Search Impression Share
What AdGradr checks
Section titled “What AdGradr checks”AdGradr evaluates how much of the available search impression inventory your campaigns are capturing, split into budget loss and rank loss. The thresholds are tighter than the Google check because Bing’s lower competition means impression share is naturally higher. Losing 20% on Bing is more notable than losing 20% on Google.
AdGradr flags accounts where significant impression share is lost to budget (campaigns running out of daily budget before the day ends), where significant impression share is lost to rank (ads not competitive enough in bids, quality, or both), and where brand campaigns fall below 85% impression share (which should be higher on Bing given less competition for branded terms).
Why this matters
Section titled “Why this matters”Impression share is a direct measure of opportunity cost. Every impression you miss is a potential click and conversion going to a competitor or simply not happening. On Bing, where total search volume is already lower than Google, each lost impression represents a larger percentage of your addressable market. Losing 20% of Bing impressions might mean losing 20% of your only alternative to Google traffic.
The budget vs. rank split tells you different stories. Budget loss means you need more money or better allocation. Rank loss means your ads need improvement (relevance, bids, landing pages).
What good looks like
Section titled “What good looks like”- Non-brand campaigns: 80%+ search impression share, with losses split reasonably between budget and rank.
- Brand campaigns: 85%+ search impression share. Anything below this on Bing suggests a bidding or budget problem, since competition for your brand terms on this platform is typically minimal.
- Low “lost to budget” numbers across all campaigns, indicating budgets are set appropriately for the available demand.
Common mistakes
Section titled “Common mistakes”- Ignoring impression share because “Bing is just supplemental.” If you are spending money on the platform, you should be capturing the available demand efficiently.
- Setting the same budgets as Google. Bing needs lower daily budgets, but many advertisers set them too low and lose impression share unnecessarily. A $50/day Google campaign might only need $20/day on Bing, but setting it to $10 creates artificial budget loss.
- Assuming rank loss means “bid higher.” Rank loss is a composite of bid, quality score, and ad relevance. Raising bids without improving quality is expensive and temporary.
- Not monitoring brand impression share. On Bing, your competitors can bid on your brand terms cheaply. If brand IS drops below 85%, someone may be poaching your branded traffic.
How to fix it
Section titled “How to fix it”- Check impression share columns at the campaign level (add “Search IS,” “Search lost IS (budget),” and “Search lost IS (rank)” columns).
- For budget loss: increase daily budgets on campaigns with strong ROAS, or reallocate budget from underperforming campaigns.
- For rank loss: review Quality Score components (expected CTR, ad relevance, landing page experience) and address the weakest factor.
- For brand IS below 85%: check the auction insights report for competitors bidding on your terms and increase brand bids if needed.
When to ignore this check
Section titled “When to ignore this check”Low impression share in the first 7 days of a new campaign is expected while the platform calibrates. Highly niche B2B accounts with very low search volume may show volatile IS percentages that are not actionable. If your non-brand campaigns are profitable at current spend levels and you have no budget to increase, moderate IS loss is an acceptable tradeoff.
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