How to Increase AdWords Impressions.

There are two ways to get more AdWords impressions:

1. Increase the reach of your adverts.
2. Give Google more incentive to show your adverts.

Increase the reach of your ads.

• Increase the geographic area your ads are shown in. Bigger area = more people = more searches. Warning: there is no point in showing your ads to people in areas that you can’t service. For instance a local plumber wouldn't find value in showing ads to people in the next city.
• Increase the number of searches that trigger your ads. Expand the reach of your existing keywords by changing exact match keywords to broad or phrase match. Find new keywords, other phrases that your potential customers might use to search for what you sell. For instance, I have a client who buys second hand cars. We started using keywords like “where can I sell my car”, “places that buy cars” etc. Once the campaign was delivering enquiries profitably we added keywords targeting people wanting to trade their car in or part exchange their car to increase the number of of enquiries.
• Increase the places where your ads are shown. If you’re currently only showing ads on Google search you can expand that to use search partners, search network with display select or the display network.
• Increase the times at which the ads are shown. If you’re using scheduling to limit the ads, turn it off and let the ads run 24/7.

Give Google more incentive to show your adverts.

Google has to balance three opposing requirements every time your ad could be shown.

1. Google wants to give the searcher a good experience so they keep using Google.
2. Google wants to give you the advertiser the best possible chance of making money of AdWords so you can afford to keep using AdWords.
3. Google wants to make as much money as they can so they can buy more robot cars.

Here are the things you can do to help Google meet their objectives:

• Give the searcher a good experience. Only target keywords that are relevant to what you sell. Write ads that address what the searcher wants. Give the searcher a relevant landing page that's easy to use.
• Offer to pay Google more per click by increasing your max CPC bid and your daily budget.
• Increase your budget. If you increase your bids you normally have to increase your daily budget. 100 clicks @ $1 = 50 clicks @ $2.
• Experiment with automatic bidding. Try Maximize Clicks or Target CPA.

Things to watch out for.

• These extra impressions might not result in extra conversions.
• You may end up paying more per conversion from these extra impressions than you are currently paying.
• Changing to broad or phrase match keywords might result in your ads been shown to people who don't want what you sell. Look at the search terms list on the keyword tab frequently and add negative keywords.
• Google’s location targeting is not fantastic so it’s vital that you track how many conversions are out of the area you can service.
• I’ve also seen significantly higher costs per conversion with adverts on search partners and the display network.
• There is no point in showing your ads 24/7 if you can only respond to potential customers during working hours.

Related articles

The Kobayashi Maru Google Ads Client

This client is about to pay a new agency $90,000. Their attribution makes it hard to tell if the agency succeeds.

Excellent Ad Strength doesn't mean you've written an excellent ad

Giving Google 15 headlines and 4 descriptions creates plenty of combinations. But are they good ads? Here's how I use pinning to keep some control.

Google Ads isn't about more customers. It's about fit.

More leads isn't the goal. A furniture maker cut his enquiries and ended up with a 4-month waiting list. Here's why.

Every Google Ads lead leaves a trail of evidence

If you can't answer what happened after someone clicked your ad, you're probably making important decisions without enough evidence.

Why a Google Ads account audit isn't enough

Want to find places to improve. You've got to look at the whole system.

Why I'm rethinking how I audit Google Ads accounts

I've been starting from the wrong point: looking for problems. I should have been looking for evidence.

Topics you'll find on this site