Click Share Vs Impression Share – Which One Should You Care About?

The more aggressive your bids are, the more impression share you own, the more conversions you get. Simple, right? Well, not quite… Let’s start by breaking down what the famous share metrics actually mean!
Metric Definitions
Here is how Google define these terms:
- Search Impression Share: Impressions you’ve received on the Search Network divided by the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive.
- Impression Share (Top%): percent of your impressions that are shown anywhere above the organic search results
- Click Share: Number of clicks you’ve received on the Search Network divided by the estimated maximum number of clicks that you could have received.
Is it really all about showing on top of the Search Results?
It is hard to deny the impact of standing at one of the top spots on the Google search results. The platform boasts an incredible volume of highly qualified, action-ready customers. This consideration has led to continuous bidding wars as advertisers compete for traffic from their top valued keywords. In this aggressive battle, it can be easy to forget why digital advertising was a revolution: It’s all about targeting, who we show our ads to, and not how many people see it.
Impression share shows how often an ad appears, while click share demonstrates the frequency in which it is clicked. At the end of the day, quality website traffic is what we are after.
Following this philosophy, the plan on one of my accounts has been to create campaigns based on demographics. Each age group and gender was given its own campaign. For example, 64+ females and 18-24 males would both get their own separate campaigns. The result can be seen in the graph below: our advertising cost was cut by a half and our ads garnered more click share.
How is it possible that simply building campaigns around demographics can lead to a 49% decrease cost and a 64% increase in click share all at once. You would think that in a very competitive space, only bidding higher to maximize impression share can lead to a higher click share. In this instance, the exact opposite happened. To explain this rather counterintuitive result, let’s rephrase this blog title in a slightly different way.
Click share vs Impression Share, which one does Google care about?
Google’s number one goal is always going to be revenue. To do so, they will seek to provide users with the most useful, relevant query possible to maximize the chance of a paid click.
The giant’s triumph resides in his ability to successfully match the user intent to specific web pages. Therefore, the success of an advertiser on Google search ultimately depends on their ability to match their ads to the user intent. While keywords are powerful tools for targeting intents, they are only a first step.
Google provides us with countless information about the user that helps us evaluate with more precision what the intent behind a query can be and yellow Ferraris can help us understand how big of a difference this audience information can make.
The Yellow Ferraris (cause really I like them, and I know you do too…)
What is the difference between a 21-year-old, recent graduate, searching “Yellow Ferrari prices” and a 50-year-old, restaurant owner, searching “Yellow Ferrari prices”? The former is probably debating the topic with his friends in a restaurant, while the restaurant owner is actually trying to buy one. Same query, two different intents.
Going beyond keywords and looking at the audience behind the query allows advertisers to better match user intents and ride along Google’s boat, which, guess what, kind of seduces Google. If you are advertising yellow Ferraris, Google will favor you if you only show to high-income earners and could severely penalize you for bothering college students who simply do not care about buying such an expensive car at the moment.
By literally buying impression share, you are moving into irrelevant audiences. By going after click share, you are maximizing on your best audiences. Someone wants a Ferrari, you sell a Ferrari, deal! The user is happy, you are happy, and Google is happy and gives you the top spot you were craving for.
Yes, Google Rewards Effective Advertisers!
When ads are relevant, they get a better click-through rate, which then leads to a higher click share signaling Google that you are doing something right. Only in this situation will Google give you the top spot you deserve. The graph below shows the relationship between click-share, (top) impression share, and click-through rate during the same period of time for the client mentioned earlier.
It can clearly be observed that our impression share skyrocketed. So the final line is: it is not about showing as often as possible, it is about showing to the right person, as often as possible.
Instead of thinking about being on top of the page, we can think about serving the right user, which can be measured with our click share, and then Google will put us on top of the page, which we can see through our top impression share.
This can be done by leveraging all the user data available in Google such as detailed demographics, locations, affinity audiences, in-market audiences and more.
Our PPC Genius, Connor Regan, wrote a blog post that extensively touches on What Google audiences are and how they are determined. In the example mentioned above, the client campaigns were segmented based on demographics targeting: each campaign targeted a dedicated age group and gender. You might find better results segmenting your campaigns by locations for example.
At this point, you probably know to a good extent who your target audience is, so the ball is in your court. Think “relevance”, think “click share” first, and the rest will be given to you. Good luck!
Google’s Next-Gen AI Chatbot, Gemini, Faces Delays: What to Expect When It Finally Launches

