Google Favors High Ad Strength RSAs, But Lower-Rated Ads Convert Better

by Greg Jarboe 03 November 2026 9 min read 504x views

Google Favors High Ad Strength RSAs, But Lower-Rated Ads Convert Better

If you run receptive hunt ads, Google is now steering additional impressions toward whichever ad in an ad collection carries the higher ad power rating. That ad has the improved conversion charge lone 45% of the time.

A new study by Brad Geddes, co-founder of Adalysis, analyzed additional than 5,900 Google Ads accounts to answer a inquiry PPC managers have asserted concerning since RSAs became the default ad format. Does higher ad power guide to improved performance?

His answer is yes for several ads and no for others. The difference comes downward to one setting, which is pinning.

I’ve known Brad since May 2011, whenever he became the PPC Faculty Chair at Market Motive during I was the department place of Video and Content Marketing. And as among the co-authors of Digital Marketing Fundamentals, which Wiley published in 2023, I asked Brad to contribute the division on Digital Advertising. So, I can vouch for his Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) in PPC and paid media.

When Brad previewed the findings in a LinkedIn post final week, calling ad power “one of Google Ads’ most misunderstood metrics,” I went rear to peruse his complete study, which follows up on the company’s 2022 ad power study. That gives us a four-year perspective of how Google’s ad serving has drifted.

Here is what the data shows, anywhere it collides alongside what Google says, and what I’d alter in your accounts before holiday traffic peaks.

What Google Says Ad Strength Does

Start alongside the authoritative position, since Brad’s numbers lone rotate into engaging against it.

Google’s Help Center describes ad power as a guide for the ad innovation stage. It says the ranking “doesn’t immediately power your ad’s serving eligibility” and isn’t used to compute Ad Rank, Quality Score, or auction wins.

Ginny Marvin, Google’s Ads Product Liaison, has been fair as direct. In a March 2024 post on X, she wrote that ad power “isn’t used immediately in the auction & shouldn’t bounds your testing.”

I obtain Google at its term on the mechanics. But “not an auction input” and “doesn’t power which of your ads gets shown” are two distinct claims, and Brad’s data speaks to the second one.

What Happens When 2 Ads Go Head To Head

The most helpful part of Brad’s study isolates ad groups alongside two energetic RSAs that transport distinct ad power ratings. Both ads portion the identical keywords, bids, and budget, which strips out a lot of noise.

In those ad groups, the higher-rated ad received additional impressions 63% of the time. An Excellent ad attack a Poor ad on impressions in 78% of ad groups. Ads two ratings apart, specified as Excellent versus Average or Good versus Poor, won 66% of the time. Even the closest matchup, Good versus Average, went to the higher-rated ad 59% of the time.

Performance told a distinct story.

The higher-rated ad had the higher CTR in 52.5% of ad groups, barely improved than a coin flip. It had the higher conversion charge in lone 45%, which method the lower-rated ad converted improved in 55% of ad groups. On conversions per 1,000 impressions, a metric Adalysis calls CPI, the lower-rated ad won 54.3% of the time.

Then there’s cost. The lower-rated ad had the lesser CPA in 51.5% of ad groups, and throughout all ad groups the higher-rated ads ran an 11.8% higher CPA. In Brad’s example, a lower-rated ad alongside a $100 CPA would visage a higher-rated competitor at $111.80.

Brad’s alert for anyone operating ad tests is Google “will assist the higher-rated ad additional often, equal if it has a worse conversion charge or CPI.”

4 Years Of Drift

Because Adalysis ran a akin study in 2022, Brad can display which way Google’s serving has moved.

How Often The Higher-Rated Ad Came Out Ahead	2022	2026
More impressions	56.8% of ad groups	63% of ad groups
Higher CTR	48.5%	52.5%
Higher conversion rate	45.8%	45.1%

Google is leaning harder on the higher-rated ad whenever it picks which ad to show, and that choice lines up alongside clicks a small improved than it did four years ago. It does not row up alongside conversions any better. Brad concludes that Google “has risen its reliance on ad power to decide what ad to display in an auction complete the years.”

That’s his study of observational data, and Google would apt disagreement the term “reliance.”

Why The Lower-Rated Ad Often Wins

Before anyone decides ad power is useless, appearance at who the lower-rated ads are.

Brad attributes most of their conversion border to pinning. In most of the mixed-strength ad groups, one ad was pinned and the another wasn’t. Pinned ads lean to acquire lesser ratings, and they additionally lean to article higher conversion rates.

