How to Achieve 2x-5x Business Growth by Optimizing Your Impression Share on Google Ads!

How to Achieve 2x-5x Business Growth by Optimizing Your Impression Share on Google Ads!

Running brand campaigns on Google Ads can feel like navigating a maze, especially when faced with competitive pressures and fluctuating metrics. Whether you’re fighting to maintain visibility or looking to grow your audience, a strategic approach is key. In this blog, we’ll break down two of the most common challenges in brand campaigns: low search impression share and high search impression share, and we’ll provide practical solutions to each.

1. Low Search Impression Share: The Hidden Competition

A low search impression share can be an indicator that your competitors are outbidding you on your own brand terms. This can lead to a cascade of negative effects, including:

• Lower Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
• Higher Cost-Per-Click (CPC)
• Increased Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC)
• Higher overlap with competitor ads

This means your brand is losing visibility, and as a result, you’re paying more for fewer conversions.

How Does Low Search Impression Share Affect Your Campaign?

Consider this data from a typical Google Ads brand campaign:

Campaign	Month	Search impr. share	Clicks	CTR	Avg. CPC	Conv. value/cost	Cost/conv.
Search – Brand (US)	Feb-24	64.46%	2,479	24.32%	3.81	3.33	40.57
	Mar-24	69.77%	7,188	21.76%	4.10	3.11	39.63
	Apr-24	78.08%	6,173	28.42%	3.28	3.63	37.10
	Aug-24	56.13%	7,919	26.55%	5.63	2.19	62.37

In this example, the search impression share has steadily dropped over time, while costs per conversion have increased. This signals the need for immediate action to regain control of your brand terms and maximize efficiency.

Strategies to Address Low Search Impression Share

                    Manual CPC

1. Objective: Regain control over bids to prevent further CPC increases.

• Pros: Provides full control over bid amounts and can stabilize costs.
• Cons: Risk of underbidding, especially in highly competitive auctions, which could result in losing out on conversions.

  Target Search Impression Share

1. Objective: Boost visibility and reclaim lost impression share.

• Pros: Ensures higher search visibility in competitive spaces.
• Cons: Likely to drive up CPC, further increasing costs.

  Maximize Clicks
  Objective: Increase traffic at potentially lower CPCs.

• Pros: More traffic at a lower cost, increasing the potential for conversions.
• Cons: May bring unqualified traffic, negatively impacting ROAS.

By testing and balancing these strategies, you can choose the one that fits your budget and performance goals. Discover the best approach by reading this blog.

2. High Search Impression Share: Time for Expansion

If your search impression share is consistently high (above 90%), congratulations—you’re dominating your brand terms. However, this may also mean you’re hitting a saturation point and missing opportunities for growth. With less competition on your brand terms, it’s time to focus on expanding your audience.

How Does High Search Impression Share Benefit Your Campaign?

A high impression share means you’re maximizing visibility on your brand keywords, but this alone won’t sustain long-term growth. Now, the goal is to broaden your reach beyond brand terms and capture more top-of-funnel (TOF) audiences.

Strategies to Scale with High Search Impression Share

1. Launch YouTube and Demand Gen Campaigns
   Objective: Capture more attention at the top of the funnel.

• Use case: Reach users who aren’t actively searching for your brand but might become future customers.
• Benefits: Increases awareness and brand recall, positioning your brand in front of a new audience early in their decision-making process.

1. Non-Branded Search Campaigns and Performance Max (PMax)
   Objective: Target mid-funnel audiences who are exploring options and are close to converting.

• Use case: PMax and non-branded search campaigns can help you capture demand from users searching for solutions but not yet familiar with your brand.
• Benefits: These campaigns can bridge the gap between TOF awareness and bottom-of-funnel (BOF) conversions, effectively expanding your customer base.

1. Retargeting Campaigns for Abandoners
   Objective: Recover lost conversions by targeting cart abandoners, checkout visitors, or users who showed interest but didn’t convert.

• Use case: These audiences are already familiar with your brand, so reminding them of your offering can bring them back to complete their purchase.
• Benefits: Higher conversion rates at a lower cost, as these users are already primed for purchase.

Conclusion: Tackling Your Brand Campaign Challenges

Whether you’re battling low search impression share and rising costs or looking to expand your audience after securing a high share, Google Ads brand campaigns require a nuanced, flexible approach. Using a mix of bid strategies and audience expansion techniques can help you not only maintain your visibility but also grow your customer base efficiently.

By addressing these pain points strategically, you’ll be better equipped to keep your brand campaigns profitable and on track. Make sure to monitor your campaign data consistently and be ready to experiment with different approaches—because success in digital marketing is all about adaptability.

Takeaway Tip: Always stay one step ahead by closely analyzing your brand’s performance metrics and adjusting your strategies accordingly. What works today may not work tomorrow, so testing and iterating is the key to long-term success!