Have you ever searched Google to see which of your competitors also appear for the keywords you’re bidding on? You can get a much clearer picture of this data with the Auction insights report in Google AdWords. In this post, I'll give you an overview of this report to help you understand your competitive landscape and optimize accordingly.

About the Auction Insights Report

The Auction insights report in Google AdWords lets you compare your auction performance with competitors who advertise across the same keywords. You’ll see see how often your ads outrank your competitors as well as how your share of voice compares with theirs.

While the report does show you some interesting high-level insights about your competitors, it won't show you the details. You won't see which keywords, bids or settings your competition is using. Neither will you see their account metrics, like CTR or Quality Score .

How To Generate The Report

To view your Auction insights report in AdWords:

1. Drill down to the part of your account you want to analyze, or click on the appropriate tab (campaigns, ad groups or keywords) and select the appropriate rows.
2. Click the details drop-down, and select “Auction insights.”
3. View the report (and adjust the date range to see how the data changes over time).

Once you generate the report, you can also apply different segments (like time or device) to see how the landscape changes for these different scenarios.

Auction Insights Metrics

Here's an overview of the metrics the Auction insights report covers:

• Display URL Domain - This is the URL your competitor is using in their ads. Use this to identify who your competition is.
• Impression Share - This shows how often your competitor's ad displayed in auctions you were also competing in. Use this to identify your most visible competitor.
• Average Position - This shows the average position of your competitor's ads on the search results page for auctions you were also competing in. Use this to approximate how aggressively your competitor is bidding.
• Overlap Rate - This shows how often your competitor's ad displayed alongside yours. Use this to understand how frequently you're going head-to-head with your competitor.
• Position Above Rate - This shows how often your competitor's ad displayed higher than yours. Use this to understand how your ad rank compares with your competitor.
• Top of Page Rate - This shows how often your competitor's ad displayed at the top of the search results page for auctions you were also competing in. Use this to determine your most aggressive competitor.

Please note that this data only applies to the section of your account which you're analyzing and doesn't reveal your competitor's overall advertising strategy.

Now armed with this data about your competition, you can modify your strategy to react to competitive threats and opportunities!