Impression Share
The percentage of total available impressions your ads actually received, out of all impressions you were eligible for. Low impression share means you are missing opportunities because of budget or ad rank limitations.
Impression Share Tells You What You Are Missing
An impression share of 60% means you are showing your ads for only 60 out of every 100 eligible searches. The other 40 are going to competitors — or nobody. For high-intent keywords where every search could be a potential customer, missing 40% of impressions is like closing your store two days a week.
Branded vs Non-Branded Impression Share
For your own brand terms, target 95%+ impression share. If a competitor is bidding on your brand name and you are not showing up, they are stealing bottom-of-funnel traffic. For non-branded keywords, 60-80% impression share is a reasonable target — 100% is often too expensive and indicates you should be expanding to more keywords instead.
Diagnosing Impression Share Losses
Google breaks losses into two categories: lost to budget and lost to rank. Budget losses are straightforward — increase daily budget. Rank losses require improving Quality Score, increasing bids, or both. Check both metrics to know where to invest.
Frequently Asked Questions
What impression share should you target?
For branded keywords: 90%+ (you should own your own brand terms). For high-intent non-branded: 60-80%. For broader terms: 30-50% depending on budget. If impression share is below 50% for high-intent keywords, you are leaving pipeline on the table by either under-budgeting or under-optimizing.
What causes low impression share?
Two causes: lost to budget (your daily budget runs out before all eligible impressions are served) and lost to rank (your ad rank is not high enough to show). Budget losses are solved by increasing spend. Rank losses are solved by improving Quality Score and bids.
