Read Your Competitors in Google Ads Auction Insights

Auction insights is the report in Google Ads that shows which other advertisers take part in the same auctions as you and how often they appear. It is the only place in Google Ads where you can see your competitors' visibility next to your own. When the cost per click rises or your ads appear less often, the explanation is often found there.

This post goes through what the report shows and how you can tell that a competitor has increased its bids or turned up on your searches. It also covers what you can do then.

My recommendation is that you read the report every week for your most important campaigns and only act when the change shows in your own results. A competitor taking up more space is no reason to raise your bids until you know what it is costing you.

What the report shows

The report compares you with the advertisers that took part in the same auctions as you. For Search campaigns there are six metrics.

Metric	What it shows
Impression share	How much of the impressions the advertiser was eligible for it actually received.
Overlap rate	How often the competitor's ad was shown at the same time as yours.
Position above rate	How often the competitor's ad was shown above yours when both were shown.
Top of page rate	How often the advertiser's ad was shown above the unpaid search results.
Absolute top of page rate	How often the advertiser's ad was the very first one above the search results.
Outranking share	How often your ad ranked higher than the competitor's or was shown when the competitor's was not.

For Shopping campaigns there are only impression share and overlap rate, along with outranking share. For Performance Max the report shows data from Search and Shopping ads for the campaign and for the whole account. If impression share is below 10%, the report does not show an exact figure.

The report does not show your competitors' bids or budgets. When the report was launched, Google already wrote that it does not reveal competitors' keywords or settings. Everything you see is the result of their bids and ads, which is why the metrics need to be read together.

Where to find the report

Under Campaigns, you select a campaign, an ad group or a keyword and choose Auction insights. That is how Google describes the route on its help page about auction insights.

Segment the report by week or month. That way you can see when a competitor started taking up more space and compare it with when your own cost per click changed. The report can also be segmented by device. A competitor only appears once it reaches a minimum level of activity during the period you have chosen.

How to tell that a competitor has increased its bids

The report never shows bids. A competitor that bids more still shows up in several metrics at once.

• The competitor's impression share rises.
• The position above rate rises. In other words, the competitor ends up above you more often.
• The competitor's top of page rate rises.
• Your own Search lost IS (rank) rises while the share lost to budget stays the same.
• Your cost per click rises if you try to hold on to your position.

An example: a competitor had a position above rate of 30% and now has 50%. In the same weeks your cost per click rises and your own top of page rate falls. That suggests the competitor has raised its bids or its budget. It may also mean the competitor has better ads or landing pages. According to Google, Ad Rank is based on six factors. Two of them are the bid and the quality of the ad and landing page.

How to tell that a new competitor has turned up

A new competitor appears as a new row in the report. Compare the last few weeks with the period before and see which names were not there earlier.

1. Check which campaigns and keywords the new competitor appears on.
2. Look up the competitor's ads in Google's Ads Transparency Center. There you can search by the company's name or website and filter by date and location.
3. Read the landing pages the ads lead to and see whether the competitor has a new offer or a lower price.

If a competitor turns up in the campaign for your own brand, it means they appear when someone searches for your name. According to Google's trademark policy, other advertisers may use your brand as a keyword. If your trademark appears in a competitor's ad text, you as the trademark owner can file a complaint with Google.

What we do when a competitor takes up more space

The first step is to find out what the change costs. Only then do we decide what to do. The steps work just as well when you do it yourselves.

1. Check that the change lasts. A single week can be down to a promotion or a weekend. Look at at least three weeks before drawing conclusions.
2. See what it costs you. Compare conversions and cost per conversion with the period before. If results have not been affected, you can often wait.
3. Work out what the position is worth. A higher bid only pays off if what you earn per conversion covers the higher cost.
4. Improve the ads and landing pages. Higher quality can give a better position without the bid having to rise as much.
5. Move budget to searches where you are stronger. Winning every auction does not have to pay off.

If your own figures show that it is rather the budget that stops your ads, there is more in the post about a budget that lasts the whole month. More on how your ad copy can answer the search better than your competitor's is in the post about one ad text per search intent.

Follow the report over time

Auction insights shows one period at a time. To see a trend, you need to save the figures. In the Report editor, Auction insights is among the predefined reports, and there you can download it or schedule it every week.

My assessment is that following three to five competitors per campaign is enough. It is usually the same names that come back in most of the auctions, and it is the changes among them that show up in your results.

What we can do for you

In our ongoing work with a Google Ads account, we read the auction insights together with the search terms and the cost per click. If we see a competitor taking up more space on your most important searches, we work out what it costs you and suggest what should be done.

Do you know which three competitors most often end up above you on your most important searches?