Your Ultimate Guide to Impression Share in Google Ads

By: Jyll Saskin Gales, Google Ads Coach

As Google Ads practitioners, we often get caught up in KPIs like Cost-Per-Click and Conversion Rate. However, Impression Share is a powerful diagnostic tool that can reveal growth and optimization opportunities within your Search campaigns. 

In this article, I'll cover everything you need to know about Impression Share in Google Ads, and provide actionable strategies to help you optimize your campaigns for greater visibility and performance. We'll cover:

• What is Impression Share?
• Why are you losing impression share?
• What are the "Top" and "Other" Auctions on Google Search?
• The Three Types of Impression Share in Google Ads: IS, Top IS, Absolute Top IS
• What is a good impression share in Google Ads?
• How to Increase Your Impression Share
• Should you use Target Impression Share bidding in Google Ads?
• Should you care about Impression Share?

What is Impression Share?

Impression Share (IS) is a Google Ads metric that tells you how often your ads are shown compared to how often they could be shown. It is a percentage of the total available impressions in the auction that your ads actually captured.

For example, if your ads are eligible to show on 1,000 searches, and your ad appears on 200 of them, your Impression Share is 20%.

Remember, Impression Share as a diagnostic tool, not a final performance scorecard. A low Impression Share doesn't automatically mean your campaigns are failing; it simply means there is a gap between your potential and actual reach. And a high Impress Share doesn't always mean your campaigns are doing well; it could signal that you're over-invested or over-paying for clicks. The real value of Impression Share analysis lies in understanding why that gap exists.

Why are you losing impression share?

Your Impression Share will virtually always be less than 100%. So, Google Ads provides a breakdown of why you're missing out on potential impressions. This loss can be due to two factors:

• Search Lost IS (Budget): This indicates that your ads are not showing because your campaign budget is too low. When you run out of your daily budget, Google stops showing your ads, even if they are eligible to appear for relevant searches.

• Search Lost IS (Rank): This means your ad rank isn't high enough to get impressions. Ad rank is primarily influenced by your bid amount and your quality score. If your bids are too low and/or your ad quality is poor, you will lose out on auctions and, in turn, impression share.

By analyzing these two metrics, you can quickly diagnose the root cause of your limited reach.

What are the "Top" and "Other" Auctions on Google Search?

Recently, Google introduced a key change to how ad auctions work. You used to be able to show only one ad on a search engine results page (SERP) at a time. Now, "Top" and "Other" ad locations are considered separate auctions. This means you can show an ad in the "Top" section (above organic results) and another ad in the "Other" section (typically at the bottom of the page) for the same search query.

This can impact your impression share, since you're now eligible to show 2 Ads on the same query, not just one.

The Three Types of Impression Share in Google Ads

Beyond your overall Impression Share, and the "Top" vs "Other" distinction, Google Ads provides three more specific metrics to help you understand your ad placement on the SERP. Yes, this stuff can get really complicated!

• Search Impression Share: Of all the times your ad could have shown on the search results page, how often did it show? This includes both Top and Other placements on Google Search (not including Search Partners).

• Search Top IS: This metric tells you what share of available impressions you captured at the top of the search results page. For example, if there were 100 available "top" impressions in the auction that matched your keywords and you served 50 of them, your Search Top IS would be 50%.

• Search Absolute Top IS: This metric tells you how often your ad was the very first ad on the page.

If you want to analyze your Top IS and your Absolute Top IS, you can add these columns to your report. Note that these metrics differ from a similar set of columns in Google Ads:

• Impr. (Top) %: This column tells you what percentage of your own impressions were at the top. For instance, if your campaign served 50 "top" impressions and a total of 80 impressions, your Impr. (Top) % would be 62.5%.

• Impr. (Abs. Top) %: This is the same concept as Impr. (Top) %, but for the absolute top position.

These columns are all available in your Google Ads reporting and provide a more nuanced view of your ad's visibility and prominence.

What is a good impression share in Google Ads? 

I get this question a lot, but rest assured there is no singular "good" or "bad" impression share. Metrics are morally neutral. The right Impression Share depends on your campaign goals and the type of keywords you're targeting.

• Brand Search: For keywords that include your brand name, you should aim for a very high Impression Share, ideally at least 80% and striving for 90% or higher if there's no competition. You want to dominate the search results for people specifically looking for your business.

• Non-Brand Search: For generic keywords, a lower Impression Share is often acceptable. In my experience, a healthy campaign should get enough visibility to justify the effort, so a floor of around 10% is a good benchmark. However, the true measure of success is whether your visibility is translating into positive business results.

