Auction Insights is a Google Ads report that reveals how your campaign performance compares to other advertisers competing in the same ad auctions. It shows metrics like impression share, overlap rate, position above rate, and outranking share for identified competitor domains, without revealing their bids or budgets.
Key Takeaways
- Shows which competitors appear alongside your ads and how often
- Available for Search, Shopping, and Performance Max campaigns
- Provides six competitive metrics without exposing competitor bid or budget data
- Can be filtered by time period to track competitive trends over weeks or months
- Accessible at campaign, ad group, and keyword levels
What Is Auction Insights
Auction Insights is a competitive intelligence report available in the Google Ads interface under the Campaigns, Ad groups, or Keywords tab by selecting entities and clicking Auction insights. It shows you the domains of other advertisers who participated in the same auctions as your ads.
| Metric | Definition |
|---|---|
| Impression share | Percentage of total available impressions you received |
| Overlap rate | How often a competitor’s ad appeared alongside yours |
| Position above rate | How often a competitor’s ad appeared above yours |
| Top of page rate | How often your ad appeared at the top of the page |
| Absolute top of page rate | How often your ad appeared as the very first ad |
| Outranking share | How often your ad ranked higher or showed when the competitor’s did not |
How It Works
Google generates Auction Insights by analyzing all auctions where your selected campaigns, ad groups, or keywords participated. The report aggregates data over the selected time period and shows:
- Your metrics — Your impression share, top of page rate, and other metrics as a baseline
- Competitor metrics — The same metrics for each identified competitor domain
- Trend data — Segment by week or month to see how the competitive landscape shifts
The report does not reveal:
- Competitor bids or budgets
- Competitor keywords or ad copy
- Competitor Quality Scores
- Competitor conversion data
To access the report, select one or more campaigns (or ad groups/keywords), click the three-dot menu, and choose Auction insights. For Performance Max campaigns, the report is available at the campaign level only.
Practical Example
A legal services firm reviews Auction Insights for its “personal injury lawyer” campaign:
| Advertiser | Impression Share | Overlap Rate | Position Above | Outranking Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| You | 45% | — | — | — |
| competitor-a.com | 62% | 78% | 55% | 38% |
| competitor-b.com | 38% | 65% | 30% | 52% |
| competitor-c.com | 71% | 82% | 68% | 28% |
Analysis:
- competitor-c.com has the highest impression share (71%) and appears above your ads 68% of the time — they are the dominant competitor
- competitor-b.com has lower impression share but you outrank them 52% of the time — you are winning this matchup
- Your 45% impression share means you are missing 55% of available auctions, likely due to budget or bid limitations
Action: Increase budget by 20% and monitor impression share against competitor-c.com over the next 4 weeks.
Why It Matters
Auction Insights is the only native competitive intelligence tool in Google Ads. It answers critical questions: Who are you competing against? Are new competitors entering your market? Is a specific competitor becoming more aggressive? Combined with the Ad Preview Tool and Search Terms Report, Auction Insights provides a complete competitive picture that informs bid strategy, budget allocation, and market positioning decisions.