Impression Share
The percentage of total available impressions your ads actually received, out of the total they were eligible for.
Full definition
Impression Share (IS) shows how often your ads are showing relative to how often they could show. Calculated as: Impressions Received ÷ Total Eligible Impressions. There are several variants: Search Impression Share (for search ads), Display IS, and Lost IS — split between Lost IS (Budget) and Lost IS (Rank). If you're losing impression share due to budget, increasing your daily budget will capture more impressions. If losing due to rank, improving bids or Quality Score is required. High impression share (80%+) for core brand terms is typically a baseline goal. For competitive non-brand terms, 40–60% may be realistic for most advertisers.
Real-world example
A software company has 35% impression share lost to budget for their core non-brand keyword. Increasing the campaign budget by 40% expands their impression share from 48% to 72%.
Related terms
Google's system for determining the position and eligibility of ads in search results, based on bid, Quality Score, and other factors.
Read definitionGoogle Ads' 1–10 rating for each keyword reflecting the expected relevance of your ad and landing page to a user's search.
Read definitionThe percentage of users who click on an ad or link after seeing it, calculated as clicks divided by impressions.
Read definitionThe amount an advertiser pays each time a user clicks on their ad.
Read definitionReady to apply this to your business?
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