Impression share
Impression share is the percentage of times your ad was actually shown, compared with the number of times it could have been. It shows how many of the available searches you reach.
- 3 min read
What is impression share?
Impression share is a metric in Google Ads that shows what share of the market you capture. Google knows how often searches were made for queries your ad was eligible for. Impression share tells you in what percentage of those you were actually shown. An impression share of sixty percent means you were missing from forty percent of the relevant searches.
Alongside plain impression share, there are a few related figures. Top impression share shows how often you appeared above the regular search results. Absolute top impression share shows how often you were in first position. And then there are two figures that explain why you were missed: impression share lost to budget and impression share lost to rank.
Why impression share matters for your business
Impression share shows how much room for growth is left. If you get good results with an impression share of forty per cent, there are still plenty of customers searching for what you do who do not see your ad. If it is already above ninety per cent, you will not get more growth from extra budget, but from new keywords, a larger service area or a higher conversion rates.
The figure also helps you back up decisions. Want to know whether more ad budget is worthwhile? Then look at the share you lose to budget. If that is high, extra budget will probably bring in extra enquiries at roughly the same price.
How impression share works
Your ad can miss an impression for two reasons. Either your budget has run out, so Google stops showing your ad for part of the day. Or you lose the auction, because your bid or the quality of your ad is too low. Google splits your missed impressions into those two causes. That way you know where to adjust.
An example. Say a business that installs solar panels sees an impression share of fifty-five per cent in the account on the campaign in its own region. The share lost to budget is thirty per cent, the share lost to rank fifteen per cent. That means the ads stop around midday, because the daily budget has run out by then. It is precisely in the afternoon and evening that many homeowners search for solar panels.
The business has two options. More budget, or spreading the existing budget more cleverly. It chooses the second: keywords with no enquiries are paused, and negative keywords keep waste out. That makes the budget go further on the keywords that do work. The loss to budget drops, and the number of enquiries rises without extra spend. Then the business looks at the loss to rank and improves its ads and landing pages.
Common mistakes with impression share
Aiming for a hundred per cent. Always being at the very top everywhere is expensive, and part of those impressions brings in little. The aim is a healthy share on the keywords that bring in enquiries, not maximum visibility everywhere.
Adding budget blindly. If you mainly lose to rank, extra budget barely helps. Then you need to work on your ads, your Quality Score or your bids.
Looking at the wrong campaign. An impression share across all campaigns combined says little. Your brand campaign should have a high share; a campaign on broad terms is naturally lower. Look at it per campaign or even per keyword.
Forgetting what happens after the click. More impressions only pay off if your website converts. Visibility without enquiries is not a win.
How to tackle impression share
In Google Ads, add the columns impression share, lost to budget and lost to rank to your campaign overview. Pay particular attention to campaigns that convert well.
Are you losing a lot to budget on a campaign with a healthy cost per enquiry? Then there is room to grow, either with more budget or by cutting waste elsewhere. Losing a lot to rank? Then improve your ads and landing pages first, and only after that your bids.
Keep your brand campaign separate and make sure it has a high share. You do not want to lose people searching for your company name to a competitor.
Finally, use impression share as part of a bigger picture. It tells you how much of the demand you capture, but not whether that demand is profitable. Combine it with your enquiries and signed jobs. That way you can see whether growing in visibility also means growing in revenue.
Frequently asked questions
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What is a good impression share?
That depends on the campaign. For your own business name you almost always want to be shown. For service keywords that perform well, a high share is desirable, while on broad terms you can happily settle for less.
What does impression share lost to budget mean?
It means your ad was not shown because your daily budget ran out. For campaigns that convert well, that is a sign there is room to grow. For campaigns that deliver little, it is a reason to remove waste first.
How do I increase my impression share without paying more?
Remove waste with negative keywords and pause keywords that bring in nothing, so your budget goes further. Improve your ads and landing pages to raise your Quality Score. That reduces the loss to rank.
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