Properly measuring the performance of an ad is a crucial part of any digital marketing campaign. After all, how can we turn traffic into conversions, if we don’t know whether our ads are working successfully for our target demographic? 

That’s why this week we’re unpacking Google’s Auction Insights - a convenient tool that will help both new and seasoned business owners to measure the success of their Google ads, and optimize their campaigns. For more insights, explore our guide on Google Ads optimization. Keep reading!

What is Google Auction Insights?

Google Auction Insights is a pre-built report in Google Ads that shows how often your ads appear for your target placements, compared to how often your competitors’ ads appear. 

This handy tool allows users to more accurately utilize data, in order to highlight not just where their ad activities are performing well, but also where there may be opportunities for improvement. 

Using the Google Ads Auction Insights report can help business owners to compete smarter. It’s available for Search, Shopping, and Performance Max campaigns, and offers Auction Insights for specific keywords, ad groups, and campaigns.

Auction Insights report for Search campaigns

An Auction Insights report for Search campaigns provides six different statistics: 

1. Impression Share
2. Overlap rate
3. Position Above rate
4. Top of Page rate
5. Absolute Top of Page rate
6. Outranking Share

You can generate a report for one or more keywords, ad groups, or campaigns, but this data is only available if said campaigns, ad groups, or keywords have achieved the minimum level of activity over the period being analyzed.

Auction Insights report for Shopping campaigns

An Auction Insights report for Shopping campaigns provides 3 different statistics: 

You can generate a report for one or more ad groups or campaigns, but this data is only available if said campaigns, ad groups, or keywords have achieved the minimum level of activity over the period being analyzed. 

Note: Auction Insight metrics for Shopping only come from the Search Network.

Auction Insights report for Performance Max campaigns

An auction Insights report for Performance Max campaigns provides auction insights data on Search and Shopping ads served on the Search Network on or after November 2021. 

The report includes auction insights segmented by the Search and Shopping ads, and is available at the account and campaign levels.

Key Metrics

Next, let’s examine the key metrics available in the Google Ads Auction Insights Report.

Impression Share

This is the number of actual impressions that your ad received, divided by the estimated number of impressions that it was eligible to receive.

Note: Eligibility is based on your current ads' targeting settings, approval statuses, bids, and quality scores.

Overlap rate

The overlap rate shows the percentage of times a competitor’s ad got an impression at the same time that your ad had an impression.

Position Above rate

This is how often another advertiser’s ad in the same auction is shown in a higher position than yours, when both of your ads were shown at the same time.

Top of Page rate

This tells you how often your ad appears above the first set of organic search results.

Absolute Top-of Page rate

This is the percentage of ad impressions that appear at the very top of the search results – when your ad is not only above other organic searches, but above any other ads, too.

Outranking Share

This is how often your ad ranked higher in the auction than another advertiser’s ad, or if your ad was shown when theirs was not.

Conclusion 

Google’s Auction Insights is a free tool that can help you to make immediate, and accurately informed decisions about your ad strategy, that can ultimately optimize your campaigns to be more competitive.

Check back in next week for more digital marketing insights, or explore our digital marketing tips and resources for more strategies!