Implementing Budget Increases Based on Lost Impression Share

How Using Search Impression Share for Budget Increases Led to a 7.56% Increase in Occupancy Rates

Search Impression Share & Budgets: Impression share is an important metric to reference for paid search advertising. 

Impression share = impressions / total eligible impressions

As defined by Google, “impression share (IS) is the percentage of impressions that your ads receive compared to the total number of impressions that your ads could get.”

It’s an incredibly helpful metric when trying to understand the correlation between competition and performance.

In this test, we used impression share and more specifically lost impression share in order to make budget recommendations at the campaign level for 12 properties over a 4-5 week period. Properties implemented budgets at different dates, some in the end of July and some in early August, but all properties increased budgets in August (important to know when looking at budget analysis). The assumption is that with an increase in impression share, properties will see an increased market presence and in turn an increased lead volume and occupancy rates.

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Visual Examples

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Findings

Ads with no pricing in ad copy versus ads with updated pricing in ad copy. Data spanning across all of Digible’s portfolio as of August 2020.

Campaign	Avg Increase in Impr Share
General Non-Brand	29.54%
Studio	32.00%
1 Bed	85.12%
2 Bed	68.66%
3 Bed	325%

Month	All Accounts Spend	Avg Acct Spend
July	$28,270	$2,355
August	$52,094	$4,341
% Change	84%	84%
September	$24,588	$2,048

Overall Findings Mapped Back to Client CRM Data

• 7.56% average increase in occupancy rates over a 5 week period
• 31.54% average increase in paid search users from July to August
• 27.71% increase in phone calls from July to August
  • 563 Total Phone Calls in July (across 12 properties)
    • Avg 1.5 phone calls per day per property
  • 719 Total Phone Calls in August (across 12 properties)
    • Avg 1.9 phone calls per day per property
• For every 6.5% increase in impression share, occupancy rates increase 1%

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Conclusion

Budget increases based on impression share are reliable in increasing both impression share (market presence), phone call conversions and occupancy rate. Strategically approaching budget changes based on impression share is a trusted process at Digible, which is why we created our own Impr Share & Budget tool ready and available for all clients.

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Main Takeaways

1. Increased Occupancy Rates

In this test, we learned for every 6.5% increase in impression share, occupancy rate increases 1%. While budget increases are not always an option, this is a valuable tactic to keep in mind when a large increase in unit availability is approaching.

2. Proven Approach Across All Campaigns

The Impr Share & Budget Tool suggests budget increases at a campaign level for any account. In this test, budgets were increased across a variety of campaigns including general non-brand campaigns and floor plan specific campaigns. In all campaigns, impression share increased at least 29%.

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