Are reported impressions accurate for keyword searches?

Will they help to show how many people are searching for widgets?

[centrifugal]

Assuming my ad shows in top five and is always being shown, can I use the reports to guage how many people are searching for my keywords?
I ask because they'd help me decide which keywords to optimize for in G. Thanks.

[vibgyor79]

>>> decide which keywords to optimize for in G

The numbers will be accurate only if your uncheck display of Google ads at the partner sites. Also, you should probably set the campaign settings to ALL LANGUAGES/ALL COUNTRIES.

[marek]

How many people? No. If someone go through the first 50 search engine result pages for your keyword, you get 50 impressions or even more, although only one person searches for the keyword.

Moreover, to get some useful numbers, you would have to use the exact phrases only.

[centrifugal]

Good points, thanks. I wonder how many searchers actually view more than one page? I guess thats a completely different topic.