Understanding Click Share in Google Ads

We’ve previously covered how you can use impression share to evaluate consumer behavioural data in Google Ads on our YouTube channel, but what is click share in Google Ads and how is it helpful?

Click share takes the share of eligible impressions for your ad and shows you how many the share of clicks you are in with a chance of earning for those impressions. While it is only shown in Google Shopping campaigns and not in Google Search or Google Display campaigns, the click share metric is much handier than impression share for understanding how close you are to receiving the maximum amount of potential clicks.

Google search queries and results

In order to understand click share in Google Ads, you first need to understanding how results from Google Shopping can be shown in a number of different formations, depending on the search query or where the search is made.

Let’s say, for example, that you search for ‘iPhone 7 cable’. These are the possible Google Shopping result formations you could get – note that, in some results, Google uses a product carousel but in others, the carousel is absent:

On a mobile device, using the standard Google Search:

On a mobile device, using the Google Shopping Search engine:

On a desktop device, using the standard Google Search:

On a desktop device, using the Google Shopping engine:

Impression share vs click Share in Google Ads

An ad impression is counted when your ad is rendered on the screen, whether it is visible to the user or not. Impression share in Google Ads measures how many times your ads were rendered up against how many times your ads were eligible to show.

A low impression share in Google Shopping campaigns is typically caused either by your bids not being high enough, or the quality of your data being too low. As a result, when the auction runs, your ads do not show in high enough positions to render.

Click share in Google Ads measures how many times your ads were rendered up against how many times your ads were clicked, compared with the average for those auctions. A low click share metric simply means that your ads are either:

• Getting impressions but are part of the product carousel which is not immediately visible to the user without swiping or horizontally scrolling through more of the product carousel
• Rendered further down the page of results in low positions
• In high positions, but users are clicking competitors’ ads rather than yours; this could be due to the content in your Google Shopping ads, the image, the title or the price

What to do about low click share in Google Ads

To address low click share, you could consider the following:

• Increasing your bids, assuming that your conversion rates and Return on AdSpend (RoAS) stack up
• Optimising your product titles and descriptions to improve relevance to high-intent search queries
• Reviewing product images to make them clearer
• Comparing prices against your competitors

We at Tillison Consulting would also recommend an isolated test, looking at changes in a number of Ad Groups, a product category or a particular campaign to see which resolution resolves your click share issue. Once you’ve established whether your click share issue is related to ad positions, images or price, roll it out to the other areas of your Google Shopping campaigns.

Do you have any other questions about click share in Google Ads, or need help optimising your Google Ads campaigns? Get in touch with one of our PPC specialists below.