How to read your brand campaign's impression share when others bidHow to read your brand campaign's impression share when others bid

Yourbrand's brand campaign has shown on 97% of the searches it was eligible for, week after week, for a year. In October that figure barely moves, but the campaign's average cost per click goes from £0.20 to £0.31, and the click-through rate drops by a fifth. Nothing changed on Yourbrand's side. The headline column says all is well, and the columns next to it say something else.

Auction insights tells you who else is in your auctions, from their side. This guide is about your side: the impression share columns on your own brand campaign, which show what others' bidding is doing to where your ad appears. Each answers a slightly different question, and the difference between them is usually the story.

Three questions, three columns

• Did you show at all? Search impr. share: the impressions you got on the Search Network, divided by the number Google estimates you were eligible for. This is your impression share.
• Were you at the top? Search top IS: your impressions among the ads above the results, divided by the number of top impressions Google estimates you were eligible for.
• Were you first? Search abs. top IS: your impressions as the very first ad, divided by the same estimate of top impressions you were eligible for.

On a brand campaign all three usually sit high, because your ad is the most relevant answer to your own name. Another advertiser bidding on your name tends to show in the last of them first. It may never push you off the page, or out of the top ads, and still take the first place on some searches. That's why Search top IS and Search abs. top IS are the columns to watch, more than the headline share.

The lost columns: rank or budget

For each share, Google gives the reason the rest was missed, in pairs. Search lost IS (rank) and Search lost IS (budget) cover the page; Search lost top IS and Search lost abs. top IS cover the top and the first place, each with a (rank) and a (budget) version.

• (rank) means the ad's Ad Rank wasn't high enough: its bid, its quality or the competition in that auction. Search lost IS (rank) is the page-level one.
• (budget) means the budget ran short. Google gives Search lost IS (budget) at campaign level only.

On your name, budget losses usually mean your own settings: a capped daily budget that runs out by the evening leaves the night's searches to whoever else is there. Rank losses on your own name are the ones another bidder can cause, because its Ad Rank is what yours is measured against.

Read the sum from the top. Yourbrand still shows on almost every search and is still among the top ads on most. What it lost is the first place, on about a quarter of searches, and Google puts that down to rank, not budget. With no change of its own, the likely reason is another ad with a higher Ad Rank on those searches. The rising cost per click fits: your actual CPC is the least needed to keep your position, given the Ad Rank of the ad below yours, and an advertiser close behind you raises it whether or not it overtakes you.

Rates are not shares

Two more columns look like the same thing. Impr. (Top) % is the share of your impressions that were among the top ads, and Impr. (Abs. Top) % the share that were the very first ad. They divide by the impressions you received, not the ones you were eligible for. So if an advertiser keeps you off some searches altogether, your Impr. (Abs. Top) % can stay high on the searches where you did show, while your Search abs. top IS falls.

Google counts both rates at no more than one impression per advertiser per search, and it advises against using them as bid targets, because a higher bid can take you into more competitive auctions in a lower place. For a brand campaign, read the shares to see how often you're first, and the rates to see where you sat when you showed.

What the numbers can't tell you

• Who. None of these columns names another advertiser; Auction insights does, by display domain, for the same auctions.
• Auctions your campaign didn't enter. If your brand campaign doesn't reach “yourbrand discount code”, its shares say nothing about those searches.
• Exact small numbers. Google's API reports a share below 10% as 9.99% and a lost share above 90% as 90.01%.
• A certainty. Google calls impression share an estimate, says small changes over time don't necessarily mean action is needed, and updates it within one to two days.

How to read them, step by step

1. In Google Ads, open Campaigns and select your brand campaign. From the columns icon, under Competitive metrics, add Search impr. share, Search top IS, Search abs. top IS, Search lost IS (rank), Search lost IS (budget), Search lost top IS (rank) and Search lost abs. top IS (rank).
2. Add Impr. (Top) %, Impr. (Abs. Top) %, Avg. CPC and CTR beside them.
3. Set the date range to the last six months and segment by week. Mark the weeks with changes of your own from Change history: bids, targets, budgets, keywords and ads.
4. Read the page first: Search impr. share, with lost to budget and lost to rank. If budget is the loss, fix that before reading anything else.
5. Then the top: Search top IS and Search abs. top IS by week. Note the first week either fell with nothing changed on your side.
6. Put Avg. CPC and CTR beside those weeks. A first place lost, a rising price and a falling click-through rate together point to another ad above yours on some searches.
7. Open Auction insights for the same weeks, segmented by week, and find the domain whose share or position above rate rose when yours fell.
8. If your campaign doesn't enter the code searches, it can't show them; check those separately, at different hours, without clicking any ad.

The ordinary explanations

A change in these columns has many causes, most of them on your own side. Rule these out first.

• A change of yours: a new bid strategy or target, a lower bid, a paused keyword, a new ad or landing page that changed your ad's quality.
• A budget that now runs out earlier in the day, which shows as lost to budget and often hides at night.
• New keywords or a broader match type, which add auctions to the eligible count and lower the share without anything being lost.
• Another campaign of yours entering the same searches, so the impressions are split between your own campaigns.
• A reseller, a competitor or a partner your terms allow, bidding on your name in the open.
• A season or a sale, with more searches and more advertisers interested in them.

If an advertiser on your name turns out to be a partner outside your terms, the guide to who's bidding covers how to identify it, and the guide to what it costs puts a figure on the price change.