Everyone desires a portion of the available resources.
This statement holds true whether we’re discussing dessert or the Google Ads auction. In the context of Google Ads (previously Google AdWords), the “pie” represents the total search queries where an advertiser aims to display their ads. An advertiser monopolizes the entire pie if their ad achieves an impression for every relevant search. Realistically, their ads will likely appear for a smaller fraction of the total possible impressions.
Fortunately, Google offers a metric specifically designed to estimate our share of the pie and identify missed opportunities. This metric is called Search Impression Share.
Impression share, by definition, is the percentage of impressions your ads receive compared to the total number of impressions they are eligible to receive.
Impression Share = actual impressions / total eligible impressions
Eligibility depends on your bidded keywords and settings like location targeting and ad scheduling, which determine your ads’ potential reach.
Significance of Impression Share
Why is this metric important? It’s the ideal tool for pinpointing untapped potential within your account. While most Google Ads metrics assess current campaign performance, impression share reveals potential growth.
It’s crucial to understand that impression share isn’t a “good vs. bad” metric like Quality Score. Instead, it’s about identifying opportunities. A low search impression share isn’t inherently negative; it simply signifies untapped campaign potential.
Therefore, focus on impression share once a campaign is optimized and generating a profitable cost-per-conversion. Don’t worry about it during a campaign’s initial stages when casting a wide net with general keywords. Once refined, leverage impression share to scale your success.
Analyzing Your Google Ads Impression Share
Here’s how to analyze your Google Ads impression share. nexus-security displays it in a color-coded column within the Campaigns tab:
Each campaign displays a Recent Impression Share status ranging from Very Low to Very High. Clicking this status reveals a bar graph viewable in Daily, Weekly, or Monthly intervals.
The green portion represents the percentage of eligible impressions your ads receive within the chosen campaign. The remaining bar signifies lost impression share, attributed to either low ad rank (yellow) or budget limitations (blue).
This is valuable information – you now understand your campaigns’ share of the pie and the reasons behind any lost opportunities. But how can you address this?
The steps to enhance impression share depend on the cause of the loss. Let’s explore each reason individually.
Search Impression Share Lost to Ad Rank
When ad rank causes impression share loss, your keywords enter the auction with an insufficient ad rank to secure an impression a certain percentage of the time. Google employs the following formula to determine ad rank:
Ad Rank = Max CPC Bid x Quality Score
Consequently, two levers can be manipulated to increase impression share when hampered by low ad rank.
Increase Max CPC bids. This is the quick solution to boost ad rank and gain higher impression share. By simply raising your Max CPC bids, you signal to Google your willingness to pay more per click. If your keywords possess a good Quality Score but receive few impressions and/or a low average position, increasing bids is likely necessary to maximize their performance.
Improve Quality Score. This is the more cost-effective method to enhance ad rank and consequently increase impression share. Boosting your keyword’s Quality Score allows for a higher ad rank without increased spending. Explore opportunities to divide your ad groups into smaller, more focused keyword groups, enabling you to craft more relevant Expanded Text Ads and landing page copy. Ensure the utilization of ad extensions, as they contribute to a higher click-through rate, which in turn benefits your Quality Score.
Monitor your impression share graphs closely while adjusting bids and optimizing for Quality Score. If successful, you should observe a decline in the yellow portions of the graphs and a rise in the green.
Search Impression Share Lost to Budget
Impression share lost to budget is more straightforward. In this scenario, your keywords qualify for additional impressions that you’re currently missing due to budget constraints. Allocating a larger budget to these campaigns will result in a higher impression volume.
While the easiest solution is often to simply increase spending, other strategies can be employed.
Here are some alternatives to consider.
Audit your keywords
The first step when a campaign experiences budget-related impression share loss should be a keyword audit. Be wary of broad match keywords, single-word keywords, and overly general keywords, as these might be eligible for a vast range of undesirable impressions. Refining your keywords with more restrictive match types and longer-tail, specific terms can enhance campaign efficiency and yield a higher impression share without necessitating a budget increase.
Check average position
Next, assess your keywords’ average position. Consistently appearing near the top presents an opportunity to reduce Max CPC bids. While this may slightly lower your average position, it will also lower the average cost-per-click. This allows for more clicks within your budget, maximizing search impression share without extra cost.
Work on Quality Score
We discussed Quality Score optimization as a means to improve impression share when limited by ad rank, and the same principle applies to budget-related losses. Improving Quality Score enables achieving the same ad rank with a lower Max CPC bid, stretching your budget further without actually increasing it.
Last resort…
If you’ve explored these options and your optimized campaign still faces budget constraints, simply raising your daily budget will allow for scaling. A campaign generating conversions at a profitable cost while experiencing budget-related impression share loss indicates a clear opportunity to attract more conversions at the same acquisition cost with an increased budget.
Search Impression Share is High or Very High…Now What?
Achieving a High or even Very High search impression share for a campaign will result in a predominantly green graph.
This signifies that your ad is appearing for the vast majority of your target audience’s searches using your keywords. Excellent!
But what’s next? Does this signal that you’ve exhausted paid search potential and reached its limits?
Absolutely not! A high search impression share indicates it’s time to consider expansion.
This could involve additional keyword research to uncover new ad group and keyword ideas for testing within your campaign. Consider temporarily running a broad match keyword to expand reach, potentially revealing valuable search queries overlooked during initial research. (P.S. Have you explored our latest keyword tool?)
Expansion might also entail exploring new advertising platforms like Bing or Facebook. Maximizing search impression share on a Google Ads campaign can make importing it into Bing Ads an effective growth strategy.
Therefore, examine the recent impression share for your campaigns to identify opportunities. Google provides the pie – it’s up to you to claim your share!