Can I reach the top position with a small budget?

Yes, on specific searches where your ad and page are more relevant than competitors'. A small budget limits how many clicks you get, not the position.

Does a low Quality Score mean I do not show at all?

Below the minimum threshold, the ad is not eligible for the auction whatever the bid. Above it, you show, but pay more per click than competitors with a better score.

How the Google Ads auction works (and why the highest bidder

What actually happens on a search

Someone types "dental implant Bucharest". Within milliseconds, Google gathers every ad that could show for that search and ranks them. Not by who pays most. By Ad Rank — a score that combines how much you are willing to pay with how good your ad is for that particular person.

That is the whole point of this lesson: you can sit above a competitor who bids more than you, if your ad and your page are more relevant.

What Ad Rank is made of

Google does not publish the exact formula, but it does publish the ingredients:

Your bid — the most you are willing to pay for a click. You rarely pay that much.
Ad and landing page quality — expected click-through rate, how relevant the ad text is to the search, the landing page experience. You see them aggregated as Quality Score (1–10) per keyword.
Minimum thresholds — Google requires a minimum quality level for an ad to be eligible, whatever the bid.
Context — device, location, time of day, what the person searched before.
Assets (extensions) — sitelinks, callouts, phone numbers. They raise the expected impact of the ad.

What you really pay

This is the part few people know: you pay the minimum needed to beat the Ad Rank of the competitor below you, plus one cent. Not your bid.

Hence the golden rule: quality is a permanent discount on CPC. Every Quality Score point you gain lowers the cost of every click, on every search, for good.

What you control

Relevance: group keywords tightly and write ads that echo the search intent. "Dental implant" → the ad talks about implants, not "complete dental services".
The landing page: it must deliver exactly what the ad promised, load fast on mobile and offer one clear next step.
Click-through rate: specific headlines, concrete prices or timelines, complete assets. Expected CTR is the heaviest ingredient.
What you exclude: negative keywords remove irrelevant searches — and every irrelevant click you avoid also lifts your CTR.

Where automated bidding comes in

Most accounts today use automated strategies (Maximize conversions, Target CPA, Target ROAS). Google adjusts the bid at every auction based on the probability of a conversion. That only works if conversions are measured correctly — the system optimises towards whatever you tell it a conversion is. Broken tracking = bidding towards nothing. That is the next lesson.