If Google AdWords were a piece of juicy pie, your impression share would be the size of your dealership’s slice Tracking impression share is important, since it shows exactly how much you’re showing up in local searches. If you’re not measuring how big your slice of pie is, you won’t know if it could (or should) be bigger! Watch our latest video to learn more about PPC impression share and how you can use it to boost your dealership’s performance online.

Welcome back to another Happy Hao Car Wednesday Workshop. This week, we’re talking about impressions in SEM campaigns. Impressions are not achievements, so how important is impression share to your SEM campaigns?

The answer is – VERY important but you might not know why.

Impression share is basically the comparison of opportunity and reality. Google defines it as the number of impressions you’ve received, divided by the estimated number of impressions you were able to receive. Pretty simple – but why is it important?

Think of the automotive online advertising landscape as a delicious apple pie. You and your competitors are all trying to grab the biggest slice. When you track your impression share metrics, you’re keeping tabs on the size of your slice compared to the whole.

The most important factor regarding your impression share is your ad rank and quality score. If your quality score is poor, your ads will not show – regardless of what you’re willing to spend.

Tracking your impression share is a great way to determine when budget increases are necessary. If your piece of the pie isn’t as big as you want, increasing your budget can help grab more pie. Plus, maximizing your impression share helps your campaigns generate more traffic and leads.

How do you track impression share? Here’s a couple of tips:

Sign in to your AdWords account and click the campaigns tab. Then, click the columns button above your statistics table and choose “Modify Columns” from the drop down. Click competitive metrics and then add the impression share columns you’re interested in.

Another way to view impression share data for specific ad groups and keywords is to enable the “impression share” column in the Ad Groups and Keywords tabs.

Decreasing your targets can increase your impression share, but comes with the trade off of reducing the size of the pie. The fastest and most effective way to grow your impression share is by increasing your campaign budgets and bids.

If you want a serious competitive advantage, be sure you’re chasing the largest impression share in your market.

If you have questions about impression share or SEM in general, jump down to the comments section and leave your questions there. We’ll get back to you as quickly as we can.

Thanks for stopping by to watch – we’ll see you next week with another Happy Hao Car Wednesday workshop!

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VP of Marketing Email Shaun Shaun is a true internet car guy and the Vice President of Marketing at Happy Hao Car. His automotive internet career began in 1998 with the Reynolds and Reynolds team that launched Microsoft’s CarPoint.com, CarsDirect Connect, Yahoo Autos, Automark Websites and Reynolds Web Solutions. Shaun’s Marketing prowess coupled with expertise in Social Media allows him to effectively market Happy Hao Car’s capabilities, extend its reach and build the right reputation. His unique blend of humor and automotive experience has made Raines a sought after speaker at industry events including NADA, NCM, Digital Dealer, DrivingSales Executive Summit and 20 Groups Shaun lives in Frisco, Texas with his wife, children and dogs.

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