Search top and absolute top impression share

Source: Google Ads Help, About top and absolute top metrics.

Top ads are the ads Google places next to the top organic results. Most show above them, but Google's own definition lets top ads show below the top organic results on some searches. So a high top share no longer proves your ad sat above every free result.

Two pairs that look alike

Search top IS and Search abs. top IS work like impression share: they compare you with the searches you could have reached. Impr. (Top) % and Impr. (Abs. Top) % look only at the impressions you got: of the times you showed, how often you were at the top.

A campaign can show at the top 90% of the times it shows and still hold a 30% top share. It simply shows on few of the searches it was eligible for. The second pair flatters, the first one tells you what you miss.

The lost top shares split the gap. Lost to budget means the money ran out. Lost to rank means Ad Rank, made of bid, ad quality and the threshold for the top, fell short. See lost impression share.

A worked example

A locksmith's emergency campaign was eligible for an estimated 2,000 top impressions in one week. It won 1,100 top impressions, 400 of them in the very first slot. Top share is 55%, absolute top share 20%.

Of its 1,300 impressions that week, 1,100 were at the top, so Impr. (Top) % reads 84.6%. Top lost to rank reads 40%, to budget 5%. More budget would add little. Better ads and bids decide the rest.

1. Open Campaigns, click the Columns icon, then Modify columns.
2. In Competitive metrics, tick Search top IS, Search abs. top IS and the four lost top columns.
3. Add Impr. (Top) % and Impr. (Abs. Top) % beside them to compare both pairs.
4. Read them campaign by campaign: a brand campaign at 95% can hide a generic one at 20%.

Shares do not add up from days. Google writes a daily share under 10% as 9.99%, so an account's share cannot be rebuilt from daily rows. Optizads reads Google's own top and absolute top shares for each campaign, over the exact days you pick. It combines them weighted by the impressions each campaign could have won.

The four lost top shares are read and combined the same way. Impr. (Top) % and Impr. (Abs. Top) % are read as Google totals them for the whole account. Google's totals are kept for 30 minutes, and the stored days stand in when Google cannot be read.

In the metric picker, Top impression share and Absolute top share sit in the Visibility group, with the lost shares and the two Impr. % metrics. In a report, the Impression share card shows the share won, lost to budget, lost to rank and the top of page together, for Search or Shopping campaigns.

With Search Console connected, the free results' Average position sits on the same Overview as your top share: you see where you pay for the top while already ranking first.

• Reading top impression share as an average position: it says how often, not where on average.
• Comparing Impr. (Top) % with Search top IS as if they had the same base.
• Raising bids for the absolute top on generic searches where the first slot costs more than it returns.
• Reading the account's top share alone when brand and generic campaigns differ widely.

• Impression share: The share of searches your ads showed on, out of all the searches they were eligible for.
• Lost impression share: The searches your ads were eligible for and missed.
• Ad Rank: The score Google uses to decide whether an ad shows and in what position.
• Target impression share: A bid strategy that aims to show ads on a chosen share of searches, or at the top of the page.

• Average position (Search Console): Average position in Search Console is where your site's highest link appeared in Google's organic results, averaged over all its impressions.
• Phone-through rate: Phone-through rate is the share of the times your phone number showed in an ad that ended in a call.
• Interaction rate: Interaction rate is how often people interact with your ad once it is shown: interactions divided by impressions.