Impression share

What is impression share?

Impression share is the percentage of possible impressions that your ads actually received. Google Ads also shows how much share you lost because of budget and how much because of ad rank. This tells you whether your growth mostly depends on budget or on quality and bids.

Why is impression share important?

• Missed opportunities visible: you see how many searches your ad did not reach.
• Budget or quality: the lost shares point to the cause.
• Backs up decisions: you can justify a budget increase or an improvement plan with numbers.

Examples of impression share

• An impression share of 60 percent, with 25 percent lost to budget and 15 percent to rank: you miss 40 percent.
• A brand campaign with an impression share of 95 percent: there is little left to gain.
• A generic campaign with a lot of loss to rank: work on ad quality and bids.

How do you use impression share?

Add impression share and the lost share columns and review them per campaign. A lot of loss to budget calls for more budget or a sharper selection, a lot of loss to rank for better ads and landing pages. See also our Google Ads management.