Auction insights

It is the only place in Google Ads where you see competitors by name. It tells you who appears on the same searches, how often, and whether they usually sit above you.

It explains moves the other reports cannot: a sudden drop in impression share often has a new competitor behind it.

1. Open a campaign, ad group or keyword, then Insights and reports, then Auction insights.
2. Read impression share, overlap rate, position above rate, top of page rate and outranking share for each competitor.
3. Compare periods to see who arrived or left.
4. Run it on your brand campaign to see who bids on your name.

A brand campaign's cost per click doubles in a month. Auction insights shows a new competitor with a high overlap rate and position above rate on the brand searches. The team now knows why, and can decide how to respond.

• Reading a competitor's impression share as their budget: it only covers the auctions you were in.
• Expecting the data through third-party tools: it is not available to most apps through the Google Ads API.
• Reacting to one week of movement.

The audit checks Oppy runs on this, each with its own page.

• Competitors you named, that nothing bids on
• No Search keyword bids on the brand
• Lost impression share that is worth buying

• Impression share: The share of searches your ads showed on, out of all the searches they were eligible for.
• Ad Rank: The score Google uses to decide whether an ad shows and in what position.
• Brand campaign: A campaign that bids on your own business name.