If you’re sitting at ~40% Search Impression Share (IS) and your client wants to dominate the market, you’re asking the right question: Can we push impression share higher without tanking lead quality or CPA? The short answer: yes—if you balance bidding, budget, ad rank, and relevance while watching Auction Insights like a hawk.
In this guide I’ll show you how to use Target Impression Share bidding, how to read Auction Insights, and what to tweak when you see IS (budget) and IS (rank) limiting your reach. I’ll also share patterns we’ve observed across accounts—weekly cadence, month-end behavior, and learning periods—so you know what’s “normal” versus what needs fixing.
Quick definition: Search Impression Share = impressions you received ÷ total eligible impressions. It’s a visibility metric tied to budget and ad rank.
Why impression share matters (and when it doesn’t)
- Pros: More visibility, stronger brand presence, and control over who you beat in the auction.
- Cons: Higher impression share can raise costs if you chase Absolute Top blindly or include too-broad queries.
- Use case: Great when your goal is market leadership, defense against aggressive rivals, or saturating high-intent terms.
Method 1 — Switch to Target Impression Share bidding
Inside your campaign’s Bidding settings, you can choose Target Impression Share and set:
- Placement target: Anywhere on results, Top of results, or Absolute Top of results
- Percentage goal: e.g., 70% or 80%
- (Optional) Max CPC cap: prevent runaway CPCs
How to set the goal
- Start with Top of results, 60–70%. This blends visibility with cost control.
- Reserve Absolute Top for branded or ultra-qualified terms where the economics justify it.
- Add a Max CPC cap initially; relax it if you hit a ceiling.
What to monitor
- IS (budget): if high → raise budgets or tighten targeting.
- IS (rank): if high → improve ad rank (Quality Score factors + bids).
- Abs. Top IS & Top IS: verify your placement matches the goal.
- CPC/CPA trends: if CPA climbs, refine queries and ads before blaming the bid strategy.
Method 2 — Use Auction Insights to pick your battles
Open Auction Insights to see who shows with you and where they outrank you.
Key columns to watch:
- Overlap rate: How often a competitor appears with you.
- Outranking share: How often you rank higher.
- Top of page rate / Abs. Top of page rate: Your competitive posture on the SERP.
Playbook:
- Identify the 2–3 rivals with the most overlap.
- Group keywords by theme (e.g., “service + city”, “emergency + near me”).
- For each theme, adjust targets: higher Top IS goal where rivals are aggressive; maintain or even reduce elsewhere to protect efficiency.
Method 3 — Fix what causes “IS (rank)” loss
Ad rank is a function of your bid and relevance signals. To raise it:
- Tighten keyword intent
- Split high-intent from mid-intent; move mid-intent to a softer goal or cheaper placements.
- Add negatives (competitor names, job seekers, DIY terms) to stop wasting rank.
- Rewrite ads for relevance and CTR
- Mirror the exact query theme in H1/H2.
- Add a strong, specific CTA (Get a Quote Today, Book a Demo in 24h).
- Use all extensions: sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, price, lead forms.
- Improve landing page quality
- Align H1 with the ad promise.
- Speed, clarity, trust: social proof, policies, and actionable next step.
- Capture demand with short forms + click-to-call options.
- Test match types & RSAs
- Keep a clean exact-match set for your money terms.
- Use phrase with robust negatives for coverage.
- Pin RSA assets only if you have a tight message you must show.
Method 4 — Fix what causes “IS (budget)” loss
If your budget is the blocker:
- Time-of-day & day-of-week bid adjustments
You mentioned typical patterns: stronger Mon–Fri, weaker weekends; month-end softness. Use ad schedules to push budget into peak windows. - Geos & devices
If mobile is converting cheaper, shift budget weighted to mobile; same for best-performing regions. - Tighten the net
Exclude poor search terms, reduce broad themes, cap experimental campaigns while scaling your best sets.
Will a higher impression share reduce leads?
Sometimes pushing visibility too hard can pull in less qualified traffic. The solution is controlled ramping:
- Set a moderate goal first (e.g., Top 60–70%); run for 7–14 days (learning).
- Watch CPA, conversion rate, and lead quality.
- If stable, step up by +10% IS. If CPA drifts, refine negatives and ad/LP relevance before raising the goal again.
We’ve seen many accounts increase impression share and leads together, especially when they focus on high-intent clusters and keep IS (budget) low via smart scheduling. But it’s not universal—you must guard your query quality.
Practical setup checklist
- Switch to Target Impression Share (Top, 60–70% to start)
- Add Max CPC cap (lift later if you’re capped)
- Split branded vs non-branded campaigns
- Exact-match set for hero terms; phrase for coverage + negatives
- Rebuild RSAs with tight theming; fill all assets
- Refresh extensions (sitelinks/callouts/snippets/lead forms)
- Improve landing page clarity + proof elements
- Schedule & geo/device weighting to shift budget to winners
- Audit Auction Insights weekly; adjust by theme
- Measure quality: MQL/SQ calls, spam rate, and true CPL
Recommended KPIs & cadence
Track weekly:
- Search IS, Top IS, Abs. Top IS
- IS (rank), IS (budget)
- CPC, CPA, CVR, lead quality
- Outranking share vs top 2 rivals
Make one major change per week to isolate impact.
Final word
If your client wants to dominate auctions, use Target Impression Share to control where you show, pair it with Auction Insights to win the right battles, and keep a tight handle on query quality so CPA doesn’t drift. This balanced approach is how you move from ~40% to 60–75%+ impression share responsibly—and keep the leads flowing.
Need a pro to implement this? Hire us today —we’re a certified partner managing 7-figure budgets and aggressive growth goals.