Click Share
Of every click on offer in your auctions, how big a slice you actually got.
What it means
Click Share is your Search clicks divided by Google's estimate of the clicks that were available to you — Search only, and a modelled denominator rather than a counted one. Where Search ISSearch ISSee the full entry. asks whether you turned up, this asks whether you were picked, so position, copy and assets all land in one number. High coverage next to a low Click Share means people are seeing you and choosing somebody else.
Show the math
Formula and a worked example
Click Share = your Search clicks ÷ the clicks Google estimates were available to you. The denominator is modelled rather than measured, so trust the trend and treat the decimal place as approximate.
It isn't CTR. CTR divides your clicks by your own impressions, so it tops out at your own coverage. This divides by every click going in those auctions — yours and your competitors' together.
Worked example. Google estimates 20,000 clicks were available on your Search terms in March and you took 3,000, so Click Share is 15%. Search IS over the same month was 45%: you appeared in nearly half the auctions and collected 15% of the clicks, so the ads that did show weren't winning the choice.
Move to the top of the page on the same keywords and those 3,000 clicks can become 5,000 without entering a single new auction. That's Click Share at 25% on an unchanged Search IS.
It answers the question
When the auction did include you, did anyone click? The gap between your coverage and your Click Share is the size of the audience that saw you and went elsewhere.
Why it matters
It's one of the few competitive readings Google Ads gives you. Most numbers only describe your own account; this one measures you against everyone bidding on the same words, so a slide here can be entirely somebody else's doing.
It also points at the cheap wins. Coverage is bought with budget, but being chosen is earned with position, copy and assets — you can rent the best window on the street and still be the shop nobody walks into.
What good looks like
There's no benchmark for this one, and there shouldn't be — the estimate depends on how crowded your keywords are and how many bidders share them. Judge it against your own Search IS first: the closer the two sit, the more your ads are doing with the exposure they get. Then judge the trend against your own category, since a contested auction can make 15% strong and a quiet one can make 40% unremarkable.
How to improve it
| Lever | What you do | Expect | How long | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fast Take more of the result | Add sitelinks, callouts, prices and images so your ad occupies more of the page | Click Share up 2–5 points | 1–2 weeks | Assets show at Google's discretion and dilute a tight message. Extra clicks from callouts can be browsers, so watch the conversion rate as they arrive. |
| Fast Buy the top of the page where it pays | Raise bids on the keywords with the best cost per sale so you sit above the fold | Click Share up, Avg. CPC up with it | 1 week | Top-of-page clicks are the dearest in the auction. The share improves before the profit does, and on thin-margin products it may never catch up. |
| Slow Write the ad they'd rather click | Match the headline to the query and put the price and delivery promise in the ad itself | Click Share up with no extra spend | 3–6 weeks | Copy work, and naming a price filters out browsers — total clicks can fall on some terms while the share on your best ones rises. |
| Slow Stop competing where you can't win | Drop the keywords owned by a bigger bidder and move the money to terms you can lead | Click Share up across a narrower, winnable set | 1 quarter | You concede a category and it's expensive to re-enter. Clicks and Search IS both fall, so all the growth has to come from the terms you kept. |
Every lever costs something somewhere. The last column is the one to read twice.
Read it with
Turning up and being chosen are two different jobs, and only one of them is bought with money.
Showing more and getting chosen
Coverage and appeal rose at once, so the extra impressions are being converted into visits rather than wasted.
Seen and skipped
You paid to appear more often and took a smaller slice of the clicks. More budget here buys more of the same.
Small but persuasive
You're in fewer auctions and winning a bigger share of the ones you enter. That's the cheapest kind of headroom there is.
Outbid and outwritten
Losing coverage and losing the choice usually means a serious new bidder rather than a bad month.
The gap between them is the diagnosis. Coverage well above click share means the exposure is there and the ad isn't earning it, so the money belongs in copy and position; the two close together means the ads are doing their job and the ceiling is budget or bid. Either number alone tells you something is capped without telling you which thing.
These two price your share. Click Share climbing while Avg. CPC holds means you're being chosen more for the same money; Click Share climbing only because the click price climbed means you bought position rather than earned it, and it stops the day the bid does. The share looks identical in both cases.
Common misreads
CTR is your clicks over your own impressions, so an account that shows almost nowhere can still post a fine one. Click Share measures you against every click in the auction, including the ones your competitors took.
The last clicks in any auction are the ones somebody else wants badly enough to overpay for. Buying them is normally the least profitable money in the account.
The denominator counts everyone else's clicks too. A new bidder or a seasonal rush enlarges the pool and your share falls with your own clicks completely unchanged.
Also called
Search click share · click share (Search) · share of available clicks
See yoursYour Click Share next to Search IS, by campaign and by keyword.
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