6 Ways to Improve Impression Share (+ Common Challenges)

Some ways to improve impression share include boosting campaign budgets, optimizing keyword lists, expanding audience targeting, and enabling more ad placements. This guide walks you through all these and more.

Are your pay-per-click (PPC) ads missing out on ad placements, costing you potential conversions?

Tracking Google Ads impression share will tell you the percentage of times your ad was displayed compared to how many times it was eligible to appear, helping you identify valuable optimization opportunities.

In this article, we’ll cover why this metric matters, tips to improve impression share, and common mistakes to avoid in the process.

What is impression share?

Impression share is a Google Ads metric that reflects how many times your ads were shown compared to the number of times they were eligible to appear.

Types of impression share

There are different kinds of impression share, depending on the campaign type, budget, or ad rank:

• Search impression share: The percentage of impressions an ad received vs. the total it was eligible to receive in search campaigns.
• Display impression share: The percentage of impressions an ad received vs. the total it was eligible to receive in display campaigns.
• Search exact match impression share: The percentage of impressions an ad received for search queries that exactly matched keywords on the Search Network.
• Search lost impression share: The percentage of impressions lost in search campaigns due to low Ad Rank.
• Display lost impression share: The percentage of impressions lost in display campaigns due to insufficient budget.
• Search top impression share: The percentage of eligible top-of-page impressions being captured.
• Search absolute top impression share: The percentage of the top (position #1) impression share. This applies to search, hotel, and Shopping campaigns.

How impression share is calculated

Displayed as a percentage, the standard formula for ads on the Search Network and the Display Network is:

Impression Share = Actual Impressions / Eligible Impressions x 100%

For example, if your ad received 500 impressions but was eligible for 1,000, your impression share would be 50%.

This metric is only available for standard Search, Display, and Shopping campaigns.

However, for Shopping campaigns, only the highest-ranked ad from an advertiser counts toward impression share — even if multiple products appear.

Regardless of campaign type, Google Ads determines eligible impressions by considering factors like ad quality, targeting options, and approval status.

What is a good impression share?

As a general rule, 60%-70% is a good impression share for most Google Ads campaigns. But as you’ll see below, several factors affect this metric.

Either way, aiming for 100% impression share every time isn’t a realistic goal.

“‘The higher, the better’ is the wrong approach,” says Domanté Gerdauské, senior digital advertising manager at Omnisend.

“Advertisers should optimize their campaigns to achieve the right balance between visibility, relevance, and cost-effectiveness.”

How to find your impression share data

Google Ads tracks this metric automatically. All you have to do is add it to your campaign, ad group, product group, or keyword dashboard.

6 tips to improve impression share

Could your impression share use a boost? Use the strategies below to optimize this metric.

1. Increase campaign budget and bids
2. Optimize keyword lists
3. Enhance ad quality
4. Rethink audience targeting
5. Review scheduling and device targeting
6. Revisit ad placements

1. Increase campaign budget and bids

Google Ads can show your ads more often when you budget more for a campaign.

Check your campaign status to determine if a low daily budget is costing you impressions. If it shows “Limited,” a higher daily budget could increase impressions.

You can also check your Google Ads recommendations. If you see a recommendation to increase your budget, this could capture more search traffic.

How much should you increase your budget? Use Google Ads’ budget simulator to estimate campaign performance at different budget levels:

Also, use your impression share as a guide. If you’re capturing a small share of available impressions (e.g., 20%), consider a larger increase.

Working with a limited budget? Move some budget from underperforming campaigns to get more impressions and boost performance across your Google Ads account.

Similarly, revisit your current keyword bidding strategies and increase them as necessary. Higher bids can improve Ad Rank, which gives you a better chance in the ad auction and determines if and where your ads display on the SERP.

How much should you raise your bids? Check Google Ads’ estimated recommendations for:

• First-page bid
• Top-of-page bid
• First-position bid

Add any or all of these metrics to your search keyword dashboard. Use them to guide your keyword bid updates.

