Target Impression Share

What is the Impression Share Metric and Why Does It Matter?

Placements are competitive. It’s why you might Google the same keyword twice, and get completely different ad results each time. This is particularly common for competitive keywords, like the example below. The keyword stayed exactly the same, but the ads shifted. Google Ads’ impression share is a useful metric that tells you what share of the targeted, eligible searches that you actually appear in. Here’s how it’s calculated:

Impression Share = Total number of actual impressions / total number of eligible impressions you potentially could have appeared in

It goes without saying that you want your impression share to be as high as possible, because it means that you’re landing as many relevant placements as possible and getting every chance you can to connect with your audience. “Eligible” here means the number of placements you actually had a chance of appearing in, and it includes factors like targeting, keyword, and even bid.

And it’s important to note that impression shares are calculated differently for each campaign, even if you have overlapping keywords.

How to Find Your Impression Share Data

Once your campaigns are active, you’ll start to see impression share data in your campaign manager and analytics.

Impression shares are detailed in status, ranging from Very Low to Very High, with “Average” hanging out right in the middle.

If your analytics doesn’t currently have impression share data as a default metric in the ads manager (mine didn’t), you can add it in. Go to “columns” above your analytics.

Then, look for “competitive metrics” and enable “search impression share.” Once you do this, hit “save and apply,” and you’ll see the impression share metric appear when you’re viewing specific keywords in your ad groups.

While learning what your impression share is can be valuable, it’s typically more useful to use these metrics for troubleshooting. Enabling a few additional metrics will tell you how often you’re losing impression shares due to low rank or budget.

Types of Impression Share in Google Ads

There is more to impression sharing than just a simple number; there are different facets that you can use to get an even greater depth of analysis. The different breakdowns for impression share are as follows:

• Search impression share – your impression share strictly for impressions generated through the Search Network.
• Display impression share – your impression share strictly for impressions generated through the Display Network.
• Search lost impression share (budget) – the percentage of impressions you lost out on for the Search Network due to an insufficient budget (this is available at the campaign level only).
• Display lost impression share (budget) – the percentage of impressions you lost out on for the Display Network due to an insufficient budget (this is available at the campaign level only).
• Search lost impression share (rank) – the percentage of impressions you lost out on for the Search Network due to low ad rank.
• Display lost impression share (rank) – the percentage of impressions you lost out on for the Display Network due to low ad rank.
• Search exact match impression share – your impression share from the Search Network for search queries that matched your keywords exactly.

Impression share is important because it can give you a great indication of why a keyword may not be performing. Based on the data breakdowns mentioned above, you can use it to identify if your keywords aren’t performing due to bidding or budget-related issues, which are two important items to keep in mind when assessing performance.

When visibility is the campaign goal, an advertiser should choose Target Impression share.

Target impression share is a smart bidding strategy that automatically sets bids with the goal of showing your ad on the absolute top of the page.

How it works

Target Impression Share can be useful for campaigns with brand terms. For example, let’s say you want your ad to show 100% of the time when a user searches for your brand. You can set the Target Impression Share to 100% and the system will then try to show your ad on 100% of auctions in that campaign. This bid strategy can also be useful in raising awareness of your brand. Let’s say you run ads for a local shoe store but you’re competing with larger shoe stores. You could focus on Target Impression Share to ensure your brand is showing up when customers are conducting important searches nearby.

Target Impression Share won’t be applicable for every situation, so continue to align your bidding strategies to your campaigns’ goals.

Note: Impression Share only includes the Google Search Network (excluding Search Partners).

Settings

• Placement

There are 3 options for the Target impression share strategy, depending on where you want your ads to show: on the absolute top of the page, on the top of the page, or anywhere on the page of Google search results. Google Ads automatically sets your bids to show your ad, based on your placement settings.

For example, if you choose an Impression Share target of 65% on the absolute top of the page, Google Ads will automatically set your CPC bids to help show your ads on the absolute top of the page 65% of the total possible amount of times they could show.

• Bid limits

The Max CPC bid limit is a cap on bids set by this bid strategy. It is important not to set this limit too low. Otherwise it can restrict the bids set by the strategy and prevent you from reaching your Impression Share goal.

• Bid adjustments and Target impression share

Bid adjustments allow you to show your ads more or less frequently based on where, when, and how people search. As Target impression share helps optimize your bids based on real-time data, your existing bid adjustments won’t be used. You can still set mobile bid adjustments of -100%, to prevent your ad from showing on mobile devices. You don’t need to remove any existing bid adjustments—they just won’t be used.