If you use Google Ads, there is a tool you might not know about. You can use it to discover how your competitors are using Google Ads and how they are using it.

Join us as we take a look at the Auction Insights tool, and how you can increase your return on investment (ROI) by learning more about your rivals.

How to find the Auction Insights tool

You can find the Auction Insights tool by logging into your Google Ads account and clicking on the Campaigns, Ad Group or Keywords menu.

The report is available for search and shopping campaigns, and if you utilize both campaigns, it measures metrics separately.

What is available in the Auction Insights tool

When you access the Auction Insights tool, you can discover the following information about the customers who participate in the same Google Ads auctions as you.

• Who your competitors are: Of course, you may already know this information, but it may be interesting to see who Google considers a competitor. You can also see where you rank so you can compare
• Impression share: Out of all the impressions, how many times did your competitor appear?
• Overlap rate: What percentage of time did your competitor rank in the same auction as you?
• Position above rate (search campaigns only): How often did your competitor outrank you?
• Top of page rate (search campaigns only)
• Absolute top of page rate (search campaigns only)
• Outranking share: How often did you outrank your competitor?

You can drill down by campaign, ad group or keyword depending on which report you are in and you can also segment the data by time and device to provide more granular reporting.

How can you use the Auction Insights data?

This information is extremely valuable in helping you make decisions about bidding and budgeting.

For example, if you delve into the keyword report, you can see which competitors are bidding on your brand terms. You can then look at increasing your bids on your own branded keywords to force your competitors out of the bidding process. 

If you are keen to improve your presence on mobile, you can drill down by device to see how your competitors fare on mobile. You can then decide if you want to implement a bid adjustment on mobile to outbid your competition. 

If you are looking to reduce your budget, you can see which keywords you are dominating search for in comparison to your competitors. If you are a clear frontrunner in search, you can look at reducing your cost per click on specific keywords. Although Google will not tell you specifically how much money your competitors are spending on Ads, you can get a vague idea through impression share. For example, if your share is 50% and theirs is 100%, they are roughly spending twice as much as you. You can use this information to your advantage.

We hope this article has given you an excellent introduction to Auction Insights, how it works and how you can use the tool to boost your own return on investment.