Underappreciated Statistics #1: Lost Impression Share (budget)

This is the first in a series of posts about underrated statistics. These are hidden deep inside Adwords or Google Analytics that can give your PPC account a big boost.

Google Adwords reports four different statistics that can tell you when your ads are showing, when they are not, and why they are not. Taken together these can tell you if changes to your bids or budget could improve your PPC results. I believe the most important stat is "Lost Impression Share (budget)". It shows what percentage of time your ads could show, but does not show because the budget is too low. If this is high (above 20%), then you have room for improvement! If your results are good and you can afford it, you should increase your budget and get some of the sales you've been missing. If your results are not good, you can lower your bids or pause under-performing keywords to improve your results. Either way, lost impression share (budget) can point you to better results.