AdWords Adds Impression Share Reporting

DEFINITION: SOV = Share of Voice. The total percentage that you possess of the particular niche, market, or audience you are targeting. Via Email Universe

Google said on the AdWords blog that its new Impression Share metric resembles share of voice. “It represents the percentage of times your ads were actually shown in relation to the total number of chances your ads could have been shown, based on your keyword and campaign settings,” they noted.

The blog also gave an overview of the three reporting columns related to Impression Share:

Impression Share (IS): The percentage of times your ads were shown out of the total available impressions in the market you were targeting. This metric is available at the campaign and account level for search.

Lost IS (Rank): The percentage of impressions lost due to low Ad Rank (cost-per-click bid x Quality Score).

Lost IS (Budget): The percentage of impressions lost due to budget constraints.

The use of ad targeting makes Impression Share important to know. Google gave an example of a small business campaign targeting a single state with ad scheduling:

The above conditions help establish your ads’ total opportunities to show. Any opportunities to show outside of Arizona or on the weekends do not count against your Impression Share since Impression Share is only measured against the opportunities you’re interested in.

Not every advertiser’s goal is to appear each time his or her ads have the opportunity to show; however, Impression Share is a convenient way to assess shifts in the competitive landscape as well as ways to diagnose where you’re losing Impression Share.

Knowing more about one’s share of impressions should be helpful for making campaigns more effective. A high Impression Share for a campaign that earned a low conversion rate may be showing how a landing page needs some work, for example.