Google Ads auction insights: how to read every metric
Google Ads auction insights shows who you compete with in each auction. What impression share, overlap rate and the other metrics mean, and what to do about them.
Google Ads auction insights is a report inside your own Google Ads account that compares you with the other advertisers in the same auctions. It lists each competitor by domain and, for Search campaigns, gives six metrics: impression share, overlap rate, position above rate, top of page rate, absolute top of the page rate and outranking share. It is available for Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns.
It is the only place Google tells you, with its own data, who you are actually up against. It is also easy to misread. This guide covers what each number means, the mistakes people make with them, and how to pair the report with the Ads Transparency Center to see what those competitors are saying.
How to open auction insights in Google Ads
Google's help page gives the route:
- In the Campaigns menu, go to Campaigns, Ad groups or Search keywords.
- Tick the campaigns, ad groups or keywords you want to analyse.
- Select Auction insights.
- If you picked a mix of campaign types, choose Search or Shopping from the dropdown. Performance Max data is split into Search and Shopping.
You can segment the results by time and by device. Time is the useful one: it is how you spot a new competitor arriving.
When the report is empty. Google only builds it for items with a minimum level of activity in the period, and it shows nothing when your impression share is below 10%. Select a whole campaign rather than one keyword, or widen the dates. Search partners are not included at all.
The auction insights metrics, one by one
| Metric | In plain English | Search | Shopping |
|---|---|---|---|
| Impression share | How often an ad showed, out of the auctions it was eligible for | Yes | Yes |
| Overlap rate | How often their ad showed when yours did | Yes | Yes |
| Outranking share | How often you beat them, or showed when they did not | Yes | Yes |
| Position above rate | How often their ad sat above yours when both showed | Yes | No |
| Top of page rate | How often an ad showed above the organic results | Yes | No |
| Absolute top of the page rate | How often an ad was the very first ad | Yes | No |
Impression share
Your row is your impressions divided by the impressions Google estimates you were eligible for. Eligibility depends on your targeting, approval status and Quality Score.
The trap is in the competitor rows. A competitor's impression share is a proportion of the auctions they were eligible for, not yours. A rival showing 90% might be targeting a narrow set of terms and dominating them, while barely touching most of your auctions. Read impression share together with overlap rate, never alone.
Overlap rate
How often a competitor's ad received an impression when yours did. An overlap rate of 60% means that six times out of ten, when your ad showed, theirs showed too.
This is the best single measure of who your real rival is in a campaign. High overlap means you are fighting for the same searches. Low overlap with high impression share means they are strong somewhere else, on different terms, places or times.
Position above rate
How often the other advertiser's ad showed in a higher position than yours, when both showed. Search only.
A rising position above rate means they have raised bids, improved their ads and landing pages, or both. It is the number to watch on your most valuable terms.
Top of page rate and absolute top of the page rate
Top of page rate is how often an ad appeared anywhere above the organic results. Absolute top is how often it was the very first ad. Both appear on your row and on each competitor's.
The gap between the two matters. A competitor at 85% top of page but 10% absolute top is usually sitting in second or third place. One at 60% absolute top is paying for first.
Outranking share
How often your ad ranked higher than theirs, or showed when theirs did not. It is your win rate against that specific competitor. If it falls month after month on the same campaign, you are losing ground to them, whatever the other numbers say.
Reading the report: a worked example
A hypothetical one. Say you run a plumbing firm in Leeds and pull auction insights for your "emergency plumber" campaign for last month:
| Domain | Impr. share | Overlap | Position above | Top of page | Abs. top | Outranking |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| You | 48% | 71% | 30% | |||
| rival-a.co.uk | 62% | 70% | 55% | 85% | 45% | 30% |
| rival-b.co.uk | 20% | 25% | 10% | 40% | 5% | 46% |
Rival A is the real fight. They appear in seven of every ten of your auctions, sit above you more than half the time, and you beat them in only 30% of shared auctions.
Rival B is noise. Low overlap, rarely above you, rarely at the top. Do not change anything because of them.
The question is why A wins. It could be bids, ad quality or landing page experience. The report cannot tell you which, so the next step is to read their ads.
Spotting a new competitor
Segment the report by week or month and look for three things happening together:
- A domain that was not there before, or was below the noise.
- Its overlap rate climbing week on week.
- Your impression share falling in the same weeks.
When you see that, check the lost impression share columns for the campaign. Google Ads splits lost search impression share into lost to rank and lost to budget. Losing to rank means the newcomer is outbidding or out-qualifying you. Losing to budget means your budget runs out before the day does.
Do not raise bids the same day. New entrants sometimes bid hard for a few weeks and then settle. Watch two or three weeks before you react.
Pair it with the Ads Transparency Center
Auction insights tells you who and how often. It never shows you a competitor's ad. The Google Ads Transparency Center does.
- Take the domain from your auction insights report.
- Search it in the Transparency Center and set the region to the country you sell in.
- Filter the format to text to see their search ads.
- Narrow the date range to the weeks around the jump. Ads that appear then, and not before, are the campaign that pushed their overlap up.
- Read their headlines for the offer, the price, the proof and the call to action.
What to do with what you find
| What you see | What it usually means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| New domain with rising overlap | A new entrant or a new campaign | Read their ads, check lost impression share, wait two weeks before changing bids |
| Their position above rate rising on your best terms | Higher bids or better ad quality | Check your Quality Score components, improve the ad and landing page, then decide if the term is worth more |
| High impression share, low overlap | They target different terms, places or hours | Segment by time and device to find where they focus |
| A rival appearing in your brand campaign | They are bidding on your name | See bidding on competitor keywords for the response |
| A row for google.com | Google-hosted pages such as Business Profiles or Google Sites | Ignore it |
For the wider process of researching a competitor's paid search, from keywords to landing pages, see PPC competitor analysis.
What auction insights cannot tell you
It covers your auctions only, so a competitor absent from the report may still be spending heavily on terms you do not bid on. It shows no bids, budgets, keywords or ad copy. Impression share is built on Google's estimate of eligible impressions, so treat small movements as noise.
Where Figo fits
Ours, so judge accordingly. Figo does not connect to your Google Ads account, so it does not show auction insights. It covers the other half of the pairing: it reads the Google Ads Transparency Center for each competitor once a week and emails you when new ads appear, with the copy and the landing page. When your auction insights show a rival's overlap jumping, the Monday briefing has usually already told you what they launched. If what you need is bid automation, use Google Ads itself or a dedicated PPC tool instead.
Questions people ask
Can I see auction insights for a competitor I am not competing with?
No. The report only covers auctions your own ads took part in. A competitor bidding on terms you do not target will not appear, however much they spend.
Why does my auction insights report show no data?
Google only builds the report for keywords, ad groups and campaigns with enough activity in the period you picked, and it shows nothing when your impression share is below 10%. Widen the date range or select a whole campaign.
Does auction insights cover Display or YouTube campaigns?
No. It covers Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns, and for Performance Max only the Search and Shopping ads served on the Search Network.
Is a competitor's impression share in my report the same as the figure they see?
Not necessarily. Google says a competitor's impression share in your report is a proportion of the auctions they were eligible for, and their eligible auctions may only partly overlap with yours.
See it on your own competitors
Figo checks their ads, pages, rankings and reviews every week, then tells you what to do in plain words. Set up in two minutes.
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