How many times are your Exact match keywords triggering an ad instead of a Broad or Phrase? How many Impressions are you losing because your daily budget ran out early or your bids/quality score weren’t high enough? All questions that “Impression Share (IS)” metrics in Google AdWords can help answer for advertisers. Google’s “Analyse Competition” tool shows competitive insights, but IS metrics are perhaps a little more accurate to gauge performance against your competitors in a Google AdWords auction (showing an ad, an impression). Impression Share is calculated by the number of impressions received, divided by the estimated number of impressions you could have received – based on your targeting settings (keywords, locations, languages etc), approval statuses, bids and Quality Scores – Google says Impression Share changes are coming!
Originally you only had four IS columns, namely: IS, Lost IS (budget), Lost IS (Rank), Exact Match IS. You’ll notice historical data is no longer available before October 2012, this is to enable the new IS column transition, all new data will go as far back as 1 October 2012. The changes below are set to arrive immediately for some advertisers or by February 2013 for everyone!
What are the Changes?
- Distinct Search and Display Columns. New columns separating Search and Display IS.
- “Hour of Day” Segmentation. Evaluate ad coverage by segmented time “Dimensions”.
- Filters, Charts and Rules. Apply filters, automated rules and graphs using IS metrics.
- Accuracy. Improvements to the calculation of IS.
The new columns are simply Search and Display variations for each original column, as above – Now here’s a question: Can you tell us why there’s no Exact Match IS for Display? comment and WIN a massive, virtual high-five!