That makes awareness to anyone who has pinned a header on purpose. You pin a price, a required disclaimer, or a qualifier since you desire to display the click fairly than chase it. Ad power rewards assortment and keyword coverage, and a pinned ad written to pre-qualify buyers plant against both.

The unpinned results appearance extremely different. Among unpinned ads, CTR rosy alongside all stage up in ad strength, and so did CPI. Conversion rates rosy slightly at all stage apart from Poor to Average. For those ads, Brad’s decision is that chasing a higher ranking mostly pays off.

So, the honest summary isn’t that ad power doesn’t matter. It’s that ad power predicts achievement fine whenever you depart Google’s scheme solitary and poorly whenever you’ve deliberately overridden it.

How Many Headlines Excellent Actually Takes

Only a third of unpinned ads in the dataset reached Excellent, and Brad’s asset counts display why stuffing in headlines won’t get you there.

Without pinning, an ad can attain Good alongside as few as seven assets. For Excellent, Brad recommends at smallest 11 distinct headlines. Volume solitary doesn’t do it, though. Only 44% of ads alongside 15 or additional headlines reached Excellent, and in the most extreme case, an ad alongside 38 resources was motionless rated Poor.

Once you pin, the minimum asset figure to attain Good jumps to 10. Pinning two positions now caps an ad at Good and frequently leaves it at Poor or Average, which is stricter than what Adalysis saw in 2022. If you pin all three header positions, Brad suggests aiming for concerning 13 assets.

There is a workaround. Pinning three or additional distinct resources to the identical stance motionless leaves area for Excellent, during pinning lone one or two caps the ad at Good. Position matters too, since header one carries additional importance than header two, which carries additional than header three.

Where I Come Down

I’ve been in paid hunt since 2003, and Google has asked advertisers to rely a diagnostic tag for most of that time. Quality Score came first. Google’s Ads Product Liaison has stated it is additionally a diagnostic fairly than an auction input, yet the expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing leaf signals rearward it plainly form what we pay. Ad power looks akin the identical benevolent of label.

My peruse is that Google and Brad can the two be right. The ranking itself may never act the auction. But the things that lift it, additional distinct headlines, improved keyword coverage, and small pins, provision Google’s scheme additional combinations to activity alongside whenever it predicts which of your ads volition acquire the click. In your account, the outcome is the identical either way. The higher-rated ad gets the traffic.

That’s anywhere I think practitioners should shove back. Google’s ad choice appears tuned to clicks, and your endeavor mostly gets paid on conversions. An 11.8% CPA gap throughout ad groups is not a rounding error at holiday budgets. Treat ad power as a traffic allocator you have to manage, and halt treating it as a mark you have to win.

What To Change In Your Account This Week

Sort your RSAs by pinning position before you peruse a sole rating. Tag all ad as unpinned, partially pinned, or completely pinned in Google Ads Editor or a study export. The ranking method item distinct in all group, so fairness all collection on its own.

Push unpinned ads to Excellent alongside variety, not volume. Brad recommends at smallest 11 headlines that mix keywords, benefits, features, calls to action, and authority statements. If an unpinned ad sits at Average alongside 15 headlines, the apt culprit is repetition. Rewrite the near-duplicates before you add more.

Rebuild pinned ads alternatively of abandoning them. Brad’s procedure is to eliminate the pins, build the ad to Excellent, afterward re-pin and keep adding resources until the ranking reaches at smallest Average, or Good if you pin a sole headline. Where you must pin, pin three or additional variations to that position. If you pin all three headlines, scheme on concerning 13 assets.

Judge tests on CPI and CPA, and provision mismatched tests additional time. Brad says it’s fine to run ads alongside distinct ratings in the identical ad group. Expect the lower-rated ad to collect far small impressions, though, since an Excellent ad took the belief guide in nearly four of five matchups against a mediocre one. That stretches the period it takes to attain statistical significance. If the lower-rated, pinned ad wins on CPA, keep it running. Don’t intermission a victor to fix a label.

The Machine Still Decides Who Sees Your Best Ad

Brad closes his study alongside a row all PPC director should keep handy. He writes that “often, the individual capability to create compelling ads volition outperform the machine’s capability to assist the ads properly.”

I concur alongside one caveat. The device motionless decides how frequently your finest human-written ad gets seen. So, ad power is item to inspect against your own conversion data, ad collection by ad group, fairly than a class to celebrate.

Google tells us what the ranking isn’t. Brad’s 5,900 accounts inform us what it does.

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Category Paid Media PPC