Remove underperforming keywords to give top-performing keywords a better chance to display — and don’t forget to regularly update your negative keywords.

2. Optimize keyword lists

If your budget doesn’t support your keyword lists, you could end up with low impression share and few clicks to show for it. To increase impression share, pare down your keyword lists.

For instance, pause keywords with a low impression share and:

• Below-average click and conversion metrics
• Low Quality Score

If your exact match impression share is relatively high but your search impression share is relatively low, review your keyword match types and refine your keyword list.

Switching a broad match keyword to phrase match or exact match can capture more of that exact match impression share without wasting ad budget.

To find other keywords to add to your ad group, review your search term report to find top performers.

3. Enhance ad quality

Ad Rank isn’t just about keywords and bids — ad quality plays a big role in when and where your ads appear, and it directly affects impression share.

Follow best practices for your campaign type (e.g., search or display) to boost ad quality.

For search ads, start by reviewing your Quality Score, which includes expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience. Identify keywords with below-average ratings and address them:

• Boost CTR by writing more compelling ad copy with strong offers and clear value.
• Increase ad relevance by including keywords in your ads. Try dynamic keyword insertion to automate this.
• Improve landing page experience by aligning your ad and destination content, speeding up load times, and optimizing for mobile.

For display ads, focus on creative performance. In your Google Ads dashboard, identify low-performing headlines, descriptions, or images and test updated versions.

4. Rethink audience targeting

Audience and location targeting directly affect how many impressions your ads are eligible to receive.

Expanding your targeting (like adding more locations or contextual signals) increases your potential reach. But keep in mind: the broader your targeting, the more budget you’ll need to maintain or grow your impression share.

If increasing impression share is your main goal, consider narrowing your focus. Pause or remove targeting settings tied to low impression share, clicks, or conversions. This allows your budget to work harder in high-performing areas where you’re more likely to win impressions and drive results.

5. Review scheduling and device targeting

Any targeting you apply to your ad campaigns can change the total number of eligible impressions dramatically. Take device targeting and ad scheduling, for example.

If you don’t use these settings, you’ll open up your ads to more potential impressions. However, you’ll need a bigger budget to keep the impression share high.

To increase impression share, add an ad schedule or device targeting based on campaign performance.

That way, you’ll limit available impressions, but you’ll deliver ads as often as possible using the parameters likely to deliver the best results.

6. Revisit ad placements

If you’re using manual placements for display campaigns, the sites and apps you choose directly affect how many impressions your ads can get.

Adding more placements increases your potential impressions — but to maintain or grow impression share across that broader inventory, you’ll likely need a higher budget.

On the other hand, removing underperforming placements helps you focus your budget on high-quality inventory.

While this reduces your total available impressions, it often leads to higher impression share in the placements that are more likely to drive clicks and conversions.

Why impression share matters

Impression share matters because it tells advertisers how visible their ads are and if they’re reaching their full potential.

Impression share is a helpful tool, but it’s not always the most important metric in your campaign strategy.

“Impression share is an important piece of the puzzle,” explains Sam Yadegar, co-founder and CEO of HawkSEM.

“But we believe your strategy should take a quality over quantity approach. In other words, ensure you’re getting in front of the right eyes and not just a more general audience.”

Can a higher impression share make your campaigns more successful? It depends.

Say your conversion and click-through rate (CTR) for a campaign are already above average. If the campaign gets more impressions, it could drive many more clicks and conversions.

In contrast, a low-performing ad probably won’t have as much to gain from a higher impression share. If its conversion rate is low, then investing in more impressions won’t move the needle.

6 common challenges with improving impression share

As you take steps to increase your impression share, beware of common challenges you’re likely to face.

1. Not all impressions are created equal

Not every low impression share score is worth addressing.

If you’re running a competitive brand campaign, you’d want to display your ad above theirs.

“I’d suggest keeping at least 95% impression share (in this instance)”, says Gerdauské. However, it isn’t vital to be that high with your other, more generic campaigns.”

It really depends on the goal, volume, and budget. “The key is to monitor your competitors’ strategies and adjust your campaigns accordingly. Identify areas where competitors outperform you and look for opportunities.”

