lost impression share

how to improve?

[smallcompany]

I have few campaigns for a single target which all show lost impressions share (20-35%).
Of more then 5,700 keywords around 700 has QS of 3-6. I guess those are the main cause of lost impression share. Is there anything else I should consider (besides those keywords)?
The campaign is US based targeting around 20 states. Not sure if this geo thing has anything to do with lost IS.

So, besides reorganizing keywords into new more targeted ad groups, is there anything else I should pay attention to?

Thanks

P.S.
Budget is not the problem - 10k for each campaign not reaching more then 20% of it for some (other are way less).

[netmeg]

Improve QS and raise your bids. Nothing more complicated than that. I'd work on the QS more, because if you can bring that up, you probably won't have to raise the bids as much.

[brewno]

I'm dealing with this issue as well. I have some campaigns that are only getting impression shares in the 25-30% range, with all Lost IS due to Rank.

I've been increasing bids but I'm not seeing the Impression Share needle move. Average ad position is improving, and CPC is going up. My thought is that as I improve average position with bid increases, I just have to win a whole new Impression Share/Quality battle. If increasing IS is the goal, would it not maybe be better to pick a position (say pos 3 for example) and optimize toward that?

Anyone have any thoughts?

[ZeeOne]

I optimise for an average position for 3 or so, unless someone asks for otherwise or if it's a brand new campaign that needs a kick-start.

My colleague has a theory that for a near-zero impression share lost from rank you would need to be placed 1st for all your keywords, which is a little absurd and costly.. My question in this regard: How close has anyone come to a zero figure here?

I like to look at the impression share split on a 3-way pie chart and decide on a strategy from there. I reckon that would be the right move, opinions?

[LucidSW]

> My question in this regard: How close has anyone come to a zero figure here?

I manage many campaigns which have a 100% impression share or close to it.

[ZeeOne]

I'm impressed! But then again, you could be advertising midget showdancing in Zimbabwe, in which case it would be pretty easy to obtain a 100% impression share in that area.

Are they substantially large campaigns advertising a range of products? Or just 1 product/service with a few 10/10 QS KW's?

[briggidere]

I'm with LucidSW on this one,

I have quite a few accounts achieving 100% impression share. The largest one has about 2000 keywords in it.

The biggest thing i find is the clients budget constraints for this sort of issue, but it's more about what you do with your share than how much share you get.

[LucidSW]

> you could be advertising midget showdancing in Zimbabwe, in which case it would be pretty easy to obtain a 100% impression share in that area.

That's part of it.

Having the budget to cover 100% of the share comes first. As Briggidere said, many clients have budget constraints. They never get 100% simply because they need to increase it. They are unwilling or unable to increase it.

Having QS of 10 helps too. Since your costs are down when your QS is high, you have some left over for extra impressions and that increases your share. If your position is near the bottom of the first page, your impression share may take a hit as well because you show on the second page too often or not at all. I always advocate to increase your QS but in this case, you may need to increase your bids as well as your budget.

[ZeeOne]

Great responses, indeed I do have clients that will not grow their campaign by throwing more money in the pot and stirring.

If you're faced with a similar circumstance, would you even out the budget and rank impression share figures to be the same, or lose more impression share from the lack of budget as your post suggests?