Average position (Avg. Pos.) was removed in September 2019. The percentages of top and absolute top impressions provide a clearer view of where your ads appear on search pages. You can use these new metrics to optimize your ad position. Learn more.
The data you see on your "Analyze competition" page compares your recent performance with that of other Google advertisers. Here are some details about what kind of data you'll find.
Metrics
You can choose which metric you'd like to use to compare your performance.
- Impressions: The number times your ads were shown for searches in that category
- Clicks: The number times your ads were clicked during searches in that category
- Clickthrough rate (CTR): The number times your ads were clicked divided by the number of times your ads were shown
Basics about the data
- Anonymous data: Know that the competitor performance data that you see is aggregated and averaged, so all performance data is anonymous. You won't be able to know exactly who is in the auction with you, but you will be able to see how you're performing compared to your general competition.
- Search performance only: The analysis only uses your performance data from Google search and the Search Network. Your performance on the Google Display Network isn't taken into account.
- Time range: The data used in competitive analysis is refreshed once a week so that you'll always see relatively current data. The time range above the table shows the dates that are included in your performance data.
Comparison data
There are two ways that we'll compare your performance data to that of other advertisers:
- Competitive range (shown in the five-section panel)
The panel of competitive ranges shows how your performance compares to that of all other advertisers in the category. For each category, we create a histogram that shows the distribution of performance levels across all advertisers in the category. We then break the histogram into ranges.- Your range: The range of performance is broken into five segments, so you'll see if you perform in the top portion of advertisers in the category, the bottom portion, or a range in between. For example, your range might be 21-40% or 90-100%.
- Detailed comparison data (shown in the bar graphs and hover-over panel)
The bar graph and accompanying data show how you compare to just those advertisers who perform in the same range for the metric you've chosen to look at.- Bottom of range: For the metric you've chosen, this is the lowest recorded statistic within your range. If you're looking at CTR, for example, this statistic will show the lowest CTR in that category for all advertisers in your range.
- Median: This is the number that falls in the middle of your range, meaning that there is an equal number of advertisers above and below this number within your range.
- Average: This is the sum of all statistics in your range, divided by the total number of advertisers in that range.
- Top of range: This is the highest recorded number in your range. If you're looking at clicks, for example, this statistic will show the highest number of clicks in that category that was received by an advertiser in your range. If you see "n/a" for the highest range, it means that we've omitted the statistic to protect the identity of the individual advertiser.
