Definition
Impression share is the percentage of impressions your ads received out of the total they were estimated to be eligible for.
Impression share explained
Google Ads estimates how many times your ads could have shown given your targeting, and compares that with how often they actually did. The gap is split into two reasons, which are what make the metric useful:
- Impression share lost to budget: your budget ran out before the day ended or was spread too thin.
- Impression share lost to rank: your ad rank, a combination of bid, ad quality and other factors, wasn't high enough.
Read it together with profitability. Losing impression share to budget on a campaign that converts profitably is a clear case for more budget. Losing it to rank suggests better ads, landing pages or bids. On the other hand, 100 percent impression share on low-value keywords can mean you are paying for visibility that doesn't pay back.
Related metrics show position: top impression rate and absolute top impression rate tell you how often your ad appears above the organic results or in the very first position.
Example
Your highest-converting campaign shows a large share of impressions lost to budget every afternoon. Moving budget from a weaker campaign lets your ads show all day for searches that reliably produce leads.
Why it matters
Impression share shows how much demand you are missing and whether budget or ad quality is the reason.
Related service
Google Ads Maintenance
Ongoing search-term reviews, negative keywords, bid and budget checks for accounts that are already running.
Google Ads maintenance and optimizationPublished by Vidern, founded and led by Malhar Shah. Updated .
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Related terms
- Quality ScoreQuality Score is a 1 to 10 Google Ads diagnostic comparing your ads with competitors' on expected CTR, ad relevance and landing page experience.
- CPC (Cost Per Click)CPC (cost per click) is the amount an advertiser pays for each click on an ad, with average CPC being total cost divided by total clicks.
- Search terms reportThe search terms report in Google Ads shows the actual searches that triggered your ads and led to clicks, as opposed to the keywords you bid on.
- Share of voiceShare of voice is your brand's portion of the total visibility in a market, such as rankings, ad impressions or mentions, compared with competitors.