In the competitive world of Google Ads, it’s not enough to optimize keywords, improve ad copy, and adjust bids — you also need to understand how your ads are performing compared to your competitors. That’s where the Auction Insights report comes in.
This underutilized tool offers valuable transparency into the Google Ads auction system, helping you evaluate whether you’re showing up in the right auctions, identify key competitors, and make smarter bidding and budget decisions.
What Is the Auction Insights Report?
The Auction Insights report shows how your Google Ads campaigns, ad groups, or keywords are performing in comparison with other advertisers participating in the same auctions. It gives you a window into who you’re competing against and how frequently their ads appear compared to yours.
You can access this report at campaign, ad group, or keyword level — which makes it incredibly flexible depending on how granular you want your analysis to be.
Why Is Auction Insights So Important?
- Competitor visibility: See exactly which domains are appearing alongside you in the same auctions.
- Performance benchmarking: Understand if you’re outranking competitors or losing out on valuable impressions.
- Strategic decision-making: Use this data to justify bid increases, improve ad quality, or expand budget.
- Gap identification: Discover new players in the market you didn’t know were competing with your ads.
Key Metrics in the Auction Insights Report (Explained)
Below is a breakdown of the most important columns in the Auction Insights report:
| Metric | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Visible URL domain | The domain of a competing advertiser that’s showing up in the same auctions as you. |
| Impression share | The percentage of total impressions your ad received out of the total eligible auctions. |
| Overlap rate | How often another advertiser’s ad received an impression in the same auction as your ad. |
| Position above rate | The percentage of times the competitor’s ad showed in a higher position than yours, when both were shown. |
| Top of page rate | How often the competitor’s ad appeared above the organic results. |
| Absolute top of page rate | How often their ad appeared in the very first position on the page. |
| Outranking share | The percentage of times your ad ranked higher than a competitor’s ad in auctions where both appeared. |
How to Use This Report Strategically
Let’s say you’re running a campaign promoting prenatal care services. When analyzing your Auction Insights, you notice competitors like houseofbirth.nl or evaverloskundigen.nl appearing in 60–90% of your auctions and outranking your ads most of the time.
Here’s how you can act:
- Increase bids or budget if your impression share is much lower than competitors.
- Improve your ad quality (e.g. better headlines, extensions, ad relevance) if your Position Above Rate is poor.
- Investigate competitor strategy by visiting their landing pages or searching their brand + keywords.
- Consider a brand defense strategy if your brand name is being targeted.
Tips to Get the Most Out of Auction Insights
- Segment the data by device, time, or location to get more granular insights.
- Compare multiple time ranges to identify trends or seasonality in competition.
- Use this report to prioritize campaigns that are heavily contested — and those with no real competition.
Conclusion: Small Report, Big Insights
The Auction Insights report may seem like just another report in Google Ads, but it’s one of the most strategically powerful tools available. It helps you move beyond optimizing in isolation and into the competitive context of your market. When used regularly, it can guide smarter campaign planning, better bidding, and faster growth.
Want to Learn More?
Explore other Google Ads insights and reporting tools in our Keyword Match Types Guide or learn the difference between SEO and SEA.
