Use auction insights to compare performance

The auction insights report lets you compare your performance with other advertisers who are participating in the same auctions that you are. This information can help you make strategic decisions about bidding and budgeting by showing you where you're succeeding and where you may be missing opportunities for improved performance. The auction insights report is available for Search, Shopping, and Performance Max campaigns.

This article explains the statistics available in the auction insights report, how to find the report, and how to set a filter to locate the keywords, ad groups, and campaigns that have auction insights reports available.

Note: Search partners don’t distinguish between “top” vs. “others” and it won’t be included in the auction insights data.

Auction insights statistics

Auction insights report for Search campaigns

The auction insights report for Search campaigns provides 6 different statistics: impression share, overlap rate, outranking share, position above rate, top of page rate, and absolute top of the page rate. You can generate a report for one or more keywords, ad groups, or campaigns (as long as they meet a minimum threshold of activity for the time period selected), and segment results by time and device.

Auction insights report for Shopping campaigns

The auction insights report for Shopping campaigns provides 3 different statistics: impression share, overlap rate, and outranking share. You can generate a report for one or more ad groups or campaigns (as long as they meet a minimum threshold of activity for the time period selected), and segment results by time and device. Auction insights data for Shopping campaigns is available from October 2014 to the present.
Auction insight metrics for Shopping only come from the Search Network.

Auction insights report for Performance Max campaigns

The auction insights report for Performance Max campaigns provides auction insights data on Search and Shopping ads served on the Search Network or after November 2021. The report includes auction insights segmented by the Search and Shopping ads, and is available at the account and campaign level.
Note: Performance Max campaign auction insights data will be available in Report Editor as well.

Descriptions of the auction insights statistics

Impression share

Impression share is the number of impressions you received divided by the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive. Eligibility is based on your current ads' targeting settings, approval statuses, and Quality Scores. In the auction insights report, impression share also tells you the impression share of other advertisers as a proportion of the auctions in which you were both eligible to show.

Notes:

  • For Shopping campaigns:
    • Shopping campaigns don’t use Quality Score. However, the overall quality and relevance of your Shopping ads offers do factor into their eligibility. Learn more about impression share
    • Sometimes impression share at the campaign and product group level and impression share from auction insights reports may have slight differences. The reason for the slight discrepancy is likely that auction insights filters out auctions with very low impressions, which the campaign level doesn’t (this is to reduce auction insights latency).
    • The “Product Groups” tab will only show impression share for product groups with the volume required for impression share reporting, and then aggregates the impressions at that level. So, this could be different from the campaign level if there are many low volume product groups.
    • Expect campaign and auction insights to match closely, and use the “Product Groups” tab for more granular views.
    • The impression share shown for a competitor in the auction insights report may differ from the impression share the competitor can view in their own report. Competing advertisers’ eligible impressions may only overlap with a percentage of your eligible impressions. For example, despite showing 100% in the "Impression share" column of your report, your competing advertiser may have a 50% impression share in their eligible auctions.
    • The auction insights report doesn’t show when the impression share is less than 5%.
  • For Performance Max campaigns:
    • Performance Max Ad impressions (and underlying auction insights data) across the Search network will be segmented by “Search” or “Shopping” options.

Overlap rate

Overlap rate is how often another advertiser’s ad received an impression when your ad also received an impression.

For example, if one of the other advertisers in your auction insights report is showing “60%” in the “Overlap rate” column, this means that in 6 out of every 10 times your ad showed, and an ad from this advertiser showed as well.

Outranking share

Outranking share tells you how often your ad ranked higher in the auction than another advertiser’s ad, or if your ad showed when theirs didn’t.

For example, if one of the other advertisers in your auction insights report is showing “20%” in the “Outranking share” column, this means that your ad won over the other advertiser's ad for 2 out of every 10 times your ad showed together, or for 20% of the auctions you entered together.

Position above rate (Search campaigns only)

Position above rate is how often the other advertiser’s ad was shown in a higher position than yours was, when both of your ads were shown at the same time.

For example, if one of the other advertisers in your auction insights report is showing “5%” in the “Position above rate” column, this means that the other advertiser’s ad showed in a position above yours in 5 out of every 100 times your ads showed at the same time.

Top of page rate (Search campaigns only)

Top of page rate tells you how often your ad (or the ad of another advertiser, depending on which row you're viewing) was shown at the top of the page, above the unpaid search results.
For example, if you had 100 impressions out of which 20 impressions appear in any of the positions above the organic search results, the top of page rate will be 20%.

Absolute top of the page rate (Search campaigns only)

Absolute top of the page rate tells you how often your ad (or the ad of another advertiser, depending on which row you're viewing) was shown at the absolute top of the page as the very first ad above the organic search results.

For example, if out of 100 impressions, an ad has 10 impressions in which it appears as the first ad above the organic search results, the absolute top of page rate will be 10%.

Find the auction insights report

Auction insights data is available for Search, Shopping, and Performance Max campaigns that meet a minimum threshold of activity. For Search campaigns, you can create a report for keywords, ad groups, and campaigns. For Shopping campaigns, you can create a report for ad groups and campaigns. For Performance Max, you can create a report for campaigns.

Note: The instructions below are part of the new design for the Google Ads user experience. To use the previous design, click the "Appearance" icon, and select Use previous design. If you're using the previous version of Google Ads, review the Quick reference map or use the Search bar in the top navigation panel of Google Ads to find the page you’re searching for.
  1. In your Google Ads account, go to the Campaigns, Ad groups, or Search keywords page based on what information you want to check in the report.
  2. Select a specific campaign, ad group, or keyword by checking the box next to each item.
    Note: You can only select keywords on a single page at a time (unless you run a report for “All”).
  3. Click Auction insights.
  4. You'll now be taken to your auction insights report.
    • If you selected only Search, only Shopping campaigns, or ad groups, you'll find the corresponding auction insights report.
    • If you selected a mix of Search, Shopping, or Performance Max campaigns, you'll need to select “Search campaigns” or “Shopping campaigns” in the dropdown menu. Performance Max ad impressions (and underlying auction insights data) for each of the channels will be segmented by “Search” or “Shopping” options.
Note: Only keywords and ad groups that meet a minimum threshold of activity will have the auction insights report.

Filter your auction insights

To help you locate keywords, ad groups, and campaigns that have auction insights reports available, you can create a filter. The auction insights filter allows you to get a glance of which of your keywords, ad groups, or campaigns have auction insights reports available to view.

  1. Click the filter icon Filter above your statistics table.
  2. Select one of the filters that appears to view a list of conditions for new filters.
  3. Enter the condition then click Apply. The table automatically updates to show you your keywords or ad groups with available auction insights reports.

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