When it comes to understanding how you stack up against your businesses down the street or in the same digital sphere, there is no better tool for paid search marketers than the auction insights report. The advanced gold standard of any deep analysis of paid ad-related web traffic, auction insights helps marketers figure out how the digital competition affects one’s Google Ads accomplishments.
In this article, we’ll discuss how you can use auction insight to make strategic optimization decisions to improve your PPC ad campaigns on Google.
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What is An Auction Insights Report?
Every time a user performs a search for one of your keywords or keyphrases, Google runs an ad auction. It’s super, super, super fast. And it determines the order of paid ads and organic traffic on search engine results pages (SERP).
The top of each page has paid ads. The ad auction process determines which ads appear where and when and in what order on SERP.
The auction insights report helps paid search digital marketers like us at SEO Design Chicago understand how well or poorly we’re doing compared to others.
We then readjust campaigns (keyword bids, ad content and more) until we’re happy with the results. We also show our clients the results and explain analytics reports until you can see the impact.
How to Access Auction Insights in Google Ads
You can see how well or poorly your paid ad campaign is doing right in Google Ads. Access your dashboard. Log in. Select the specific campaign, ad group, or keyword by checking the box next to each item.
Then click on Auction Insights.
What Does Visualization Mean?
In Google Ads, the Auction Insights report for Search campaigns reveals five different important data points for you. The five points explain how your ads are doing compared to your competitors. . These five points are:
- Impression Share
- Overlap rate
- Position above rate
- Top of page rate
- Absolute top of page rate
Sure, they may sound technical. But these terms are actually easy to understand, especially if you keep reading.
What’s an Impression Share?
The number of impressions you received divided by the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive. An impression is the number of people who “saw” your ad. They may not have actually looked at your ad, but it was displayed on their SERP. This is an impression.
This metric can be heavily related to ad spend. Obviously, the more you spend, the higher the chance people will see your ad. Likewise, the more a business spends in Google Ads, the more likely it is your ads will be eligible for display. So for businesses just getting started and who aren’t necessarily spending a lot of money, don’t freak out too much if this number isn’t what you hoped for.
What’s an Overlap Rate?
This means how often another advertiser’s ad received an impression in the same auction that your ad also received an impression. So it’s basically the number of times your ad appeared near an ad of the business closest to you (as long as you’re both bidding on keywords targeting the same group).
If there’s a big overlap, that shows that your competition knows what you do. You have more similar targeting (audience, keywords, product listing).
What’s a Position Above Rate?
This metric means how often another advertiser’s ad in the same auction shows in a higher position than your own when both of your ads were shown at the same time. You want to be on the top of SERP.
If you see that your competitor is regularly outranking you, you want higher third party digital marketing experts like us to figure out why their ads are showing above yours. This is where many of our clients say we shine.
What’s a Top of Page Rate?
This means how often your ad (or the ad of another company, depending on which view you’re enabling) was shown at the top of the page in search results.
This is where small businesses who aren’t spending a lot in Google Ads want to take note: The higher your percentage here the better. If you are seeing a low percentage here evaluate your ad strength, your bids and your keyword quality. Take a look at our case studies. This is how we got so many of our clients, more people inquiring about their goods and services, and making purchases.
What is the Top of Page Rate?
This measurement point is the percent of your impressions that are shown as thead above the organic search results.
If you aren’t going to be at the top of SERP, this is where you want to be.
This position is often where experienced users look to first. They don’t want ads – they want genuine information. So they see organic traffic as word of mouth recommendations from Google. Their eyes go here first, and will automatically see the right above it. 
What is Outranking Share?
This means how often your ad ranked higher in the auction than another company’s ad, or if your ad showed when theirs did not. This is HUGELY important when you are competing against brick and mortar companies in a specific geographical area, or if you’re competing with digital companies in the same industry as you, at the same price point.
You want to outrank your competition, and you can with the right help. We have loads of experience getting people where they should be – at the top of SERP, right above organic traffic or elsewhere. Mostly, we specialize in outranking your competitors.
Does This Really Matter?
Google stresses that companies should pay attention to auction insights. According to their own resources, “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.”
The problem is that auction insights aren’t always easy to interpret. Many of our clients benefit from us starting them off, or maintaining their Google Ad campaigns.
The thing with Google Ads and organic traffic is this: It’s constantly changing. You can’t assume what worked last month will work next month. Google’s algorithms always change, and your competitors can refine their campaigns to outrank you. We can help you get started, or maintain your campaign.
Contact Us Today!