Search Impression Share

What AdGradr checks

AdGradr separates impression share (IS) loss into two distinct categories because the fix is completely different for each. This is one of the most important checks in the audit.

Three conditions are evaluated:

• 30%+ impression share lost to budget. Your campaigns are running out of money before the day ends.
• 30%+ impression share lost to rank. Your ads are not competitive enough to show.
• Brand campaign with less than 80% impression share. Competitors are capturing searches from people already looking for you.

Brand campaign detection uses the same brand pattern builder as the Brand vs Non-Brand Ratio check, matching on domain terms, headline content, and account name.

Why this matters

Impression share tells you how much of your addressable market you are actually reaching. Losing IS to budget means your campaigns are running out of money before the day ends. You are missing qualified searches simply because the budget ran dry. Losing IS to rank means your ads are not competitive enough to show. These are two fundamentally different problems with different solutions.

What good looks like

• Non-brand campaigns: 60%+ search impression share, with losses split roughly evenly between budget and rank.
• Brand campaigns: 80%+ search impression share. Your brand terms are the cheapest, highest-converting traffic you own. Losing brand IS means competitors are showing on your name.
• Budget-lost IS under 20% across the account.
• Rank-lost IS under 20% across the account.

Common mistakes

1. Treating all IS loss the same. Budget loss needs more spend. Rank loss needs better Quality Scores, more relevant ads, or higher bids. Throwing money at a rank problem does not fix it.
2. Ignoring brand impression share. If your brand IS is below 80%, competitors are bidding on your name and capturing searches from people who already know you. That is the cheapest traffic to protect.
3. Chasing 100% IS on non-brand. Full impression share on competitive non-brand terms is expensive and rarely efficient. Focus on incremental profitability, not maximum coverage.
4. Not checking IS at the campaign level. Account-level IS averages can hide a campaign that is severely budget-constrained while another has plenty of headroom.

How to fix it

For budget-constrained campaigns (IS lost to budget):

1. Check if the campaign is profitable. If CPA or ROAS is within target, increase the daily budget in 20% increments.
2. If budget is fixed, reduce keyword scope. Pause lower-performing keywords or tighten match types to concentrate spend on what converts.
3. Review your ad schedule. If conversions cluster in certain hours, use ad scheduling to focus budget on peak times.

For rank-constrained campaigns (IS lost to rank):

1. Check Quality Scores. Keywords below QS 5 are dragging rank down. Improve ad relevance and landing page experience for those keywords.
2. Review ad copy relevance. Ensure headlines include the target keyword and match search intent.
3. If Quality Scores are already strong (7+), the issue is bid level. Increase bids or switch to a more aggressive bidding strategy.

For brand campaigns under 80% IS:

1. Ensure brand keywords are in their own campaign with dedicated budget.
2. Set bids high enough to maintain top position (Manual CPC is fine here).
3. If competitors are bidding on your brand, consider raising bids and filing a trademark complaint with Google if applicable.

When to ignore this check

• Niche B2B accounts with very small search volume may show volatile IS numbers. A 30% budget loss on 50 total impressions is not meaningful.
• Deliberately capped budgets during a testing phase. If you are intentionally limiting spend to validate performance, low IS is expected and acceptable.

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