What Is Impression Share?

Impression Share (IS) in Google Ads shows the percentage of impressions your ads received compared to the total number of impressions they were eligible to get.

It reflects how often your ads appeared versus how often they could have appeared. This makes it a valuable metric for understanding both your visibility and your position in the competitive landscape.

‍

Types of Impression Share

Google Ads provides different breakdowns of Impression Share:

• Search Impression Share (Search IS): the percentage of impressions on the Search Network.
• Display Impression Share (Display IS): the percentage of impressions on the Display Network.
• Absolute Top IS: the percentage of impressions in the very first ad position.
• Top IS: the percentage of impressions in the upper section of results, above the organic listings.

These variations help advertisers see not only whether they appear but also where they appear on the page.

‍

Why Does Impression Share Matter?

Monitoring Impression Share allows advertisers to:

• Measure visibility compared to competitors.
• Identify lost opportunities due to budget or ranking issues.
• Understand whether campaigns are limited by external competition or internal factors.

For example, a low Impression Share could indicate that competitors are outbidding you, or that your campaigns are restricted by insufficient budget.

‍

Main Causes of Lost Impression Share

Google Ads also shows why you’re losing Impression Share. The two main categories are:

• Lost IS (budget): your ads did not appear because the budget ran out.
• Lost IS (rank): your ads did not appear because your Ad Rank was too low (due to bids, Quality Score, or ad relevance).

This breakdown helps prioritize optimizations: increasing budget if the campaign is profitable, or improving Ad Rank if relevance and bidding are the issue.

‍

How to Use Impression Share for Optimization

• If you are losing IS due to budget, consider reallocating or increasing budget on high-performing campaigns.
• If you are losing IS due to rank, work on improving Quality Score (keywords, ad copy, and landing pages) or adjusting bids.
• Use Absolute Top IS and Top IS to understand whether your ads appear in the best possible placements.

👉 Need support analyzing and optimizing these metrics? My Paid Media services can help you increase visibility and efficiency in your campaigns.

‍

Impression Share is a simple yet powerful metric

IS shows whether your ads are truly reaching their potential audience. By tracking it regularly and understanding the reasons behind lost impressions, you can make better decisions on budget, bidding, and relevance, leading to stronger campaign results.

‍

✍️ This article is adapted from my original publication on Impulse Analytics.

‍