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.

Factors That Affect Impression Share in Google Ads

There are two main factors that affect your Impression Share:

• Budget: Your budget determines how much you are willing to spend on ads. If your budget is too low, you will not be able to compete for as many impressions.
• Ad Rank: Your ad rank is determined by a number of factors, including your Quality Score and your bids. If your ad rank is low, your ads will be less likely to be shown.

How to Increase Your Impression Share in Google Ads

If you want to increase your Impression Share, you can try:

• Increasing your budget: This will allow you to compete for more impressions. Increasing your budget can only get you so far, though - at some point, you'll also need to improve your Ad Rank.
• Improving your Quality Score: Your Quality Score is a measure of how relevant and effective your ads are. You can improve your Quality Score by making your ads more relevant to the search terms that people are using. This, in turn, will improve your ad rank.
• Increasing your bids: Higher bids can help you win more auctions and show more impressions. However, you don't want to increase your bids too far, or your investment will become unprofitable.

You can use the Lost Impression Share columns in your campaign reports to see how many impressions you are losing due to budget vs due to ad rank.

Is higher Impression Share always better?

It is important to note that a higher Impression Share does not necessarily mean that you will get more conversions. If your ads are not relevant to the search terms that people are using, then users will not be likely to click on them, even if they are shown.

Additionally, it is important to consider the cost of increasing your Impression Share. If you increase your budget and/or bids too much, you may end up spending more money on ads than you are making in revenue. Not worth it!

Here's the deal with Impression Share

Impression Share is a valuable metric that can help you understand how your ads are performing. By increasing your budget and improving your ad rank, you can increase your Impression Share and get your ads in front of more potential customers. 

Focus on finding a sweet spot where you're achieving a good level of visibility without overspending. If you're already capturing a significant portion of the available impressions, the cost of pushing even higher might outweigh the benefits.