Knowing the percentage of impressions your ads actually get, compared to the potential number, can enhance reporting and optimization efforts.
Google has rolled out impression share data for Local Service Ads (LSAs).
Impression share is the percentage of times your ad shows up compared to the total number of times it could potentially appear.
This data became available on LSAs in November, Ginny Marvin, Google Ads liaison officer, confirmed on X.
Why we care. Impression share is a key metric for assessing the visibility and effectiveness of an ad campaign, enabling marketers to better understand performance and optimize more efficiently.
First spotted. The impression share data for Google LSAs was first spotted by Google Ads expert, Ben Turner, who shared a screenshot of his findings on X:
As shown in the screenshot above, three new metrics can now be seen for Google LSA accounts:
- Ad impressions: How often your ad showed up in search results within a chosen time frame
- Top impression rate on Search: The percentage of your impressions displayed above unpaid results within a chosen timeframe.
- Absolute top impression rate on Search: The percentage of your impressions that appear as the first ad in search results with a specific time range.
Commenting on the screenshot, Turner wrote:
- “Seeing IS metrics in selected Google LSA accounts – could be useful. Metrics seem wildly different to an LSA ranking tool I briefly used. One of them must be off.”
- “If you’re looking at anything other than November 2023 there is no data.”
Reactions. Digital marketing expert Anthony Higman commented that the rollout of impression share data could help improve the accuracy of reporting. He explained on X:
- “[I] have been screaming for this. My whole thing since the intro of LSA is how can I accurately report on Google ads when LSA is in the mix and you have no idea how or when. I doubt this will actually help solve it but it’s a step in the right direction. Only took them 3 years.”
- “Also what’s cool is that these are metrics I haven’t been able to see before. You can see a lot of data in LSA accounts from the account level if you are creative but haven’t been able to see positioning metrics before.”