As a business owner or digital marketer, you understand that showing up as the very first ad on Google’s search engine results page (SERP) is absolutely crucial. This metric, known as Absolute Top Impression Rate (ATIR), is key to evaluating campaign performance and, more importantly, driving higher conversions.
This guide will cover everything you need to know about your Absolute Top Impression Rate, from locating this vital metric to proven strategies for improving it, and benchmarks for how often your ads should claim that number one spot.
For assistance with search engine marketing (SEM), don’t hesitate to contact Mile High Content, a Denver-based digital marketing agency. We are looking forward to learning more about you and your business.
The top position in Sponsored Posts is prime digital real estate. It's where the lion's share of attention, clicks, and conversions often resides. It's the difference between being in the game and winning the game.
Top Impression Rate vs Absolute Top Impression Rate
There are several critical search impression metrics for Google Ads performance, with Top Impression Rate and Absolute Top Impression Rate being paramount.
Top Impression Rate is the percentage of your ad impressions that appear in a prominent position, typically among the first three or four ads above the organic search results for a specific query. For instance, when a user searches for a term like “mechanic near me,” the ads occupying positions one through four are considered “top impressions.” Therefore, achieving a Top Impression means your ad appeared in one of these highly visible placements, not strictly in the number one position. An example screenshot is provided below.
Absolute Top Impression Rate (ATIR) is a key performance indicator (KPI) that reflects the percentage of your ad impressions served in the most coveted position: the very first spot within sponsored results. This premium placement ensures maximum visibility, as it is typically the first result a user sees in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP), often appearing above organic results and Google Maps listings. Maximizing ATIR is crucial for capturing immediate user attention and driving high-intent traffic.
You can find Google’s definition of Absolute Top Impression Rate here.
How To Add Absolute Top Impression Rate To Your Custom Columns
To find your Top Impression Rate and Absolute Top Impression Rate, which are not included in the standard campaign and ad group columns in Google Ads, follow these steps:
- While in the campaign or ad group view, go to Columns.
- Select Modify Columns.
- Use the search magnifying glass and type “top.”
- Select both Impr. (Top) % and Impr. (Abs. Top) %.
- Click Apply.
The metrics will now appear in your columns. For easier access in the future, you have the option to save this as a custom column.
How Often Should Your Ad Be Number One On Google Search?
As a business owner, you should always be aiming for that coveted number one ad spot on Google search. This is especially true if you’re a local business targeting customers in a specific geographic area, making commercial and transactional searches for a particular service or product (e.g., “best pizza near me”).
Achieving the top position is only the first step; the real difficulty lies in maintaining it. Furthermore, the true value of that top placement varies significantly depending on the specific campaign type being run.
Below, we break down the Absolute Top Impression Rates you should be anticipating for your different campaign categories: non-brand, brand, and competitor campaigns.
Non-Brand Search Campaigns
Non-branded campaigns focus on high-intent, commercial, and transactional search queries, for instance, “oil change Denver” or “top mechanics near me,” rather than generic informational or branded terms. These keywords are designed to capture users actively seeking a specific product or local service, indicating a strong purchase intent. However, these competitive queries simultaneously attract high bids from your top competitors. As a result, even a fully optimized campaign targeting these terms is likely to see an Absolute Top Impression Rate that caps in the 25%-30% range.
Branded Search Campaigns
Branded search campaigns are crucial for targeting proprietary keywords associated with the business name. Their primary objective is to maintain share of voice and defend against competitor encroachment on search engine results pages (SERPs) for your brand terms. Allowing a competitor’s advertisement to outrank your own organic or paid listing for a branded query represents a significant risk of lead loss. A robust and fully optimized branded campaign should consistently achieve an Absolute Top Impression Rate (ATIR) within the 80%-90% range.
Competitor Search Campaigns
Competitor search campaigns strategically target search queries containing competitor brand names. The main objective is to capture qualified leads by diverting potential traffic from competitors to your own website. A benchmark for a strong Absolute Top Impression Rate in a well-managed competitor campaign is typically within the 25-30% range.
Top Impression Rate Formula: How to Increase Your Chance of Being The Number One Ad
Alright, so you’ve grasped the core concept of Absolute Top Impression Rate, and you know roughly how often you can expect your sponsored post to dominate the coveted #1 position on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). But knowing the metric is one thing… improving it is the ultimate goal. Below are strategies to move beyond simply monitoring your Absolute Top Impression Rate and engineering its growth. Reduce wasteful clicks with the following:
Refine Negative Keywords: Optimize your budget efficiency and enhance your Absolute Top Impression Rate by rigorously managing your search queries with a robust negative keyword strategy. Your daily campaign budget represents a finite resource allocated by Google. When advertising spend is diverted to irrelevant or low-converting search terms, you dilute the budget available for high-value keywords. This directly compromises your ability to achieve maximum visibility and therefore, a higher ATIR, on the critical terms that drive conversions.
Turn Off Google Search Partners and Display Network: Deactivating Google Search Partners and Display Network placements is crucial for maximizing the effectiveness of a localized, budget-constrained campaign. While these options have their strategic uses, their automatic inclusion can rapidly deplete ad spend for local businesses. Google defaults to enabling these settings during campaign setup and persistently suggests them through Optimization Score recommendations. Maintain their exclusion to ensure 100% of your allocated budget is directed toward core Search Network impressions, thereby increasing the competitive bid capacity necessary to achieve the top Absolute Top Impression Share for high-value search queries.
Optimize Keyword Quality Score: By ensuring tight alignment between your keywords, ad copy, and landing page content, you enhance ad relevance, which Google rewards with improved Quality Scores. This, in turn, lowers your Cost Per Click (CPC) and secures better ad placements. A lower CPC maximizes the efficiency of your daily budget, allowing greater investment in high-value search terms, which directly correlates with an increase in your Absolute Top Impression Rate.
Add Location Exclusions: The configuration of location settings in Search campaigns significantly influences audience reach. For campaigns utilizing the “people present in or interested in your target locations” setting, a custom Google Ads report is essential to audit the geographic breakdown of impression volume. For businesses focused on a domestic market, such as the United States, it is a best practice to implement explicit location exclusions for all non-target countries. This strategic geographic restriction reallocates the budget more efficiently to the intended audience, thereby optimizing the account’s Absolute Top Impression Share and increasing the likelihood of securing the number one placement for high-value keywords.
Create an Ad Schedule: Leverage the “When and Where Ads Shown” report, accessible via the insights and reports tab, to meticulously analyze the timing of your ad impressions. Inefficient ad delivery during non-peak or low-conversion hours can deplete your budget. By implementing a strategic ad schedule, you can restrict ad exposure to specific timeframes when your target demographic is most receptive and conversion-prone. This targeted approach directly correlates to an enhanced probability of achieving the number one ad placement, maximizing your return on ad spend (ROAS).
Increase Daily Ad Spend: If, after implementing the previously outlined optimization strategies, your campaign continues to exhibit a suboptimal Absolute Top Impression Rate, a budget adjustment is warranted. A low ATIS can be a direct indicator of insufficient bid competitiveness. We recommend an initial budget uplift of 20% and a subsequent monitoring period of 2-4 weeks. A measurable improvement in ATIS during this period confirms that the budget constraint was the primary factor impeding performance.
