Part Three-Decrypting Google Ads’ advanced Impression Share metrics

Google Ads can be complicated.

In the last two days, I have broken down Impression Share and Lost Impression Share metrics.

Today is about Impression Share metrics that tell you about ad positioning.

Until 2019, there was a metric called “Average Position”, which is no longer available.

Because in a perfect world, we shouldn’t care about our ad position. We should set a target CPA and Target ROAS, let the system generate results, and not worry about the rest.

In the real world, we have CEOs who google our keywords to answer to. And in many cases, we are not ready to use full bid automation.

So having insight into our ad’s visibility is necessary.

We get this from the following metrics:

1. Search lost IS (rank): the percentage of impressions you miss out on because your ad rank is too low.
2. Search lost top IS (rank): the percentage of impressions on top of the organic search results you miss out on because your ad rank is too low.
3. Search lost abs. top IS (rank): the percentage of impressions in the first slot you miss out on because your ad rank is too low

“The same metrics also exist with “(budget).” Shouldn’t we be looking at those, too?

No. If your campaign is limited by budget, then you should not look at these metrics at all. You should address that.

• If you are unhappy with your performance, and that is why you don’t want to spend more: fix that first.
• If your budget is too small, narrow down our adgroups or keywords.

As I explained yesterday, if you are using an automated bid strategy without a Target CPA or Target ROAS, looking at this level of data does not make sense. Focus on dialing in your bid strategies first.

But if you are ready and want to understand your performance and potential better, these metrics tell you a lot.

I usually look at all three side by side.

When bidding manually, I try to minimize Search lost IS (rank) and Search lost top IS (rank). This maximizes visibility.

On non-brand terms, I try to maximize Search lost abs. top IS (rank). I try to avoid appearing in the top spot too often. Because that usually means overpaying for clicks.

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