Learn about Search Impression Share, why it matters, and actionable strategies to improve it.
Search Impression Share is a metric used in Google Ads that provides insights into how often your ads are displayed in relation to the total number of times they were eligible to be shown in search results. It helps you understand the visibility and reach of your ads in comparison to the potential opportunities. It’s calculated based on the number of impressions received out of the estimated total number of impressions available.
For example, if your Search Impression Share is 80%, it means your ads are appearing 80% of the time.
A high Search Impression Share indicates that your ads are capturing a significant portion of available impressions, while a low impression share suggests that your ads are not appearing as frequently as they could. Improving your Search Impression Share can be crucial for increasing the visibility of your ads, which can lead to more clicks and better overall campaign performance.
Impression Share Lost Due to Budget is a metric in Google Ads that indicates the percentage of potential impressions your ad campaigns missed out on because your daily or monthly budget was not sufficient to cover all eligible ad opportunities. In other words, it shows you the portion of ad impressions that you could have received if you had a larger budget.
Impression Share Lost Due to Rank is a metric in Google Ads that indicates the percentage of potential impressions your ad campaigns missed out on because your ads didn't rank high enough in the ad auction to be displayed. In other words, it shows you the portion of ad impressions that you could have received if your ad had a higher ad rank.
How can I increase my impression share?
Increasing your impression share in Google Ads involves optimizing various aspects of your ad campaigns to improve your ad's visibility and reach. Here are several strategies we can follow to help increase your impression share:
- Increase Your Budget: If your Impression Share Lost Due to Budget is high, consider increasing your daily or monthly budget. This allows your campaigns to participate in more auctions and capture a larger share of eligible impressions.
- Refine Your Keyword Targeting: Ensure that your keyword selection is relevant to your target audience and that your bids are competitive for those keywords. Regularly review and expand your keyword list to capture a broader range of potential search queries.
- Improve Ad Quality and Relevance: Focus on creating high-quality ad copy and landing pages that are closely related to your keywords. Use compelling ad extensions, clear calls to action, and relevant ad headlines to improve ad relevance and click-through rates.
- Optimize Bidding Strategies: Adjust your bidding strategy to be more competitive. Test different bidding strategies, such as manual bidding or automated bidding, to find the best approach for your goals.
- Ad Schedule Optimization: Analyze the times and days when your ads perform best and allocate more budget to those periods. Adjust your ad schedule to align with peak performance time and consider removing underperforming times from the schedule altogether.
- Geographic Targeting: Consider refining your geographic targeting settings to focus on areas where your target audience is most active. You can also exclude locations where you don't want to display your ads.
- Regular Monitoring and Testing: Continuously monitor your campaigns' performance, and A/B test different ad variations, bidding strategies, and targeting options to identify what works best.
Optimizations are an ongoing process, and it may take some time to witness significant improvements in impression share after changes have been made. Instant fixes aren't always possible. We’ll regularly review your campaign performance metrics and adapt our strategies as necessary to align with your advertising objectives and budget while keeping a close watch on your impression share.
Lastly, it's crucial to keep in mind that campaigns can perform exceptionally well even with a lower impression share. In such cases, placing excessive emphasis on impression share may not be necessary if you are content with the results your campaigns are delivering. However, if you're seeking greater outcomes, then prioritizing impression share becomes more important as it can help us reach that goal.
What is impression share and how can it be improved Video **