Remember, Impression Share is all about context. If you're targeting a vast number of locations or a broad range of keywords, a low Impression Share is a natural result and doesn't necessarily indicate a problem.

How to Increase Your Impression Share

If your Impression Share is low and you've determined it's an opportunity to improve, the solution begins with a clear diagnosis. Once you know why you're losing impressions, you can use four key levers to strategically manage your visibility.

Step 1: Diagnose Why You're Losing Impression Share

Before you can work on a solution, you need to know the root cause of the problem. Start with these two columns: Search lost IS (budget) and Search lost IS (rank). The column with the higher percentage is your primary area of opportunity.

Remember: If you are using a "Maximize" bid strategy (like Maximize Conversions), the difference between these two columns is not meaningful, and you should assume you're losing Impression Share due to both rank and budget. Learn more about Maximize Conversions bidding

Step 2: Use the Four Key Levers to Take Action

There are four primary ways to influence your Impression Share. The first three involve doing more, while the fourth, and often most overlooked, involves doing less.

Lever 1: Increase Your Budget

If the Search lost IS (budget) column shows a high percentage, the most direct solution is to increase your campaign's daily budget. A higher budget allows your ads to enter more auctions throughout the day, increasing your potential for impressions. However, keep in mind that a bigger budget isn't always the answer; at some point, you'll need to address your Ad Rank to improve efficiency.

Lever 2: Increase Your Bids

If the Search lost IS (rank) column shows a high percentage, increasing your bids is one-half of the solution. How you do this depends on your bidding strategy:

• Manual Bidding: Directly increase your keyword or ad group maximum CPC bids.

• Target CPA: Increase your CPA target to give the algorithm more room to bid higher in valuable auctions.

• Target ROAS: Decrease your ROAS target to allow for higher bids.

For Maximize Conversions, Maximize Conversion Value and Maximize Clicks, this lever is not applicable to you. Increasing your budget is the way to increase your bids, or you can move on to lever 3.

Lever 3: Improve Your Ad Quality

This is the other, more powerful half of the solution for improving Ad Rank if the Search lost IS (rank) column shows a high percentage. Improving your Quality Score allows you to win more auctions without increasing your bids. Focus on these three areas:

• Ad Relevance: Ensure your ad copy and landing pages are tightly aligned with the keywords you're targeting.

• Expected Click-Through Rate: Write compelling ad copy that directly addresses the user's search query, which will encourage more clicks.

• Landing Page Experience: Make sure your website is fast, mobile-friendly, easy to navigate, and provides a good user experience.

Lever 4: Decrease Your Targeting

This is a powerful, yet often forgotten, strategy. Instead of trying to get a bigger slice of a massive pie, you can strategically make the pie smaller. By narrowing your targeting while keeping your budget and bids constant, you can increase your Impression Share for the segments that matters most.

Consider "doing less" by:

• Targeting smaller geographic areas (e.g., a specific city instead of a whole state).

• Pausing keywords or ad groups.

• Switching from Broad Match to more restrictive match types like Phrase or Exact Match to capture only the most relevant searches.

I will repeat yet again that a higher Impression Share isn't always better. The goal is to find the profitable sweet spot where you have strong visibility without overspending. Use the "Lost IS" columns as a diagnostic tool, and then use these four levers - Budget, Bids, Quality, and Targeting - to find the right equilibrium that drives scalable results for your business.

Should you use Target Impression Share bidding in Google Ads?

If you are highly concerned with ad position and visibility in Search, an automated bidding strategy called Target Impression Share offers a more direct approach. With this bid strategy, you tell Google Ads the percentage of available impressions you want to achieve, and the system automatically sets your bids to try and reach that target. You also get to select the desired ad location (e.g., "absolute top of the page" or "anywhere on the page").

Although I rarely use this bid strategy, Target Impression Share can be a good choice for:

• Brand Awareness Campaigns: When your primary goal is to increase brand visibility and dominate search results.
• Highly Competitive Markets: To ensure your ads are seen and you maintain a competitive advantage.

Because it prioritizes visibility over efficiency. Target Impression Share can lead to very high costs. This is why I usually recommend one of the four conversion-focused Smart Bidding strategies for your Search campaigns: Maximize Conversions, Maximize Conversion Value, Target CPA, or Target ROAS.

Should you care about Impression Share?

Impression Share is a powerful diagnostic metric that goes beyond simple performance numbers. By analyzing your overall Impression Share, your lost Impression Share due to budget or rank, and your segmented performance for Top vs. Other placements, you can gain a deeper understanding of your campaign's true potential. Don't chase an arbitrary "good" number. Instead, use these metrics to identify where you're losing out and apply the right strategies to improve your ad visibility and drive better results.