How can I increase my impression share in Google Ads?

By: Jyll Saskin Gales, Google Ads Coach

Impression Share is a key metric that measures the percentage of times your ads are shown compared to the total number of times they could have shown. A higher Impression Share generally indicates that your ads are being seen more often by potential customers.

Many advertisers want to know how to increase impression share, but this leads to a critical question: is a higher Impression Share always better?

While it can be a valuable indicator of your visibility, chasing a high score can be a trap. The real goal isn't just to blindly increase Impression Share in Google Ads, but to find the profitable "sweet spot" where you have strong visibility without overspending.

This guide will show you how to diagnose your current situation and use four key levers to strategically manage and improve your Impression Share.

Step 1: Diagnose Why You're Losing Impression Share

Before you can work on a solution, you need to know why you're losing impressions. Google Ads gives you two clear reasons: Budget and Ad Rank.

To find this data, navigate to the Campaign view in your Google Ads account, click on "Columns," then "Modify columns." Under "Competitive metrics," add the following two columns to your report:

• Search lost IS (budget): The percentage of impressions you lost because your daily budget was too low.
• Search lost IS (rank): The percentage of impressions you lost because of poor Ad Rank (which is determined by your bid and ad quality).

Once you see which factor is the primary cause, you can focus on the right solution.

Pro Tip: If you are using a "Maximize" bid strategy, like Maximize Conversions or Maximize Clicks, then the difference between these two columns is not meaningful, and you should assume you're losing impression share due to both rank and budget.

Step 2: How to Increase Search Impression Share: 4 Key Levers

There are four primary ways to influence your Impression Share. The first three involve doing more, while the fourth, and 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. This allows your ads to enter more auctions throughout the day. However, budget is not an infinite lever; there are only so many relevant searches, and at some point, you'll need to address your Ad Rank.

Lever 2: Increase Your Bids

If you're losing impressions due to Ad Rank, increasing your bids is one-half of the solution. Higher bids can help you win more auctions. How you do this depends on your bidding strategy:

• Manual Bidding: Directly increase your keyword or ad group Max CPC bids.
• Target CPA: Increase your CPA target to give the algorithm more room to bid higher.
• Target ROAS: Decrease your ROAS target to allow for higher bids.
• Maximize Conversions/Value: With these strategies, increasing your budget gives the algorithm the fuel it needs to bid more aggressively in valuable auctions.

Lever 3: Improve Your Ad Quality

This is the other, more powerful half of the puzzle for those wondering how to improve impression share. Improving your Quality Score allows you to win more auctions without increasing your bids. Focus on:

• Ad Relevance: Ensure your ad copy and landing pages are tightly aligned with your keywords.
• Expected Click-Through Rate (CTR): Write compelling ads that users want to click on.
• Landing Page Experience: Make sure your website is fast, easy to navigate, and provides a good user experience.

Lever 4: Decrease Your Targeting (The "Shrink the Pie" Method)

This is the strategy most people forget. Instead of trying to get a bigger slice of a huge pie, you can make the pie smaller. By narrowing your focus while keeping your budget and bids constant, you can increase Impression Share in Google Ads for the market that matters most.

Consider doing less:

• Target smaller geographic areas (e.g., a city instead of a whole state).
• Pause underperforming ad groups or keywords.
• Switch from Broad Match to more restrictive match types like Phrase or Exact Match.

Finding the Right Balance: Why 100% Impression Share Isn't the Goal

It's crucial to remember that metrics are morally neutral; there is no universally "good" or "bad" Impression Share. I've seen client accounts with a 60% non-brand Impression Share that were completely unprofitable because their CPCs were through the roof. Too high of an Impression Share can mean you are over-invested. A lower, more targeted share can often be far more profitable.

Don't treat Impression Share as a vanity metric. Use the "Lost IS" columns as a diagnostic tool to understand your opportunities. Then, use the four levers - Budget, Bids, Quality, and Targeting - to find your answer to "how to improve Search Impression Share." The goal is to strategically manage your visibility and find the profitable equilibrium that drives real results for your business.