Metrics
Auction Insights
Auction insights is a Google Ads report that shows which other advertisers competed in the same auctions as you, with their impression share, overlap rate, outranking share, and top-of-page rate.
In practice
Auction insights is the closest thing to a competitor report inside Google Ads. For a campaign, ad group, or keyword, it lists the domains that appeared in the same auctions, how often they overlapped with you, how often they outranked you, and how often they held the top of the page. It says nothing about their spend or conversions, only their presence.
The report is most useful over time. A new domain appearing with a rising overlap rate explains a sudden CPC increase; a competitor's top-of-page rate dropping suggests they cut budget. Segmenting by device or time can reveal a competitor who only fights on mobile or at certain hours.
What it should not do is drive bidding by reflex. Outranking a competitor who is losing money on a keyword is not a win. We read auction insights to explain changes and to spot new entrants, and we make bid decisions on our own conversion data.
Why it matters
It explains cost changes you would otherwise blame on your own campaigns.
RELATED TERMS
Impression Share
Impression share is the percentage of eligible impressions your ads actually received, with the lost share broken out by budget (you ran out of money) and by rank (your bid or quality was too low).
CPC (Cost Per Click)
Cost per click is the amount paid for a single click on an ad, reported as an average across a keyword, ad group, or campaign.
Quality Score
Quality Score is Google's 1 to 10 diagnostic rating of a keyword based on expected click-through rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience, indicating how well the ad and page match the searcher's intent.
Written by Ilya Bulychev, Founder, Live PPC Ads. Part of the PPC Glossary.
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