemma: do you optimize for rankings or results?

Short-Term vs Long-Term

Low quality ranking with good results is often a short-term phenomenon. The ad might be converting early adopters while alienating the broader audience. As the easy wins dry up, CPM increases and results decline.

Scale Limitations

Low quality ranking limits scalability. The algorithm de-prioritizes your ad in auctions, making it harder to increase spend profitably. An ad with above-average quality ranking can scale further at better efficiency.

The Pragmatic Approach

If an ad performs well despite below-average quality ranking, run it while testing alternatives. Parallel test creative variations aimed at improving quality signals. When you find something that maintains results with better quality ranking, shift budget to the winner.

Quality Ranking by Industry

Quality ranking standards vary by industry. Some verticals face tougher competition and stricter scrutiny:

• Finance and insurance: Heavy regulation, skeptical audiences, and aggressive competitors make above-average quality ranking difficult
• Health and wellness: Meta scrutinizes health claims closely; exaggeration triggers quality penalties
• E-commerce fashion: Highly competitive, requires standout creative to achieve above-average
• B2B software: Less competitive, above-average achievable with decent creative
• Local services: Low competition in most markets, average ranking is often sufficient

Monitoring Quality Ranking Over Time

Quality ranking isn't a one-time check. Build ongoing monitoring into your workflow:

• Weekly reviews: Check relevance diagnostics for all active ad sets
• Trend analysis: Track quality ranking changes over time to catch decay early
• Alert thresholds: Flag any ad set that drops to below-average for investigation
• Creative lifecycle tracking: Correlate quality ranking changes with creative age

Our Meta Ads Audit tool automatically monitors quality ranking across your account and flags ad sets where quality scores are hurting auction competitiveness. We correlate quality ranking with CPM trends to quantify the cost of quality gaps.

Key Takeaways

• Quality ranking measures perceived ad quality based on feedback and automated assessments
• Below-average quality ranking can increase CPM by 30-50% to win the same auctions
• Common causes: misleading content, poor creative, irrelevant targeting, bad landing pages
• Fix by eliminating clickbait, upgrading creative quality, and tightening audience targeting
• Quality ranking varies by industry—know your competitive baseline
• Monitor weekly and track trends to catch quality decay before it compounds

FAQ

How quickly does quality ranking update?

Quality ranking updates continuously as feedback accumulates. Significant changes typically appear within 24-48 hours of collecting enough new data. Fresh ads may show "—" until Meta has sufficient signals.

Can I improve quality ranking without changing the ad?

Partially. Tightening targeting to more relevant audiences can improve quality ranking without creative changes. But if the core ad generates negative feedback from anyone, targeting alone won't fully fix it.

Is above-average quality ranking always better?

Generally yes, but not at any cost. An above-average ad that doesn't convert isn't useful. The goal is above-average quality ranking AND strong performance metrics. Don't sacrifice conversions for vanity scores.

How does quality ranking differ from relevance score?

Relevance score was Meta's older, single-number relevance metric. Meta replaced it with the three diagnostics (quality, engagement, conversion) to provide more actionable feedback. Quality ranking is one component of what relevance score used to measure.

Does quality ranking affect all placements equally?

Quality assessment applies broadly, but certain placements are more sensitive. Feed placements prioritize quality more heavily than Audience Network. If quality ranking is low, expect worse delivery in premium placements.