What is impression share?

How much of the market did your ad sit out?

Impression share answers that in one number. If it reads 38 percent, then of every 100 searches your settings say you wanted, your ad appeared on 38. The other 62 people searched for what you sell, in your area, and saw someone else. For a business that runs on enquiries, that is the clearest picture Google gives of how much demand is going past.

The number is an estimate, and Google says the data can take 24 to 48 hours to update. Treat it as a direction over weeks, not a score for yesterday.

Was the missing share lost to budget or to rank?

The two columns beside it tell you, and each has its own fix. Search lost IS (budget) is the share you missed because the daily budget ran out, often by early afternoon, so the ad sat out every search after that. Search lost IS (rank) is the share you missed because your Ad Rank was too low to show at all, which comes from the bid, the quality of the ad and page, or both.

The three numbers add up to 100. A campaign at 38 percent, with 47 lost to budget and 15 lost to rank, has a money question. One at 38 with 5 lost to budget and 57 lost to rank has a quality or bid question, and extra budget would barely help it.

What would a Toowoomba pest controller's missing searches cost? (example figures)

A pest control business in Toowoomba with two technicians spends $40 a day on a search campaign for termite inspections and general pest treatment. Last month the campaign showed 3,800 times at a CTR of 5 percent, which gave 190 clicks at $4.50. One click in eight became a booked job.

At this campaign's own rates, the searches lost to budget were worth about 29 more jobs for about $1,058 more a month. The rates will not hold perfectly as spend rises, because the extra searches include later hours and less likely ones. Even so, the owner now knows the size of the decision: about $35 more a day for a figure in the region of two dozen jobs, or narrowing the campaign to termite inspections, where the job is largest, and winning more of those.

How do you add the impression share columns?

In Google Ads, open Campaigns, click Columns, then Modify columns, and open Competitive metrics. Tick Search impr. share, Search lost IS (budget) and Search lost IS (rank). Search top IS and Search abs. top IS sit in the same list and say how often you appeared above the free results and in the very first position. The campaign row is the place to start. Keyword rows need far more searches before the figure means anything.

What can Cora tell you about impression share?

CoraVision reads each campaign's budget, bidding type, impressions and spend every night once Google Ads is connected, which is the context the share figure needs. The impression share columns themselves are read on your screen during a session you start, and the split between budget and rank decides which step goes into your action plan. Any budget change is yours to make: CoraVision never changes a campaign.