Impression share
Impression share is the percentage of eligible impressions your ads actually received. The lost share tells you whether budget or rank held you back.
In the platformSearch
Search impr. share
Impression share is the percentage of eligible impressions your ads actually received. The lost share tells you whether budget or rank held you back.
Eligibility depends on targeting, approval status and quality. On Google Search the lost share has two causes:
- Lost to budget: the campaign ran out of money or was held back to stay within it. That is demand you could buy with more money.
- Lost to rank: your Ad Rank was too low to show. The bid, ad or landing page needs work first.
Where you'll see it
In Google Ads, add the Competitive metrics columns: "Search impr. share", "Search lost IS (budget)" and "Search lost IS (rank)", plus "Search top IS" and "Search abs. top IS" for position. The Auction insights report (Insights and reports > Auction insights) compares your share with other advertisers. Meta and TikTok have no equivalent; reach and frequency are the closest signals.
Example
- Impression share: 6,000 of an estimated 10,000
- 60%
- Lost to budget: about 2,500 impressions
- 25%
- Lost to rank
- 15%
If this campaign converts profitably at its current CPA, those 2,500 impressions are demand a higher budget could reach. The 15% lost to rank needs better ads or bids, not money.
Do
- Raise the budget on clearly profitable campaigns losing share to budget
- Fix ads and bids first when the loss is mostly rank
Don't
- Chase 100% share on broad, low-intent terms
- Treat it as a precise count; eligible impressions are Google’s estimate