Paid impressions
also called Ad impressions
Definition
The number of times your search ads were shown over the period.
How it's calculated
A sum of the Ads impressions column over the rows in scope, with nulls read as zero.
Scope, grain and dimensions
- Grain
- One number per date range, or one row per group_by value.
- Dimensions
- keyword · campaign_keyword · page · adgroup_name · campaign_name · campaign_type · intent · category · country · device
- Required filters
- date_range
- Aggregation
- Sums across rows.
- Metric type
- raw measure · impressions
Data sources
Where you'll see this
Named reports that normally include this metric.
Paid search performance report
Skills and analyses that use it
Skills carry the judgment; the analysis verbs do the reading.
Skills
Analysis verbs
paid_search_overview
Method rungs and levers
A rung tells you what a movement here can and cannot explain, read the rungs below it first.
levers L8 Paid/organic interplay
Ask Quattr
- "How many times did our ads show?" Simulate this →
- "Did impressions fall or did we lose share?" Simulate this →
How to read it
The volume side of paid exposure. Read it beside search impression share: impressions can fall because the market shrank or because you won less of it, and only the share number separates the two.
Caveats, freshness and failure modes
Impressions and impression share answer different questions, a rise in one with a fall in the other means the auction grew faster than you did.
Whole-domain only; a segment argument is ignored.
Paid impressions and Search Console organic impressions are different surfaces and are never summed.
- Freshness
- ~1 day behind, Ads reporting settles overnight; same-day spend is provisional.
Common failure modes
- Reading an impression drop as a coverage problem without checking impression share.
Not the same as
The confusions that cause the most wrong decisions.
Paid impressions Search impression share Compare definitions →
Impressions count what you got; impression share expresses that as a fraction of what was available in the auction. Neither can be derived from the other here.
Related metrics and workflows
Verification
A definition is the smallest part of this.
The measurement matters because something acts on it. Here is the rest of the showcase, in the order most people find useful.