Impression share data provides valuable insights into how often your ads are shown for queries that you're participating in. This metric is calculated by taking the percentage of impressions that your ads receive compared to the total number of impressions that your ads could get.
Eligible impressions are estimated using many factors, including targeting settings, approval statuses and quality. Impression share is a good way to understand whether your ads might reach more people if you increase your bid or budget.
This article shows you how to view impression share data and get more information on how impression share works.
How impressions and impression share are calculated
Google has updated the calculation for travel promotion ads for things to do to better align with search ads and other Google verticals.
- Impression counting: All ads on the carousel receive an impression. This ensures consistency with how carousel impressions are measured across other Google platforms.
- Impression share calculation: To calculate impression share, only your highest-ranked travel promotion ad is assigned an impression and an eligible impression. This aligns with the logic used for search text ads, so you can compare opportunities across the travel promotion ad and text ad formats.
Example
A traveller searches for 'beach resorts'. Your account has 4 ads eligible to be shown in the carousel, and your 2 highest-ranked ads appear.
- Standard impression: 2 (all ads shown are counted)
- Eligible impressions: 1 (only the highest-ranked is considered)
- Impression share: 100%
The calculation: 1 (highest-ranked ad)/ 1 (eligible opportunity) = 100%
This allows you to compare reach consistently across the travel promotion ad and standard text formats.
Before you begin
If this article is your first introduction to impression share, learn more about impression share.
Access impression share reports
You can access impression share reports through the Google Ads user interface (UI) or the application programming interface (API). For the Google Ads user interface (UI), you can follow the steps mentioned below:
- Go to Campaigns within the Campaigns menu.
- At the top, click the All campaigns drop-down menu.
- Select Travel campaigns.
- Select the columns icon
and then All columns.
- Scroll down to select Competitive metrics and tick the boxes next to 'Search impr share', 'Search top IS' and 'Search abs top IS'.
- Select Apply.
and then All columns.Which metrics to view
Here are some metrics to help you understand your impression share:
- Search impression share: The impressions that you’ve received on the Search Network divided by the estimated number of impressions you're eligible to receive.
- Search abs top IS: The impressions that you’ve received in the leftmost position of the travel promotion ad carousel unit divided by the estimated number of impressions that you're eligible to receive in the leftmost position.