2. Over-prioritizing impression share

You can pull several levers to improve campaign performance, including Quality Score, Ad Rank, and impression share. Focusing too much on the latter may cause the others to slip, negatively affecting performance.

To focus on the right lever, identify the metrics that matter most for your digital marketing strategy. For example, increasing CTR and conversion rate or lowering cost-per-click (CPC) may have a much bigger effect on campaign outcomes than more impressions ever could.

“One mistake I see advertisers make is obsessing over impression share at the detriment of more important metrics like CTR and conversion rate,” says Josh Neuman, founder of Chummy Tees.

“While a very low impression share indicates a budget issue, once you reach 50%-60% or higher, it’s better to focus on improving ad relevance and landing page experience rather than endlessly chasing 100% impression share.”

Additionally, some competitive keywords are nearly impossible to achieve a high impression share for.

“Advertisers shouldn’t tear their hair out trying to gain share for challenging keywords,” continues Neuman. “Improving other elements of the account often yields better results.”

3. Focusing on percentages over impact

Impression share is just a percentage of the number of impressions an ad could capture. If you pay too much attention to this metric, you’ll ignore the true impact: the gains you can achieve from more impressions.

“One thing advertisers often get wrong about impression share is focusing too much on the raw percentage,” says Will Yang, Head of Growth and Marketing at Instrumentl.

“They see a low impression share percentage and immediately think they need to increase their bids or budget to capture more of those impressions.”

As an expert, Yang says he always advises looking deeper at metrics like CTRs and conversion rates at different impression share levels.

“Often, just a small increase in impression share delivers most of the value, while pushing it higher brings diminishing returns,” he adds.

4. Misdiagnosing low impression share

Many advertisers instinctively increase their budget to overcome low impression share. While budget is often the issue, it isn’t always the problem.

In many cases, your Google Ads dashboard can tell you whether a low budget or Ad Rank is causing low impression share.

On your Google Ads dashboard, add:

• Search lost IS (rank)
• Search lost IS (budget)
• Display lost IS (rank)
• Display lost IS (budget)

When the rank-related lost impression share scores are high, you’ll know that ad quality and Ad Rank are key issues. In that case, ad optimization can regain lost ground.

When the budget-related lost impression share scores are high, you’ll know that budget is the main issue. If so, increase the budget to improve impression share.

5. Neglecting your long-term strategy

When you need to improve ad or campaign visibility, don’t wait until the last minute to take action. That way, you’ll have plenty of time to test strategies to improve impression share.

You’ll also have ample opportunities to get your ads in front of your target audience and meet your campaign goals.

“We may rely less on paid ads during holiday seasons when custom-printed gifts are in demand,” says Michael Nemeroff, CEO and co-founder of Rush Order Tees.

“However, we’d like to see our reach up to a healthy level during [the] off season, when we rely on more generic uses for our products — like private parties, group events, and business conferences. That would usually mean increasing our bids early on to allow the impact of our ads to build on our target audience.”

Nemeroff adds that, “We can’t plan to increase our impressions too late in the season if we want to generate sales throughout. We really need our ads to be pushed toward people searching for these items and related terms to consistently drive revenue.”

6. Lacking deeper insights into the buyer’s journey

Tracking is an essential part of any digital marketing campaign. But tracking impression share is just the beginning. You need more nuanced PPC tracking to fully understand impression share trends and resulting conversions.

That’s why we use ConversionIQ (CIQ) for client campaigns. It tracks each step of the buyer’s journey so we can see what’s really working. Even better, we can apply CIQ insights to other marketing channels (e.g., paid social or search engine optimization) to get more value from the data.

The takeaway

Impression share is an important metric for successful Google Ads campaigns, as it directly affects campaign visibility. But it’s far from the only metric that contributes to a high-performing campaign.

Curious about how HawkSEM could improve your impression share and overall Google Ads performance? Contact our experienced team to learn how we can help you.

This article has been updated and was originally published in April 2024.