The manual way comes first, in Google Ads itself. Then the same problem as Goldbeater finds it, every day, without anyone asking.
The search impression share formula is impressions received over impressions eligible.
Google’s formula is short: impression share is the impressions you received divided by the total impressions you were eligible for. The eligible figure is Google’s estimate, and it rests on your targeting, your ads’ approval and their quality.
A campaign that received 6,000 impressions out of an estimated 10,000 it was eligible for has a search impression share of 6,000 ÷ 10,000, or 60%.
For Search, three columns do the work. Google defines them this way:
- Search impr. share is the impressions you received on the Search Network divided by the estimated number you were eligible to receive.
- Search lost IS (budget) is the percentage of time your ads weren’t shown on the Search Network because the budget ran short. It’s reported for campaigns only.
- Search lost IS (rank) is the percentage of time your ads weren’t shown because their Ad Rank in the auction was too low.
The split says what would win the missing searches back. Budget buys back the first kind. Only Ad Rank wins the second, and Google builds Ad Rank from your bid, the quality of your ads and landing page, the thresholds an ad must clear, the competition in the auction, the context of the search, and the expected effect of your assets. The Ad Rank guide takes each in turn.
How to read it in Google Ads
- Go to Campaigns › Campaigns.
- Select the columns icon, open Competitive metrics and tick Search impr. share, Search lost IS (rank) and Search lost IS (budget). Select Apply.
- Set the date range to the last 30 days. Google says these figures can take 24 to 48 hours to update, so the last two days may still move.
- Put each campaign’s conversions and its return beside them: cost per conversion, or conversion value over cost, whichever your account is run on.
Then read each row as a sentence: of the searches it could have shown on, the campaign showed on this share, and missed this much for budget and this much for rank.
| Campaign | Search impr. share | Search lost IS (budget) | Search lost IS (rank) | Conversions | Return |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brand — Exact | 94% | 2% | 4% | 25.5 | 9.10× |
| Sofas — Phrase | 65% | 28% | 7% | 21.1 | 4.40× |
| Rugs — Broad | 57% | 31% | 12% | 3.8 | 1.20× |
| Dining tables — Exact | 44% | 5% | 51% | 44 | 8.00× |
| Beds — Phrase | 41% | 6% | 53% | 13 | 5.10× |
How to improve impression share: win back the searches that pay
Lost to budget. If the campaign meets its target and you’d buy more at that price, raise the budget. Filter the campaigns table by Status to Limited by budget, and the chart icon beside each one shows Google’s budget options. The limited by budget guide says when raising it pays and when to fix what the campaign buys first.
Lost to rank, in a campaign that pays. Google names two ways to improve Ad Rank: improve the quality of your ads and landing page, or increase your bid.
- On a target-based strategy, loosen the target a step: a higher target CPA, or a lower target ROAS, lets bidding pay more for these auctions. Google says a changed target won’t trigger a Learning status, and to wait one or two conversion cycles before you judge the result. The Target ROAS guide covers what a lower target does.
- On manual bids, raise the bids on the keywords that convert.
- On the ads and the page, write headlines that answer the search and send it to a page about what was searched. Google says higher quality ads can often lead to lower costs per click, so this is the fix that can make the clicks cheaper too. Reading Quality Score shows which part to work on.
Lost to rank, in a campaign that doesn’t pay. Leave it. The auction is turning down a bet that loses money, and winning more of those searches would lose more.
Lost to rank, on too few conversions to tell. Wait. A return read off a dozen conversions moves with each one, so let the campaign convert more before you loosen its target or raise its bids.
To see which advertisers took those searches, and which of your keywords are worth winning them back for, read the Auction insights guide.
For a campaign on your own brand name, where the first place on the page matters more than any place, the branded keywords guide covers Search abs. top IS and Target impression share.
What it looks like when Goldbeater finds it
Goldbeater reads each enabled campaign’s impression share over the last 30 days, once it has spent on at least 14 of them, so a new campaign isn’t judged while its bidding is still learning. It raises a finding when a campaign loses at least 20% of its search impressions to rank, more than it loses to budget, and has bought more conversions than your typical campaign’s rate would, by more than chance explains. It raises it only where there’s something to move: a target CPA or target ROAS the campaign isn’t missing, or manual bids. It marks it medium at 50% lost to rank, where the campaign carries a thousandth of the account’s spend or more.
It drafts no change. Whether to loosen a target, raise bids or rework the ads turns on things the account doesn’t show, like your margin, so the finding gives the figures and says where to start. A campaign losing to budget, or held back by a target it has never reached, raises a different finding instead, and a campaign raises at most one of the four.
In the sample table, Dining tables — Exact is the campaign it raises. At the account’s typical return its $2,200 would have brought 28 sales the size of its own, and it brought 44, more than chance explains. Beds — Phrase loses as much to rank and isn’t raised: on 13 conversions its return can’t be told from the typical campaign’s, so the half of its searches it loses to rank isn’t yet evidence of anything. Goldbeater raises that campaign for bidding to a target on too few conversions instead, a finding the Smart Bidding guide shows.
Dining tables — Exact loses 51% of impressions to ad rank
Dining tables — Exact
It bought 44 conversions in 30 days where the typical campaign's rate would buy 28: under a 0.4% chance of so many by luck, allowing for the 1 campaign tested across the account.
- Impression share
- 44%
- Lost to rank
- 51%
- Lost to budget
- 5%
- ROAS
- 8.00
- Typical campaign's ROAS
- 5.10
- Target ROAS
- 6.00
- Cost
- $2,200
- Conv.
- 44
- Conv. value
- $17,600
- Daily budget
- $95
- Days at its budget
- 0
A campaign converting better than your typical one, by more than chance explains, losing a fifth or more of its searches to ad rank, and more to rank than to budget, where you have a lever: a target CPA or ROAS it isn't missing, set on enough conversions, or manual bids. A bigger budget won't win those back; a looser target or higher bids can, and where Google has simulated its target, the finding gives the estimate. Campaigns bidding to spend their budget, and ones held by a bid limit, are left to the checks that judge those. A campaign Google says is still learning after a change waits, and one whose budget, target or bid strategy changed is judged on the days since.
Google bids to its target ROAS of 6.00 and loses 51% of its searches on ad rank, which more budget wouldn't buy. Lowering the target a step, to about 5.00, lets Google bid higher for more of them, at a lower return. Judge it after a conversion cycle or two. Ads and landing pages that answer the search better raise ad rank at the same bid too.
The steps under What to do are the fix. Goldbeater drafts no change for this one.
This is “A campaign converting well, losing searches to ad rank” on a sample account. See what it finds in your own account and what the fix is worth, and ask your AI analyst about any finding.
Get a free first lookQuestions
- What is the search impression share formula?
- Impressions received on the Search Network, divided by the impressions Google estimates you were eligible to receive. 6,000 of an estimated 10,000 is 60%.
- What’s a good search impression share?
- There isn’t one number. A share is only worth raising where the searches you’d win would pay, so read it beside the campaign’s return, not on its own.
- Why is Search lost IS (budget) missing on my ad groups?
- Google reports it for campaigns only. It also leaves Search lost IS (rank) off the ad groups page if the campaign ran out of budget at any point in the date range.
- Why does impression share show a dash?
- Google says a dash can mean there isn’t enough data yet, from low traffic or new keywords, and that the figures take 24 to 48 hours to update.