In an unexpected turn of events, Google has chosen to postpone the much-anticipated debut of its revolutionary generative AI model, Gemini. Initially poised to make waves this week, the unveiling has now been rescheduled for early next year, specifically in January.
Gemini is set to redefine the landscape of conversational AI, representing Google’s most potent endeavor in this domain to date. Positioned as a multimodal AI chatbot, Gemini boasts the capability to process diverse data types. This includes a unique proficiency in comprehending and generating text, images, and various content formats, even going so far as to create an entire website based on a combination of sketches and written descriptions.
Originally, Google had planned an elaborate series of launch events spanning California, New York, and Washington. Regrettably, these events have been canceled due to concerns about Gemini’s responsiveness to non-English prompts. According to anonymous sources cited by The Information, Google’s Chief Executive, Sundar Pichai, personally decided to postpone the launch, acknowledging the importance of global support as a key feature of Gemini’s capabilities.
Gemini is expected to surpass the renowned ChatGPT, powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4 model, and preliminary private tests have shown promising results. Fueled by significantly enhanced computing power, Gemini has outperformed GPT-4, particularly in FLOPS (Floating Point Operations Per Second), owing to its access to a multitude of high-end AI accelerators through the Google Cloud platform.
SemiAnalysis, a research firm affiliated with Substack Inc., expressed in an August blog post that Gemini appears poised to “blow OpenAI’s model out of the water.” The extensive compute power at Google’s disposal has evidently contributed to Gemini’s superior performance.
Google’s Vice President and Manager of Bard and Google Assistant, Sissie Hsiao, offered insights into Gemini’s capabilities, citing examples like generating novel images in response to specific requests, such as illustrating the steps to ice a three-layer cake.
While Google’s current generative AI offering, Bard, has showcased noteworthy accomplishments, it has struggled to achieve the same level of consumer awareness as ChatGPT. Gemini, with its unparalleled capabilities, is expected to be a game-changer, demonstrating impressive multimodal functionalities never seen before.
During the initial announcement at Google’s I/O developer conference in May, the company emphasized Gemini’s multimodal prowess and its developer-friendly nature. An application programming interface (API) is under development, allowing developers to seamlessly integrate Gemini into third-party applications.
As the world awaits the delayed unveiling of Gemini, the stakes are high, with Google aiming to revolutionize the AI landscape and solidify its position as a leader in generative artificial intelligence. The postponed launch only adds to the anticipation surrounding Gemini’s eventual debut in the coming year.
Google Brings Bard Students Math and Coding Education in the Summer

Google is stepping up its AI efforts this summer by sending Bard, its high-profile chatbot, to summer school. The aim? To boost the bot’s math and coding smarts. These developments are excellent news— when Bard first debuted, it was admittedly not a finished product. But Google is steadily plugging away at it, and have now implemented implicit code execution for logical prompts, and handy Google Sheets’ integration to take it to the next level.
Thanks to implicit code execution, Bard can respond to inquiries requiring calculation or computation with Python code snippets running in the background. What’s even more amazing is that coders can take this generated code and modify it for their projects. Though Google is still apprehensive about guaranteeing the accuracy of Bard’s answers, this feature is said to improve the accuracy of math and word problems by an impressive 30%.
In addition to this, Bard can now export directly to Sheets when asked about tables. So, you don’t need to worry about copying and pasting, which comes with the risk of losing formatting or data.
From the company’s I/O keynote address, it is clear that they are focused on making the most of what Bard can offer. As they continue to speak highly of the chatbot, we’re sure to expect more features and capabilities when the summer comes around.
Google Bard vs. ChatGPT: which is the better AI chatbot?

