Impression share
Advertising
Advertising
Impression share is the share of impressions your ads received compared with the number of times they were eligible to appear.
Get 300 impressions where you were eligible for 1,000 and your impression share is 30%. The missing 70% splits into two causes reported separately: lost to budget and lost to rank (quality and bid).
That split decides your action. Losing to budget means volume you could capture with more budget or tighter targeting. Losing to rank means more budget will not help; work on ad relevance, landing page and bid instead.
Alongside plain impression share there is top and absolute top share: how often you appeared above the organic results or in position one. Useful when brand visibility matters.
In practice
Chasing 100%. The last slice is usually the most expensive and least relevant — steer on profitable volume, not on a full percentage.
Related terms
- ImpressionsAn impression is one view of your ad or search result. Ten impressions can therefore belong to one person.
- Quality scoreQuality score is Google's 1–10 estimate of how relevant your keyword, ad and landing page are. A higher score lowers your cost per click.
- Daily budgetA daily budget is the amount you let an ad campaign spend per day; platforms settle over a period and can spend up to roughly double on busy days.
- CPCCPC is the price you pay per click on your ad. Your average CPC is ad spend divided by clicks.