New AdWords Release: Ad Group Level Impression Share Metrics

As a foreword, have you ever used a word to describe something and you used it so much that it began to annoy all of those around you? Well, we have such a word… ‘Granular.’ The one word in our office which must never be uttered—I could get in trouble for just typing it!

Google has recently announced that beginning January 30, 2012, AdWords’s global advertisers will be able to get more gran…er… specific with impression share data with the implementation of ad group impression share metrics.

Previously, impression share data could only be accessed at the campaign level. This change will allow advertisers to make more informed decisions on which ad groups should receive higher budget allocations. In addition to what ‘share of voice’ your ads garner, the new feature will also give insight into many other aspects. To include:

Impr. Share: The percentage of impressions you received divided by the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive.
Lost IS (Rank): The share of impressions lost due to your Ad Rank. Note that Lost IS (rank) will not be shown if you were at or near your budget for part or all of a given day (a.k.a. were “budget constrained”) during the date range being examined.
Exact Match IS: (Search Network only) The percentage of impressions you received for searches that exactly matched your keyword divided by the estimated number of exact match impressions you were eligible to receive.

The above will be displayed in newly available columns that can be added to your ad groups tab.

Google will also be improving its algorithm to better capture this data. Thus, Google will update all historical impression share metrics back to March 2011, and all data prior to this will be lost. Google will update all impression share metrics once daily at noon PST to ensure the most accurate data possible.

We at Leverage believe that this new data will become indispensable in making budgetary decisions moving forward. It will also help to paint the competitive landscape for your business and give great insight into how competitve the market is for your keywords.