Google Bard and ChatGPT are two of the most prominent artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots available in 2023. But which is better? Both offer natural language responses to natural language inputs, using machine learning and millions of data points to craft useful, informative responses. Most of the time. These AI tools aren’t perfect yet, but they point to an exciting future of AI assistant search and learning tools that will make information all the more readily available.
As similar as these chatbots are, they also have some distinct differences. Here’s how ChatGPT and Google Bard measure up against one another.
Which is better, Google Bard or ChatGPT?
This is a tricky question to answer, as at the time of writing, you can only use Google Bard if you’re part of a select group of early beta testers. As for its competition, you can use ChatGPT right now, completely for free. You may have to contend with a waitlist, but if you want to skip that, there’s a paid-for Plus version offering those interested in a more complete tool the option of paying for the privilege.
Still, when Google Bard becomes more widely available, it should offer credible competition for ChatGPT. Both use natural language models — Google Bard uses Google’s internal LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications), whereas ChatGPT uses an older GPT-3 language model. Google Bard bases its responses to questions on more recent data, with ChatGPT mainly trained on data that was available prior to 2021. This is similar to how Microsoft’s Bing Chat works.
We’ll have to reserve judgment on which is the more capable AI chatbot until we get time to play with Google Bard ourselves, but it looks set to be a close contest when it is more readily available.
Are Google Bard and ChatGPT available yet?
As mentioned, ChatGPT is available in free and paid-for tiers. You might have to sit in a queue for the free version for a while, but anyone can play around with its capabilities.
Google Bard is currently only available to limited beta testers and is not available to the wider public.

What’s the difference between Google Bard and ChatGPT?
ChatGPT and Google Bard are very similar natural language AI chatbots, but they have some differences, and are designed to be used in slightly different ways — at least for now. ChatGPT has been used for answering direct questions with direct answers, mostly correctly, but it’s caused a lot of consternation among white collar workers, like writers, SEO advisors, and copy editors, since it has also demonstrated an impressive ability to write creatively — even if it has faced a few problems with accuracy and plagiarism.
Still, Microsoft has integrated ChatGPT into its Bing search engine to give users the ability to ask direct questions of the search engine, rather than searching for terms of keywords to find the best results. It has also built it into its Teams communications tool, and it’s coming to the Edge browser in a limited form. The Opera browser has also pledged to integrate ChatGPT in the future.
ChatGPT | Google Bard |
Accessible through ChatGPT site. Only text responses are returned via queries. | Integrated with Google Search. You only need to change a Google setting to get your regular search results when using Google Bard AI, and vice versa. |
ChatGPT produces answers from its trained database from 2021 and before. | Google Apprentice Bard AI will be able to answer real-time questions. |
Based on GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer). | Based on LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications). |
Service has a free and paid plan option (called ChatGPT Plus). | Service is free. |
Has built-in plagiarism tool called GPT-2 Output Detector. | No built-in plagiarism detection tool. |
Available now | Still in beta test phase |
Google Bard was mainly designed around augmenting Google’s own search tool, however it is also destined to become an automated support tool for businesses without the funds to pay for human support teams. It will be offered to customers through a trained AI responder. It is likely to be integrated into the Chrome browser and its Chromium derivatives before long. Google is also expected to open up Google Bard to third-party developers in the future.
Under the hood, Google Bard uses Google’s LaMDA language model, while ChatGPT uses its own GPT3 model. ChatGPT is based on slightly older data, restricted in its current GPT3 model to data collected prior to 2022, while Google Bard is built on data provided on recent years too. However, that doesn’t necessarily make it more accurate, as Google Bard has faced problems with incorrect answers to questions, even in its initial unveiling.
ChatGPT also has a built-in plagiarism checker, while Google Bard does not, but Google Bard doesn’t have the creative applications of ChatGPT just yet.
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