Google Ads Auction Insights

The Auction Insights report in Google Ads is an analytics tool that allows advertisers to compare their ad performance with other advertisers participating in the same auctions.

Key Metrics In Auction Insights

The Auction Insights report displays important metrics that can help you understand market positions and find ways to optimize against competitors:

  • Impression Share: This shows you how often your ad shows up compared to how often it could. A high percentage means your ad is getting seen a lot. A low rate is the opposite, which means you are showing ads less frequently than you could be showing in Google’s search results. Many factors can negatively influence your impression share. These factors include poor targeting, low bids, a lack of eligible ads, small budget, low ad relevance, etc.
  • Overlap Rate: This metric shows how often your ads show up in the same auction as your competitors. Overlap rate can help you determine these competitors given how often they are in your ad space.
  • Position Above Rate: Shows how often a competitor’s ad showed above yours in the same auction. This is used to show you your ad rank compared to others and if you are consistently being outranked.
  • Top-of-Page Rate: Shows how often your ad showed above the Organic search results (unpaid results that show on a search engine results page). This indicates whether your ad placement is strong or can be improved.
  • Outranking Share: Measures how often your ad appears higher than a competitor’s or shows up when theirs does not. It shows how competitive you are in the auction.

Best Uses Of Auction Insights

Auction Insights helps advertisers by:

  • Identifying top competitors and showing their market presence.
  • Showing areas of potential budget & bidding strategy improvement.
  • Showing if low ad visibility is due to competition, budget, or bid limitations.
  • Allowing you to track the changes in your market and find common or up-and-coming competitors.

Conclusion

The Google Ads Auction Insights report can be a valuable tool for improving ad strategies. It gives data on how your ads perform compared to your competitors. Consistently reviewing these insights can greatly improve your ad strategies, visibility, and relevance.